Georgi GeorgievThe new Google Pengiun update, 4.0 has just been released in early Saturday, Oct, 18-th, 2014. It has not yet been confirmed officially, but based on the sites we and colleagues are monitoring and based on the webmaster forums chatter, it’s 100% positive.
This update is huge news for sites previously penalized by Pengiun updates, since the only way to get out of a penalty is for a new update to happen. Since over a year has passed after the latest Pengiun update, many webmasters and site owners were growing increasingly frustrated, since they’ve done everything they could to lift the penalty but there was no update coming. Of course, the update will likely bring bad news, too. If you’ve been playing the linking game in a risky way, be prepared to face the consequences.
UPDATE: Google confirmed the update via several sources. They state it impacts 1% of queries worldwide. They also said that unlike older Pengiuns this is a slow update that will take several weeks to roll out completely. That’s not what our data suggests so far, but it very well may be.
About the author
Managing owner of Web Focus and creator of Analytics-toolkit.com, Georgi has over eighteen years of experience in online marketing, web analytics, statistics, and design of business experiments for hundreds of websites.
He is the author of the book "Statistical Methods in Online A/B Testing" and white papers on statistical analysis of A/B tests, as well as a lecturer on dozens of conferences, seminars, and courses, including as a Google Regional Trainer.
