What in the heck is going on with Penguin, Panda, and Google’s Quality Updates (aka Phantom)? How are they impacting your SEO efforts now? Glenn will cover everything you need to know about Google’s major algorithm updates in 2016. Learn what each algorithm update is targeting, so you can avoid negative impact and increase rankings and traffic.

1. What the Doctor Ordered:
Your Yearly Google Algorithm Update Checkup
(2016 Edition)
Glenn Gabe of GSQi
#SEJSummit
@glenngabe

5. About Me
1) President of G-Squared Interactive.
2) Focus heavily on algorithm updates, technical SEO,
and other mysterious disturbances in the force.
3) 98% of my work is assisting companies facing serious
challenges with Google (and SEO).
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6. #SEJSummit
@glenngabe
Like when this happens:
I help a lot of
people like her!

7. 3 Takeaways
1) Understand major algorithm updates that rolled out in 2016.
2) Learn the signature of each algorithm.
3) Know how to avoid negative impact.
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8. With Google, Change Is Constant
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• Google pushes between 500 and
1,000 changes every year.
• Some are major, some are minor.
• I’m covering major algorithm
changes (big shifts in rankings).
• BTW, Google can, and will, roll
out multiple algo updates at one
time.

9. Major Google Algorithms To Know In 2016
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• Panda
• Google’s Quality Updates
(AKA Phantom)
• Penguin
• Bonus “Popup” Slide

10. What’s A Major Shift??
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• Significant increases or decreases in rankings and traffic at one time.
• As the algorithm update rolls out, the earth shakes.
• Like this:

11. What’s A Major Shift??
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• Or this:

12. What’s A Major Shift??
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• Or this:

13. What’s A Major Shift??
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• Or this:

14. Brilliant -> Google’s Object Oriented Approach
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• Google can craft algos in a lab and roll them
out separately (as a filter).
• Examples: Panda and Penguin of the past.
• An object-oriented approach to fighting
webspam and low-quality content.
• But that caused significant movement all on
one day.
• Which led to webmasters screaming bloody
murder.
• Google doesn’t like that…

15. Core vs. Non-core
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• Google’s Core Ranking Algorithm is trusted.
• Non-core algos are rolled out separately
(and applied as a filter).
• Typically harder to identify core ranking algo
changes, since it is constantly running, with
many moving parts (200+ factors).
• Core does not mean real-time.

16. Google Panda
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17. Google Panda
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• First released in February of 2011.
• Targets low-quality content.
• HUGE shifts in rankings and traffic with each
update/refresh.
• Sites could lose 60-70% of their organic search
traffic overnight.
• The worst case I saw was a 91% drop overnight.
• Something changed significantly (IMO) with
Panda 4.2 and beyond.

18. The Wrath of Panda
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Panda 4.0

19. The Monetization Team…
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20. Panda Remediation Could Pay Off
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Panda 4.1
10/24/14
Panda Update

21. The Monetization Team…
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22. Panda in 2016
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• Now part of Google’s core algorithm, but not real-time.
• It’s much, much different than past Panda(s).
• Rolls out slowly (and can take months for each cycle
to complete).
• Nearly impossible to isolate now.
• Early March of 2016 and late October of 2016 could
very well have been Panda.
• And Google loves that it’s hard to isolate.

23. Gary Illyes (Recently) About Panda
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• Google doesn’t view Panda as a penalty.
• Wants to make sure content ranking highly can fulfill user expectations.
• Will adjust sites prominently ranking that shouldn’t be.
“We want users to find the right information (correct information) based
on their query. So, we have to adjust those overly-prominent sites.”

24. How To Avoid Google Panda
• Always meet or exceed user expectations.
• Improve or remove low-quality content.
• Check top landing pages from Google and
queries leading to those pages.
• Get objective feedback.
• 23 questions from Google.
• Perform crawl analysis and audit through the
lens of Panda.
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Google’s 23 Questions:

25. Google’s Quality Updates
(AKA Phantom)
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26. Google’s Quality Updates (AKA Phantom)
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• First uncovered in May of 2015 (by me).
• A confirmed change to how Google
assesses “quality”.
• That’s a HUGE statement.
• Massive movement in the SERPs.
• Big impact on Google organic search
traffic.

27. Phantom Hits Can Be Huge
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28. The Monetization Team…
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29. And Phantom Gains Can Be Big
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30. And Phantom Gains Can Be Big
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Phantom 3
Jan 2016
Quality Update

31. The Monetization Team…
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32. Google’s Quality Updates – Phantom Connection
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• Since May of 2015, we’ve seen five more quality updates.
• Sep 2015, Nov 2015, Jan 2016, June 2016, and Sep 2016.
• The connection was extremely apparent. For example:

33. More About Phantom
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• Seems to require a refresh (happening every
few months).
• Targets “low-quality user engagement”
(which could include low-quality content.)
• Major overlap with old-school Panda (IMO).
• New factors can be added over time… or it
could be retired… or moved to real-time…
• Welcome to Google Land. :)

34. Phantom and Low-Quality User Engagement
“Hell hath no fury like a user scorned.”
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• Disorganized and broken UI.
• Aggressive & Deceptive ads.
• Popups and interstitials.
• Render issues.
• Low-quality supplementary content.
• And more.
• Read Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines

35. How To Avoid Google Phantom
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• Strong user experience + high quality content =
winning combination. User happiness wins.
• Get objective feedback.
• Perform crawl analysis and audit through lens of
Phantom.
• Cut down on ad aggressiveness and excessive
monetization.
• Don’t deceive users.
• Ensure Google can accurately see your content.

36. Google Penguin
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37. Google Penguin
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• Launched in April of 2012 as part of an
algo sandwich.
• Webspam algorithm that heavily targets
unnatural links.
• Was a site-level demotion.
• Crushed many sites (and many never
recovered).
• Left the door open to negative SEO.

38. Google Penguin Heavily Targets Unnatural Links
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39. Google Penguin – Rich Anchor Text Links
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Link Profile = High % of Spammy Links
With a High % of Rich Anchor Text

40. But Penguin Ran Into Problems
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• Penguin morphed into a broken algorithm.
• Google clearly had problems with it over the
years…
• We went 1+ year in between Penguin 2.1 and 3.
• Then almost 2 years in between 3 and 4.
• But Google said that 4.0 was going to be
different...
• And Google was right!

41. Penguin 4.0 – A Major Shift For Penguin
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• Announced on 9/23/16.
• Devalues spam versus “penalizing” it.
• That’s a HUGE change.
• Previous Penguin penalties/suppression were
removed!
• Knocks out negative SEO threat.
• Questions remain about using disavow file.
• Penguin has a mechanism built in to deal with
“manipulation”. Beware.

42. Penguin 4.0 Movement
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• Movement first seen in mid-September (around 9/13).
• Then more in late September as Google rolled out Penguin in stages
(and previous Penguin suppression was removed).
• For example:

43. Penguin 4.0 Movement - Up
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44. Penguin 4.0 Movement - Up
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45. Penguin 4.0 Movement - Down
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46. Penguin 4.0 Movement - Down
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47. Penguin Movement - Rankings
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48. More About Penguin 4.0
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• Runs in real-time.
• Spammy links will be devalued on the fly.
• More granular versus site-level demotion.
• Since it’s running in real-time, will be hard to
identify movement beyond initial rollout.
• John Mueller said, “Good luck” identifying
impact from Penguin over time.
• Gary Illyes recently clarified the “webspam”
aspect of Penguin. It’s at the source!

49. Avoiding Damage From Unnatural Links
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• Penguin devalues spam, but there are other link algos + manual actions.
• Continually review your inbound links (monthly).
• Remove unnatural links if you can…
• Still use the disavow file, when needed,
although less needed for Penguin now.
• Always look to build amazing content,
exceed user expectations, which can help
build fresh, powerful links.
Reviewing “new” links in Majestic

50. Bonus: Who else hates popups?
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51. Bonus! Popup Algo - January 2017
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• Mobile popup algorithm launching in 1/2017.
• Can demote any mobile page displaying a popup
or interstitial when users visit from Search.
• Horrible user experience.
• But will this move to desktop too? Many hope so.
• Reminder: There’s still a mobile-friendly algorithm
running in real-time.

52. OK, ready for 2017?
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53. What the Doctor Ordered:
Your Yearly Google Algorithm Update Checkup
(2016 Edition)
Glenn Gabe of GSQi
#SEJSummit
@glenngabe