Google Penguin 4.0. What You Need To Know.

So today is Google’s 18^th birthday, to think that when they started they looked like this. Who didn’t love Word Art?!

As an early birthday present to all of us SEO’s, on Friday they announced that 707 days after their last Google Penguin algorithm update, they have made some significant changes to their algorithm.  As I am sure you are aware, Google combines over 200 different factors that result in aiming to find the solution to your search query.
Google have spent a considerable amount of time in R&D before rolling out their most recent update. The most monumental change for Google Penguin 4.0 is that the update is now working in REAL TIME. This is good news for our fellow SEO-ers, as in the past sites that have been penalised by Penguin would have to wait until Google refreshed Penguin manually. Now in Penguin 4.0 these changes will be refreshed in real time, meaning results will be noticeable sooner, in their announcement Google detailed that it should take effect following a recrawl and reindex of the penalised page.
I want to stress here that Google will still be rolling out this update for the next few weeks and this could mean you suffer fluctuations, changes and inconsistencies. Don’t panic, sit back and let the update do its work and act once these changes are confirmed. The good news is, that if you were penalised by Penguin in the past and have made the relevant changes you will reap the benefits.
Being real-time will also mean that the algorithm will stay relevant and be able to recover from a penalty much quicker.
Google has also expressed another change in the algorithm. Announcing it will become more “granular”. The dictionary definition would determine that this would mean the penalties will be more “finely detailed.” This could mean that either you are given a page-specific penalty or it could mean a partial keyword penalty.
This makes us believe that Google Penguin will devalue spam by adjusting ranking as a direct result of spam signals, rather than penalising your entire site it will specify the problem page.
Either way, Google has created a stir in September, with the rumour of adding another animal to the Google Zoo, in form of the Possum and now updating Penguin to become a real-time algorithm. Remember that Google is still rolling out this update so sit back and try to relax and let the algorithm make its move and this is only one of more than 200 signals used to determine rank in SERP’s.