Even though this topic is over a year old I still feel the
need to talk about it because I experienced it first and still see that Google
is working to fix this problem. Back in February 2011 Google went on to change
their core ranking algorithm that would force content farms lower on search
results.
Content farms are sites that create low quality content to
appear higher on search rankings. Sites like this include About.com and
Mahalo.com, which populate pages with basic information just to appear within
search results. These sites base their revenue on ads and CPV they live and die
via where they appear on searches.
The reason behind me talking about is because I was working
for Mahalo when Google implemented their new core ranking algorithm. Now I really
wouldn’t consider Mahalo a true content because a lot of the content was very
information based. Now that information was mostly based around music, video
games, photoshop and cooking.
Now Google’s head of web-spam prevention Matt Cutts said, “12
percent of Google’s search results saw some modification.” However, Mahalo felt
the affects of that 12 percent results modification and had to deal with
downsizing. The change did affect with how sites like About.com pay their
writers and video editors who create the countless pages per day.
It’s interesting to see how Google goes about how it ranks
sites, but it seems like they are trying to keep their search results ligament.
That means forcing content farms and low quality sites below the fold. Of
course, Google says that how a company operates is also included in how they
rank.
Even though I saw first hand how this change could affect a
company, I believe Google did the right thing. These sites can really clutter
result pages and most of the time don’t have the correct information populating
them. Also, by doing so Google is forcing sites to really work on creating
quality content to help them raise their rank.
Hi Rob,
ReplyDeleteI actually found out about Google's algorithm ranking retooling shortly before this class started from my website's graphic designer. He was the bass player in my old band and we used to fill the html code for our website with keywords, such as "rock band", "soul band" and "washington dc". We were the first band that would pop up when someone would type in "band" and "dc". I asked him if he could do a similar keyword optimization for my personal website and that's when he informed me about how Google had clamped down on such tactics and explained to me what content farms are and how Google's new methods adversely affect sites that aren't content farms and to be careful to not fall victim to this. Anyways, the blog looks great and it is inspiring me to spruce up the graphics on my blog a bit.
Rob,
ReplyDeleteThank you for elaborating on this subject for your post. The content was interesting and I plan to look into this further. How Google ranks sites has always been a source of controversy and it will continue to be in the future. The only advice I would provide is to proofread your post before submission for spelling and grammatical errors. For some viewers (like myself) the errors make the post difficult to read.
Malcolm Freeney
Thank you for sharing this topic! I was not aware of all the underlying issues that search engines may have. I am not a very technical person, so it was very interesting to see. You made it easy and enjoyable to read, which is not always easy to do. Great job!
ReplyDelete-Sarah