What is Google Pigeon?

At the end of July, Google made several changes to its local ranking algorithm. Although they have not yet released a name for the algorithm, it has been dubbed by many as ‘Google Pigeon’.

Google Pigeon is the code name given to Google latest local search algorithm update. This update was released on July 24, 2014. The update is aimed to increase the ranking of local listing in a search. The changes will also affect the search results shown in Google Maps along with the Google regular search results.

How can I prepare for Google Pigeon?

There are a number of steps you can take to try and minimize the affect of this algorithm update on your website rankings:

Google Maps / Google+ Local: The first thing we recommend is to ensure that your Google Map listings and Google+ Local listings are as up to date as possible. Make sure that you have claimed all listings associated with your business, that they are 100% accurately filled out and that the map pin is placed at the exact location of your company.

Local Business Directories: Carry out some research into all major local directories that you could list your business with. Claim any existing listings or create new listings, and optimize them as well as you can.

Optimized Website: Ensure that you have a high quality website associated with your business, which is completely optimized for a variety of local search terms. It should contain high quality, original content and be well built.

QualityBacklink Profile: Having a high quality backlink profile can help strengthen your website’s authority within Google and similar search engines. Having backlinks from the aforementioned local business directories pointing to location specific pages within your website will help with this.

Updated Contact Information: Ensure that all contact information, whether it be your address, telephone number, website address, email address etc, are up to date across all websites and directory listings. Make sure that this information is consistent throughout.

Difference between Google Panda and Google Penguin Update?

Panda and Penguin are the names given to describe Google’s Algorithm updates. This is a simple guide to understanding the differences between the two, which will ultimately help your website perform better in Google search.

Attributes	Google Panda	Google Penguin
The Idea	Penalize websites of low quality and that with low quality content.It is first introduced in 24thFebruary, 2011 with the name of Farmer Update in USA.	Bring down websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and use  black-hat SEO techniques
Date of First update	February 2011	April 2012
Also Known as	Farmer Update	Over Optimization Penalty.
Purpose	Bring the high quality and content sites on the top of search engine rankings	Bring the high quality and content sites on the top of search engine rankings
Surviving the algorithm change	·         There are no two ways about surviving Panda than to make an update in the website and get rid of all those low quality pages, content and keywords. ·         Over-optimized pages need to be checked. ·         Websites that have been hit by Panda need to work on brand awareness and social media networks in a new campaign. ·         The webpage(s) that have been affected need to be isolated from those that weren’t harmed.	·         Black hat SEO techniques need to be abolished because Penguin is smart enough to deal with all websites indulging in these practices. ·         Avoid excessive link building, doorway pages, keyword stuffing, and meaningless and irrelevant content. ·         Creating content for other blogs and websites and socializing content. ·         Relevant use of keywords and absolute refrain from all kinds of stuffing.
Google released any tool to recover?	NO	Google introduced A new tool called “disavow links tool” .
Recovery choices for websites	Panda is basically an on-page problem, so the main changes need to be on the website. Check for pages with no or little content, as well as, for plagiarism. Creating elaborative pages with FAQs and more for a website should help.	Check for the links to find if there are from the same domain name or IP address, so that links don’t look like purchased. The links should not just be direct links to the website, because websites that have followed such polices have seen dip in the rankings. Disavow tool can be helpful in getting rid of too many links that are just associated with the keywords. Penguin genuinely focuses on penalizing unnatural links that are causing changes in the search results intentionally.
How do The algorithms affect a site?	It is possible that an entire site is affected through panda. Usually single pages of a website are not targeted in the algorithm. Panda doesn’t look for think contents but the overall content, so in websites where little original content and more duplicate or thin contents are present, those are likely to be fully penalized.	Penguin generally affects one part of the website on a page and keyword level. Unless spammed for too much keyword usage on the entire, Penguin doesn’t damage the entire site.
Does a recovery request help?	No, because the changes are overall.	No, unless a manual warning is issued, and even in such warnings, recovering is next to impossible.
Does manual removal of links needed?	No, because content is more important here.	If time permits and one wants to avoid relying totally on Disavow tool, then definitely manual link removal is helpful.
By when sites can recover?	If the duplicate and thin content has been done away with, then probably by the next refresh.	Should take time in recovering as refreshing is not frequent. Google has announced an update but with no date specified.

What is Google Penguin Update?

Google Penguin is a code name for a Google algorithm update that was first announced on April 24, 2012. The update is aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines by using now declared black-hat SEO techniques involved in increasing artificially the ranking of a webpage by manipulating the number of links pointing to the page. Such tactics are commonly described as link schemes. As Google prefers on organic results, thus they always make updates to remove spam sites such as over-optimized, low quality or bad sites etc.

Why my site is hit by Google Penguin Update?

If your site is hit by Google Penguin Update, then there must be a valid reason.

Your site may violate its quality guidelines.

Your site may show Google different then your users which is called ‘Cloaking’. Cloaking will definitely decrease your ranking on the search engines.

Your site may contain harmful elements such as Java Scripts, flash etc.that aren't crawl able by the boots.

Your site may involve in link exchange or receiving inbound links from bad sites.

History of the Google Penguin Algorithm Updates:-

• Penguin 1.0 on April 24, 2012 (impacting ~3.1% of queries)
• Penguin 1.1 on May 26, 2012 (impacting less than 0.1%)
• Penguin 1.2 on October 5, 2012 (impacting ~0.3% of queries)
• Penguin 2.0 on May 22, 2013 (impacting 2.3% of queries)
• Penguin 2.1 on Oct. 4, 2013 (impacting around 1% of queries)
• Penguin 3.0 on October 17, 2014 (impacting around 1% of queries)

What is Google Panda updates?

Google panda updates are introduced by Google search engine in their algorithm in order to eliminate low quality sites and content spam that are mainly concerned with the LOW QUALITY CONTENT.

The first panda update that happened in February 2011 literally shocked the seo world and webmasters because of the drastic changes that happened in the SERPS. Google replied on those updates that they are strictly working for the betterment of the search results for the better user experience.

Though there is an improvement in the quality of the sites that are showing in the search, there is a serious criticism that is still going on regarding the credibility of the sites that Google prefers after the update.

Many SEO sites andwebmasters clearly pointed out the flaws that even existed after the update but computer engineers from Google like Matt Cutts promised that those sites which are wrongly penalized for the concerned panda update will be rectified and corrected in the coming updates.

Why actually Google named this as “panda” update and the story behind this is that the concept of the content spam correcting technique is proposed by an Indian computer engineer (Google search team) and his name is Panda and that is how his name is awarded to the update.

History of the Google Panda Algorithm Updates:

• February 23, 2011: Panda 1
• April 11, 2011: Panda 2 (Ref. 2.0)
• May 9, 2011: Panda 3 (Ref. 2.1)
• June 21, 2011: Panda 4 (Ref. 2.2)
• July 23, 2011: Panda 5 (Ref. 2.3)
• August 12, 2011: Panda 6 (Ref 2.4)
• September 28, 2011: Panda 7 (Ref 2.5)
• October 5, 2011: Panda 8 - Flux
• November 18, 2011: Panda 9 (Ref. 3.1)
• January 18, 2012: Panda 10 (Ref. 3.2)
• February 27, 2012: Panda 11 (Ref. 3.3)
• March 23, 2012: Panda 12 (Ref. 3.4)
• April 19, 2012: Panda 13 (Ref. 3.5)
• April 27, 2012: Panda 14 (Ref. 3.6)
• June 8, 2012: Panda 15 (Ref. 3.7)
• June 25, 2012: Panda 16 (Ref. 3.8)
• July 24, 2012: Panda 17 (Ref. 3.9)
• August 20, 2012: Panda 18 (Ref. 3.9.1)
• September 18, 2012: Panda 19 (Ref. 3.9.2)
• September 27, 2012: Panda Update 20
• November 5, 2012: Panda 21
• November 21, 2012: Panda 22
• December 21, 2012: Panda 23
• January 22, 2013: Panda 24
• March 14, 2013: Panda 25
• June 28, 2013: Panda 26
• May 20, 2014: Panda 4.0
• September 23, 2014: Panda 4.1