Post-Penguin (2011–2015) : 4 SEO contests

After Panda and Penguin, artificial links and thin content become risky. The archive lists only four contests for the period: organisers and entrants become more cautious.

Contests of the period

Alphabet

SEO contest 2015 · Post-Penguin

2015

Algorithmic context

2011

  • Google Panda (February 2011) penalises low-quality content.
  • Google, Bing and Yahoo launch schema.org (June 2011).

2012

  • Google Penguin (April 2012) targets artificial link schemes.
  • Knowledge Graph launches (May) along with the link disavow tool (October).

2015

  • Mobile-friendly update (21 April 2015), nicknamed Mobilegeddon.
  • RankBrain is revealed (October); Alphabet is created as Google’s parent company (August).

Lessons

  • Content and link quality become central; spam is algorithmically punished.
  • Contests now test the robustness of signals, not just their volume.

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