Google Algorithm Changes: Penguin, Panda and Knowledge Graph
| |Google has been wreaking havoc with algorithm changes.
This time, they have two algorithm changes that are running concurrently. The one has been named Google Panda and the newer one is named Google Penguin.
Google Panda has been around for just over one year and had two recent refreshes in April 2012. Panda has been targeting websites with poor quality content and dramatically lowering them in the search engine results pages.
Google Penguin rolled out an update just after tax season (April 24th) and is targeting websites that incorporate "black hat" search engine optimization techniques. This particular refresh seems to focus on inbound links that are low quality or too many use the exact same anchor text.
Anyway, BYF did lots of extra work in March after we attended the Search Engine Conference in NY (SES NY). The extra effort has paid off in April even though we had no insight on Google's plan in April.
With regard to Knowledge Graph, this is more fun stuff. To illustrate, go to Google and type in my name, Hugh Duffy, and hit search. In the results page, you will see the matching profile of how I used to play baseball for the Boston Beaneaters, had a lifetime .324 batting average, Baseball Hall of Fame and attended Harvard. I like the Harvard grad aspect. Yah, don't read that I've been dead since 1954.