Google is hitting the SEO world with a solid one-two punch that includes a new Panda update and a never-ending Penguin update.
The twin announcements represent a rare moment of clarity from Google in its communications with SEO watchers. That is to say, both of them included relatively solid time frames that referred to named updates.
Google’s big SEO news was announced the SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle, earlier this week.
Panda Update Forthcoming
Google Panda will be updated within the next two or three week Google employee Gary Illeyes (the new Matt Cutts who is not going to be like the old Matt Cutts) said at the conference.
SEO media icon Barry Schwartz noted at SearchEngineLand.com that Illeyes repeatedly referred to the update as a refresh, rather than an algorithmic change. This means that any site impacted by previous Panda updates has a chance at redemption when this one rolls out.
Forever Penguin?
Google is also working towards a day when the Penguin update can work continuously, and autonomously, Illeyes told the crowd at ADX.
While admitting that the current Penguin algorithm is a bit slow to refresh, Illeyes said that Google engineers are working hard to make the notorious update a continuous presence on the web. In layman’s terms, that means Penguin would be updating in real time, without any human assistance.
If this scenario sounds futuristic, that’s because it’s final implementation is still somewhere off in the future. Illeyes also admitted that Google engineers are still working to retool the Penguin algorithm to actually pull off this achievement, but says it should happen soon.