Homonyms surround us and we may not even realize it. They are simply words that have more than one meaning or use associated with them; for example, the word penguin. This word can be used as an informal description of someone’s outfit. A more common use of the term is as the name of a flightless bird. In some cases people even associate the word penguin as the name of a villain. Aside from the aforementioned, another use for the word has recently popped up. Google has introduced a no nonsense tool called the Penguin Update.

What is the penguin update?
Anyone who has ever tried to create an online presence knows one of the biggest ways to attract interest is through Search Engine Optimization. What does that mean? Well think about the last time you used a search engine to look something up online.  Do you remember the multitude of results that came up after you pressed enter? Some people may dig into pages of those results looking for something exact. However, most people typically stay within the first page or two of the results to find what they are looking for. Marketing professionals and others that have a strong web presence realize this and use it to their advantage. They know there is a very short window in which to draw in the potential consumer’s attention.  Therefore they use different techniques in order to make sure they are near the top of the list for search results which is known as search engine optimization.

Have you ever gone to look up something and found that you have to weed through hundreds or thousands of links to find what you’re looking for?  These links may be considered web spam. Just like the spam messages we receive in our email or on our mobile devices, those extra links can be very annoying. The Penguin update weeds through these spam links, usually created by black hat users, which only leaves the links created in proper SEO technique.

Typical web surfers won’t notice a difference as they look things up except that it may take less time for them to find what they need. However, people and companies that are trying to create and maintain a web presence need to be aware of how this program named after a flightless bird may affect them. If you are concerned with this new program, do your homework. Listen to the results you find as they may apply to you and consider all advice given. The penguin sounds like an adorable creature, but when it comes to Google, it can be quite the stickler.

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Samantha Wideman is a part of an elite team of writers who have contributed to hundreds of blogs and news sites.