Penguin Update Peck Your Site By Mistake? Google’s Got A Form For That

Was your site hit by Google’s new Penguin Update that targets spam? Are you not guilty as charged? Google’s got a new feedback form for that, as well as a method to report spam that should have been caught. I’m Innocent! The head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts, shared the information on Twitter […]

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Penguin1Was your site hit by Google’s new Penguin Update that targets spam? Are you not guilty as charged? Google’s got a new feedback form for that, as well as a method to report spam that should have been caught.

I’m Innocent!

The head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts, shared the information on Twitter today. The first form is for those who believe they were targeted by mistake. It says:

If your site was affected by the “Penguin” webspam algorithm update on April 24th, 2012, and you don’t think it should have been affected, please give us more details below.

It then asks for the URL of your page, an example of a search that you’d expect it to show up for but which instead lists “non-ideal results” and any additional comments.

They’re Guilty!

The second form is Google’s standard spam reporting page. If you’re seeing spam that you think the Penguin Update should have caught, Google says to use that form, bypass options like reporting paid links and use the “Report webspam” button.

Selecting that brings up a form where you can enter the URL of the spammy page, the exact query it shows up for and any additional details. It’s important to use the word “penguin” as part of the details field.

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About the author

Danny Sullivan
Contributor
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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