Friday’s update was not due to the Penguin algorithm

Google's John Mueller told us to cross off Penguin from the list of explanations for the Google update from this past Friday.

Google’s John Mueller said this morning during a live webmaster hangout on YouTube around 5 minutes into the video that the Friday update the SEO community is chattering about is not related to the Penguin algorithm.

John said we can cross Penguin off the list for reasons why some SEOs and webmasters are noticing changes in the Google search results. He added that Google is constantly doing updates to the search results but he did not give any specific reason for this update or name the update.

Again, we asked Google for an official comment on this update and Google has yet to give us a comment. But John Mueller, a Google Webmaster Trends Analysts, just said this is not related to the Penguin algorithm.

oday is also a new milestone in the wait for the Penguin Update. An entire Martian year has now passed since the last one. Yes, that’s correct. Mars has orbited the sun in the time since the last Penguin Update happened.

Our new How many days has it been since the last Google Penguin Update? page gives you the precise count, for those wanting to keep track going forward

Penguin Refresh May Come As Early As Next Week

The next generation Penguin algorithm will be a delight for many says Google.

Penguin algorithm

Google’s Gary Illyes, Webmaster Trends Analyst and Search Quality Engineer, said at Search Marketing Expo East that Google may be launching a Penguin algorithm refresh sometime next week. This is not just a refresh, but a large re-write of the algorithm that took Google almost a full year to release.

Of course, it may not be launched, if they run into issues during their testing phase. But if things go smoothly, Google may launch the next generation Penguin update.

The new Penguin update will make webmaster’s life “easier a bit” and for most people it will make it a “delight.”

Google could have done a Penguin update more frequently, but they want to push out an update that makes both webmasters and users happy. So they are working hard on making both happy.

Gary also said that if you disavow bad links now or as of about two weeks ago, it will likely be too late for this next Penguin refresh. But Gary added that the Penguin refreshes will be more frequent because of the new algorithm in place.

So we may or may not see a next generation Penguin update next week. We will keep you posted on that news.