There has been a lot of online chatter in regards to when the latest incarnation of Google Penguin would be released into the wild. Late 2015 saw speculation by SEOs and also confirmation by Google that the little critter was almost ready to be rolled out into the search wilderness.

Fast forward to Jan 2016 and the question is closer to being answered. January 10th saw tremendous movement in the Google search results; in fact, the impact was quite significant, bigger than anything we have seen in over a year.

So, what exactly is going on?

As always, Google is keeping their cards close to their chest – not announcing anything officially. Like any significant algorithm change, it does take a little while for the dust to settle. So, what can we see thus far?

It does feel like Penguin but with a twist. Many are speculating a Penguin test before it’s unleashed, but we are seeing changes that do not simply pertain to Penguin. This includes a possible update to core search quality parameters.

We are also noticing an impact on localization, with local search terms benefiting from the update.

Google is notorious for piggy backing multiple algorithm updates/tweaks to keep SEOs on their toes – this update certainly looks like that.

As I stated, it does take time for the dust to settle and the search results to stabilise. So, please keep in mind, this is completely normal.

What have we seen for our clients? We are seeing significant fluctuations in the search results; thus far, the vast majority of our clients have either benefited or remained stable during this roll out.

It’s still early days and our team will keep you up to date with developments.