In the last couple of weeks, there’s been a buzz about Google making changes to their algorithm that will ultimately have a direct effect on search results. This change by Google will reduce the level of low-quality, non-useful content from search results. According to Google, approximately 11.8% of search queries have been updated, which largely affects the top two or three results.
Any site that re-purposes content from the original author will see a decline in traffic from search. This change by Google will reward the original content provider and punish those who re-purpose other peoples content with little or no changes. These sites that copy and use content from other sources are considered content farms.
There’s still a lot more changes to come from Google and sites that have low-value content, copied content or non-useful content will no longer be on top of the search food chain so to speak.
In the last week, I noticed a substantial increase in traffic from search and that makes me one happy camper.
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I think that it is about time google made this update. It is sad that scraper sites can show up in the search results close to the original content. I too noticed an increase in traffic to my site. Happy to see the original content approach paying off.
James,
I agree that our hard work and originality should be rewarded and for those who scrap should be pushed to the bottom of the barrel (SERP).
Totally agree with this approach, time for SEO experts to restructure their methodology and provide more quality techniques.
Well, I embrace this change!
Mihaela,
I know it has made a positive gain for our site and I think this is a great move on Google’s part.
I am reading alot about changes google are making, or have made, over the past months, I have put a bit of work into improving my Google rankings over the last 6 months or so but have seen very little change over a long period – hope to see the effects of googles changes soon – or I am doing the wrong things lol.
Good Points! In my experience, it’s best not to spend too much time weighing pros and cons either.
……………
Nic
From what I have seen search results have been dramiatically impacted already. Looks like there’s a lot of work involved to get your site back to the top listings. I’ll mainly be looking at site relevancy from top to bottom and trimming down content per page and creating more pages to cover the address site subject matter more directedly.
It’s sad that this Google Update also impacted some high quality content blogs. And as far as I know, this update is not only for punishing the content thieves but also sites where Google thinks that there is only poor content, not writen by experts. I think that this is impossible, because there are some great sites which without fault are labeled as content farm.
Gon,
I like that they are rewarding sites that author original content. As far as poor content, that to me is an opinion and shouldn’t play into the algo.
Yeah.. i see this on their official blog. It’s really helpful for great bloggers because their content is great. Thats why they will get more traffic from google. Thanks for share.