Fall 2014 marks yet another season of Google algorithm updates. Penguin 3.0, which went live in the middle of October, made it clear once again that any disingenuous practices on the part of marketers — particularly to falsely influence links and content popularity — would earn those marketers a naughty note from Google, if not a full on ban, as Search Engine Journal details.

As is so often the case with Google, Penguin 3.0 wasn’t the only animal-themed update the tech giant let out of the zoo in October. As reported by Business 2 Community, Panda 4.1 began rolling out, mostly in secret, at the beginning of the month. That update, said to affect anywhere from 3 to 5% of all websites, was aimed at taking down websites featuring farmed or otherwise low quality content, duplicate syndicated content, and content stuffed to the gills with low quality links.

In truth, the updates are business as usual for Google. Focused on getting rid of low quality content and increasing the value of web listings to consumers, Penguin 3.0 and Panda 4.1 are really just hammering home what Google has been trying to say to businesses and their SEO services for years: if you’re not serving web users, we’re coming for you.

What the Latest Algorithms Mean for General and Local SEO in 2015
As is always the case when Google tweaks what is under the hood, many business owners and their SEO company services are freaking out about Penguin and Panda’s newest forms. While it’s true that the updates necessitate a change in the search engine optimization strategies used until this point, minor course corrections by SEO services will likely be enough to avoid Google’s wrath in 2015 — that is, of course, until the next update. Here are just a few things to consider changing:

• Cut it out with the keyword spam already. Any SEO services worth their salt will tell you that there is a line between effective keyword usage and the spam that will get you knocked out of Google result pages. Search Engine Land suggests keeping your keyword saturation rate below 3% for the best results.
• Your content needs to move as far away from, “Hey, look what we can do,” as possible. You have to stop thinking about your blog posts and other content as marketing tools, and start treating your content like something that is meant to entertain, educate, or otherwise serve a purpose for your readers. This is the type of content that Google is trying to promote through its updates.

Please take this as an opportunity to improve upon what you’ve been doing. It could be just the opportunity your company needs to start drawing in more customers.