Webmasters who spent their time gaming search engine results with low-quality content farms and scraper sites have been hit hard since Google's latest algorithm change last week.
In a February 24th, 2011 post on the official Google blog, Amit Singhal and Matt Cutts stated:
Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.
Although a CNN Money report cited a number comments made on the WebmasterWorld forum about the traffic and business-killing nature of this latest change, I've personally noticed that are just as many statements to the contrary by webmasters who don't rely on content farms to drive traffic to their sites.
I too have seen traffic increases to my sites in the past few days, ranging anywhere from 15.2% to 82.36% and 125.5%.
So, no complaints here.
As always, follow Google's guidelines regarding quality content and your sites will do fine. Try to game the results and you could find yourself looking for a job offline.
So… did your traffic increase or decrease since the latest Google Update?
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The results posted by others is encouraging. I’m working on a site redesign, not online yet, and writing all the content. Maybe I will get a chance at being somewhat successful in this market.
Just a thought but this should knock down those MLM companies charging people for those cookie cutter sites. Maybe a lot of those make a million dollars overnight plans will take a back seat to honest marketers. Sometimes change is good.
Hey John,
We can only hope!!
Cheers,
Ros
I just wonder how this change is meaningful. Like if article directories are now spam, then when will blogs become spam? Spammers just go with the flow don’t they? And as blog articles are not actually reviewed for any standard of content before release, but article directories most often are, or at least have some automatic quality checks implemented, isn’t this a step into disorder? I understand the concerns about mass ‘paid for’ low quality articles, but aren’t there also tens of millions of irrelevant and ground zero quality blogs out there also? Are we concerned with quality or Internet profits here, or is that a rhetorical question?
I doubt you’ll publish this comment, but I really like your blog anyway!
Hey Ros.. thanks for the interesting post. I guess I’m a little bit naive.. but what is a “content farm”? Are you talking about article directories etc? In my opinion I think Google’s newest shift will be a good one in the long run. I accept content for my websites so as not to have to write it all myself, (in part because I’m not even close to being qualified on a couple of them) and I am appalled by what is submitted sometimes. Fortunately I screen all incoming material before I accept it or I’d have sites with more garbage than quality content.
On another note, I’d sure like to know how you get your traffic. None of my sites gets more than a trickle (I don’t do ppc) and I don’t know what to do about that. I have good seo’d websites and quality content and I blog, but to little avail. Anyway.. thanks again. Cheers
Hi Ros,
That was first time I visit your blog. 😉 Finally Google do it right. For me, the marketers must be creative to make a marketing and get traffic to their site.
I’t seems autoblogging no more, right?
Hi Faisal,
Welcome! And yes, no more autoblogging… not that I ever believed in it in the first place. 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
Hi Ros,
Does this include the PLR products that so many others buy to help keep their sites blogged on a regular basis?
Hi Ceci,
If the PLR buyer uses the articles as they are ‘out of the box’ they run the risk of getting duplicate content penalties, especially if that particular article has been used many times.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Ros
Ros,
as soon as the news came out, I was like wow! finally a clean , safer web environment for us to operate in. There is absolutely nothing like authentic and original content. For one to truly make money at all in any venture (and build a reputation at the same time), there must be an exchange of value. That way all parties win. I hope to benefit from this also as soon as my site is up. Ros, do you have recommendations on products that have jvs?
Hi Chris,
It’s hard to make a recommendation on products with jv’s (or affiliate programs) unless I know your intended niche.
The best thing to do is go to the affiliate networks and see what is available.
Cheers,
Ros
Tanx ros!
Hi Ros
This message is certainly hot on the forums today – it makes me dizzy just trying to keep up with all the changes and best practices out there.
The lastest wheeze is to write original content – that’ll never take off! 😉
David
Hey Ros,
You go big “G,” tighten the leash on the scammers and spammers and the junk content farms.
Make way for the hard working, honest, value based website owners who give a flip about the value they deliver to the end consumer. Trying to help them, by giving them just what they want in an honest ethical manner…free and paid. Plus you’ll sleep a lot better.
My hats off, to the ones like me, who are willing to play by the rules and build a long term sustainable business, instead of constantly trying to game the system for short term profits (stealing). What you sow you shall reap, period, whether in business or life in general.
You may get away with it for a while, but eventually It will catch up with you my friend.
Boy, that felt good,
Ron
It is a mixed bag for me. I work with a number of affiliate datafeed driven sites which seem to be holding up, but I always add unique content not really for SEO but to make the sites more useful for visitors.
My blog site seems to have benefited, I am seeing a 20% month on month increase in traffic. I guess this is due to it all being unique content, mainly just me writing about projects I am working on.
Hi Matt,
Really interesting observations, thank you!
I wonder if your datafeed sites would benefit from having more content via an associated blog? I know that’s a major undertaking if you have quite a few of those sites, but perhaps if you just started with one to see if it made any difference?
Cheers,
Ros
I see very few significant changes. Perhaps this is a bit more of a google scare tactic. More time may tell more.
I haven’t noticed an increase in traffic, yet. However, all of my blogs are on page one of Google and one of them is fairly new. I’m pleased as punch with these new changes.
I sometimes share a version of one of my articles with another site in my industry. I will often change a paragraph or two for their version to make the content better address a slightly different readership, but otherwise it is often the same article.
I wonder if the new change will have a detrimental effect for webmasters who do this kind of thing…Is one or two copies of an article out there on the web going to cause Google to label a site as low quality? I know that you probably can’t answer that one, but it does make me wonder…
Thanks for the heads-up!
Hi David,
I think if you make that article significantly different from the original, as you suggest, there should be no problem with duplicate content penalties.
Cheers,
Ros
I have noticed great changes to my websites traffic. I have been frustrated in the past because I was being outranked for keywords essential to my business. And sometimes by the “content farm” websites that Matt Cutts was talking about.
Great job Google!
One of my clients was on page 1 for years. Then her site dropped down and I have had a tough time getting back on page 1. She has an original “how to” product in a tight niche that suddenly was inundated with everybody and their mother creating junk sites. Many of these ended up on page 1, pushing “the originals” down who had been there for years. I couldn’t push up past page 2 no matter what we did, so I also concentrated on videos to saturate page 1 on Google’s video results.
With this recent change, her site is back on page 1!
Wow, that is awesome, Gail. And I totally hear you about the competition with junk sites in the past. Nice to know that credit will go where credit is due now.
I’m very happy about this latest Google algorithm change. I work hard researching and writing original articles for my authority site, and it’s very frustrating when someone copies my content. It’s also frustrating when a low-value page ranks higher than one of my high-value pages. I’m hoping that this latest algorithm change will reduce these types of problems.
Hi Jim,
It probably should. It seems that the older authority sites are regaining their status with this change. Check out Gail’s comment for proof.
Cheers,
Ros
Good for Google that is great news for bloggers like you, and me who work hard and only post unique original content. We should all see an increase in traffic from the search engines keep hammering away at them Google.
We can only hope, Jason!
Rosalind,
Everyone thinks they have quality content on their site. Google gets to decide! Google is also a shareholder-driven behemoth who is looking for someone to blame for the continual failure of its proprietary link building algo. They now have effective competition in Facebook.
Hi Darrel,
I disagree that everyone thinks they have quality site content. Those who run content through article spinners to generate 100’s of new articles clearly know they are not producing quality content.
Cheers,
Ros
Once again proof that quality not quanity counts. That effort goes a long way.
Hi Jim,
I agree. The effort always pays off. 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
AT LAST !!! Real webmasters and bloggers have been waiting for this move from Google for years…
Just one question, though….
How will this affect smaller article directories? Obviously EZA with its unique content policy will be safe – but many others might not be, despite all the work it took to get them there…
But all in all, a most welcome move.
Just my 0.02c
Peter
Hi Peter,
Really good question. Look for an article that I just wrote about that very subject to be posted early tomorrow.
You’ll be shocked.
Cheers,
Ros
To quote both Dire Straits and Mary Chapin Carpenter: Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. My traffic has been creeping up, at the speed of a tectonic plate shift, for a few months. I’d love to say it’s due to my brilliant writing, razor-honed SEO skills and compelling topics. It probably isn’t.
Casey,
Give yourself credit – it probably is! 🙂
Cheers.
Ros
I like the quotes, and the humour. My site as well has shown a slight increase in traffic. I was hoping that it was through good link building!