Great news for small business that have been waiting for Google to update the Penguin algorithm! We’re happy to report that Google has finally started releasing Penguin 3 and will continue to roll it out over the next few weeks. This Penguin update affects about one percent of search queries in US English according to Googler Pierre Far. This update is a data refresh, and not a complete rewrite of the algorithm. The last Penguin update was released back in October 2013 and webmasters have been working hard to make sure they benefit from this most recent Google update. As a reminder, the Penguin algorithm targets low quality and spammy backlinks pointing to your site.

If you notice unusually low traffic to your site in the upcoming weeks, you maybe have been hit by this newest release of Google Penguin. We would recommend doing a backlink audit to see if there are any lower quality links pointing to your site. You can get your most recent backlinks from Google Webmaster Tools. Once you’ve identified those links, use Google’s Disavow Tool, but a word of caution, it’s a very powerful tool. We’ve got lots of actionable tips about Google Penalties for you.

Stay on top of all things Google with our What’s New With Google YouTube Series. This episode features talk about Google’s Penguin 3 algorithm, rankings boost to sites using HTTPS and the end of Google Page Rank toolbar. If you have any questions about Penguin 3, share them in the comments!

© 2014 – 2018, Contributing Author. All rights reserved.