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Google since the past few years has taken anti-spam measures seriously and thereby has made a number of changes to its algorithms. Actually, google makes a huge number of changes to its algorithms every year. These changes can be classified in three categories: > Quality algorithm updates (including the anti-spam updates) > Design algorithm updates > Personalization algorithm updates Design algorithm updates and more self centric to google's own design philosophy. They don't affect SERPs. On the other hand, the personalization and quality algorithm updates have profound effects on SERPs. Personalization algorithm updates are more about individual user experience. For instance, you would have noticed that search results for certain queries differ when you have previously performed a different set of searches. This is based on personalization experience that google gives you.. The algorithm updates that affect the SERPs the most are Quality algorithm updates. Logically these updates can be divided into two groups. > Updates making sure that High-quality websites are placed higher in SERPs > Updates making sure that Low quality and spammy websites are placed lower As it might appear obvious, for the above two types of things to happen, Google would need to first correctly define whcih websites are high-quality and which websites are low-quality or spammy. And this is actually the most difficult task to perform and accordingly, bigger part of the algorithms are for this purpose. The so called anti-spam updates belong to the second group described above. They define the low-quality and spammy websites and make sure that these websites don't take high rankings in SERPs which are deserved by High-quality websites. Of all the updates, the anti-spam updates are most famous (or notorious for that matter) because of their profound effects on search rankings. Some of the previous anti-spam updates include Caffeine, Penguin, Panda etc. Each of these updates had in turn many updates like Panda 2.5, Panda 3 etc. The latest of the series is an updated version of Penguin, called Penguin 2.0. It has been active since May 22 and is said to affect more that 2% queries. It should be noted here that the algorithms are secret tools of search engines. They would never disclose exactly what they do and how they do it. So most of the things that is known about algorithms and algorithms updates include the bits provided by google and the results obtained from various studies and analyses. So There is no way to guarantee that the information provided below is going to be 100% accurate... So Penguin 2.0 basically targets link profiles of websites. By doing certain analyses on website's link profiles, these algorithms determine whether the site is High quality or low quality. Major things that these algorithms are thought to look for include: Irrelevant unnecessary linking: The first thing that Penguin 2.0 is thought to take by a storm is unnecessary and irrelevant linking in websites. For instance, on a website about smartphones, there are links like "baby food", "baby growth" etc. These links don't match the website in any way and thus they are considered irrelevant and unnecessary. Previously, these links were considered useless, but didn't have a profound negative effect on SERPs but with Penguin 2.0 this is going to be dealt with Iron hands..... Linking Circles / Network Linking: Previously, the techninque of inter-linking between a group of websites has exploited quite successfully. And if the network is pretty large, it becomes really difficult to differentiate the linking profile from that of a normal popular websites. But with Penguin 2.0, google things that this update has the capability to catch websites using this black hat strategy and thus penalize them in terms of drop in SERPs. Paid Dofollow linking: This is one type of black hat strategy, that has been targeted in almost every major anti-spam update but it still continues to exist. This is because it is pretty hard to catch which links are paid for and which are not. Google is not against advertisement (obviously, this is what google actually does to earn most of its income), but it is certainly against paying money to manipulate search signals. So if are to advertise something on your website, you better make sure that the links are Nofollow, otherwise you are goint to be penalized. And with Penguin 2.0, google is making further sure that it catches more and more culprits. Other than targeting these negative behaviours, the Penguin 2.0 is also thought to look for some positive behaviours of the website and thereby improve its SERP.. The most talked about these is the one that is talked about in all of the major updates, "Engaged Visitors". That is the websites which keep their visitors engaged are the ones that look most valuable to Google and its algorithms.... Any additions and corrections are invited..