Illyes responded it is weeks away, which is much better than the other option of months away. He did say that Google is aiming for a Penguin launch this quarter. But as usual, he wasn’t more precise.
It is hard to get upset with Google not revealing more about the dates. As we have seen previously, SEOs tend to get very upset if Illyes (or any other Googler) reveal a date and they don’t hit it. In fact, SEOs often start rallying the pitchforks the day after an estimate is missed.
Illyes also reconfirms that it will be the real time Penguin, but he also adds two interesting points. One, that it will be part of the core algo, which many of us felt was likely happening. After all, Google recently revealed that Panda is part of the core algo. But he added a second comment – that they’ll stop talking about Penguin, or at least he will.
To be fair, I am pretty sure Googlers are tired of answering “Is it Penguin?” questions multiple times a day.
So the wait looks to be weeks away, with an aim for this quarter (which means the end of March).
On the positive sign, you still have time to work on those disavow files and removal requests before the real time Penguin launches.
Jennifer Slegg
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