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Well it has been 12 months but it is finally here Penguin 3.0 was released over the last weekend. Background is the penguin update targets sites using manipulative link building tactics. With many eagerly awaiting this update it will as usual take time for the dust to settle and effects to be seen. 
Barry brought this to our attention here; http://searchengineland.com/google-releases-first-penguin-update-year-206169
Penguin 1.0 on April 24, 2012 (impacting ~3.1% of queries)
Penguin 1.1 on May 26, 2012 (impacting less than 0.1%)
Penguin 1.2 on October 5, 2012 (impacting ~0.3% of queries)
Penguin 2.0 on May 22, 2013 (impacting 2.3% of queries)
Penguin 2.1 on Oct 10, 2013
Penguin 3.0 on October 17, 2014 (impacting 1% of queries)
I have done a lot of work on penguin recovery over the last few years and the path back is not easy. Not only do you need to clean up your backlinks, but you also need a ongoing plan to get your rankings back or maintain and improve them. There are no shortcuts in seo and obvious optimisation work is now under massive scrutiny. Some things to watch out for are;
Examples of latest links being hit;
One of supposed pluses of the new update is that Google will be able to release updates more quickly. I really hope that is the case because whilst submitting link disavow lists, in most cases go straight into the system ‘no humans involved’ [according to a Tweet by Google’s John Mueller @johnmu], the algorithm stills needs to be run before they have any effect.
Matt Cutts said; “It does demote web results, but it’s an algorithmic change, not a penalty. It’s yet another signal among over 200 signals we look at.”
If you have been hit by the algorithm or have a manual penalty, we offer high quality recovery services, get in touch.