We've got Pandas...and we've got Penguins.... and what's next?  I dunno, I guess a Zebra.  Google sure has this whole "back and white" thing going on.

Funny too, because it's only "black and white" to Google  ;)

So what's the difference between a Panda and a Penguin (in the Google world)

Panda is purely a quality type thing.  It's all about what's ON your site, how it is presented, and the quality of the content.

If you get a Panda Penalty, you have to make the corrections and then wait for Panda to come back by your site to (hopefully) remove the penalty.  This happens about every 4-6 weeks.  Last Panda update was on April 19th.

Now, Penguin, on the other hand, is different.  It is about breaking Google's WebMaster Guidelines.  It can be due to things you do ON your page or OFF your page.  Where as Panda is about the actual quality and trust-worthiness of your content/site... Penguin is about things that Google considers 'spam' that are done to boost rankings.

Penguin ran on April 24th.  If you were hit by Penguin, you will have seen an immediate/overnight change in your rankings.

I still can't get a concrete answer from the "powers that be" about whether Penguin needs to come back to your site to release the penalty or if it is naturally removed when the 'normal' Google algo comes back to your site.

In either case, my advice right now is... DO NOTHING MAJOR.

Google really pushed hard with this Penguin update.  Many consider it the biggest update we've seen in years (yes, even bigger than Panda).  Heck, Google even offers a form for those that truly believe that they were hit by Penguin and are totally innocent (note: don't use that form unless you KNOW... KNOW KNOW KNOW... you are totally innocent).

There is bound to be a lot of "flux" and tweaks to this Penguin situation by Google in the next week or so.  If you go changing anything major, you'll have no clue if you made it worse, or better.

Now, if you have a good idea of what you probably did wrong, sure, go change it/correct it...but don't go nuts with changes right now.

When Google goes batty, a knee jerk reaction is the WORST thing you can do.

Jennifer