Google Still Pushing Out Panda and Penguin Updates Manually

Contradicting the previous statements given by search giants Google, it would appear that updates to their Penguin and Panda algorithms are still being released manually, as opposed to the continuous ongoing updates that were formerly suggested by the company.

7 months have passed since the last confirmed Panda update (September 2014), and 6 months since Penguin 3.0 (October 2014). There will be many site owners eagerly awaiting a refresh after working hard to get out of a penalty. This news will be a disappointment to hear considering Google had led us to believe the algorithms were running in real time, which would have seen any changes made to a site take effect sooner.

Google’s Previous Statements on the Algorithms

Penguin

• September 2014 – Penguin 3.0 update was confirmed to have been rolled out in one day
• December 2014 – Google stated that Penguin was still rolling out
• 2 weeks later a Google statement announced the Penguin algorithm would be updated continuously from then on:
  “That last big update is still rolling out — though really there won’t be a particularly distinct end-point to the activity, since Penguin is shifting to more continuous updates. The idea is to keep optimizing as we go now.”

Panda

• Attending a recent SMX Search Conference (March 2015), a Google spokesperson stated Panda was being rolled out constantly.
• Google were questioned on the real time updates, answering:
  “Most of our ranking algorithms, including Panda, have many moving parts. In the case of Panda, some parts are running real-time, so results may be affected at any time. However, the underlying data for Panda hasn’t been refreshed for some time. We are constantly working on improving our algorithms and we expect to refresh the data in the coming months.”

No Real-time Updates

Following on from these previous statements and comments surrounding the Penguin and Panda updating, Google’s John Mueller has said in a Webmaster Hangout that the two algorithms are in fact not running in real-time.

Long Story Short…

Despite what Google have previously told us, both the Penguin algorithm and the Panda algorithm still actually require manual releases. So that’s the confusion cleared up… However, this is not ideal news for webmasters, who will continue to wait for the next update to see changes based on the hard work they’ve put in.

We will be sure to bring you any further updates surrounding Panda and Penguin as and when we hear more. For now, keep working on ensuring your site is ready for the next release.