The latest instalment in Google's search algorithm has finally been released, designed specifically to combat "black-hat" SEO and spam techniques.

Google engineer Matt Cutts posted the launch on his blog, detailing a few quirks of the new algorithm and what webmasters can expect.


About 2.3% of English-US queries are affected to the degree that a regular user might notice. The change has also finished rolling out for other languages world-wide. The scope of Penguin varies by language, e.g. languages with more webspam will see more impact.



2013 has been dubbed as the year content "becomes king". For marketers, the generation of wholesome, original content to populate pages has become the utmost priority when building trustworthy sites. Other factors include link-building strategy and the use of the disavow tool, which Cutts covers in his tutorial videos.


Rachel Hand, head of content at theEword, said: "While many webmasters will be paying close attention to SERPS today, Penguin 2.0 has been designed to crack down on black hat tactics. This means that that webmasters who don't practice spammy tactics and instead concentrate on producing high quality content for their users shouldn't have to worry."