Tarun Gupta

Massive Ranking Fluctuations Reported, Is Penguin Update On The Way?

Post By Tarun Gupta Post User Last Updated: Jan 11th, 2016 category Search Engine Optimization comments 7 comments.

It seems webmasters' wait for a full fledged Google penguin update is finally over. They had waited to see it happen since October 2015 when Penguin 3.0 rolled out. I am not sure if Penguin 4.0 is here but massive chatters around the SEO community on possible are sending signals.


Last week, possibly on Friday, SEOs started voicing that Google is testing various ranking changes. That fueled the rumors of possible update. However, Google didn't respond in the favor, thus, we couldn't confirm the news that Penguin was officially released.


There are serious discussions going on at WebmasterWorld and BlackHatWorld threads on the topic. Same sort of debates are running on Twitter and Google+ as well.They eventually indicate that some sort of update is being tested from Google.


Here are quick bites from the community discussions that ignited the rumor of possible Google Penguin update 4.0 . (Inputs: Search Engine Roundtable )

Seeing significant positive changes here on the east coast for long time penguin hit sites.


I am seeing a large increase in traffic on a squeaky clean USA site that has been around for a couple years. There are three links the site acquired throughout this time, and Google traffic changes to it is a good indicator of non-penguin updates for me. The industry the site is in is also clean with no spammers I know of in it. If what Google is doing is penguin, I would not expect any of the sites in this industry to move.


this is not (only) Penguin, but imho a refresh or update of the core algo.


I've also got some positive movements. Looks like a big update rolling out.


I am guessing this is a test run of the real-time Penguin that's supposed to be released this month.


I still see nothing happening but the normal fluctuations, i am monitoring a lot of sites right now, but nothing going on here.

Screen shots taken from automated ranking tools are suggesting the same.

  Actionable SEO Strategies for Ranking in 2020
penguin update t-algoroo-jan2016-1452433088 Though, I can't comment on accuracy of the chatter, I' m sure Google is testing something big, very big. Let the Google confirm if it's speculation, a refresh or a full fledged Penguin update.

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  • Sharad Sharma

    Seeing enormous positioning fluctuations in the course of recent days, including today, happy to see a few others seeing it also.

  • Chris Ronald

    There is not any official declaration about Penguin Update but rather the fluctuation can not be considered as a typical as we saw this for lots of our customers. Fingers crossed, might this google penguin treats us great as we had been doing great seo.

  • Zeshan Ahmer

    It’s still a mystery. As John has not confirmed it yet.

  • http://www.technource.com John Stivans

    I think penguin testing on the way.

  • Gary Brich

    I generally will get some movement when it’s a serp ranking update and this time nothing. We are simply seeing the local spots moving around so I think it could be local

  • Syal NI

    I think google is going to update some algo as soon as now it is on testing mood because Ranking are as yet fluctuating in co.uk let perceive to what extent it takes to be steady…

  • http://www.eecsl.com Joseph Jones

    Despite any algo changes, I would call my work business as usual. It is good to be updated in these stuff but as long we we are trying to work as clean as possible then I think we are good.