Ok, its been a a few days since most of the damage has been done now by the Google Algorithm updates and the rise and fall of some pretty major authority sites. Especially hardest hit were the so called content farms, which Google made no qualms about in telling us, they were going after low quality sites. Some questions to think about in the aftermath are the following.
How targeted was this algo change?
Was it directed at content farms or were there specific signals that triggered them getting slammed the hardest like Ezine articles, Hub Page etc?
Did each of those sites that got hit the hardest, say the top 100 get a manual review?
If they did get a manual review, what were they specifically looking at to get them penalized?
Was it a combination of both – manual and algo updates that got those sites to lose such drastic rankings?
I suspect that somehow it was a combination of both actually, but that is purely my thought process, given how targeted content farms actually got hit by big G.
Hubpages and Squidoo
Its interesting to look back just a couple of years ago when we witnessed a similar thing happen actually. I am referring to Hubpages and Squidoo – getting a big time slap. Then after about a year of so, it seemed that those to web 2.0 properties seemed to get back into the graces of Google once again, and people started using those web properties. In particular, I have noticed a lot more ranking on page 1 or 2 for various terms lately.
Did those 2 get hit again because they didn’t clean up their act in the eyes of G? Who knows. I doubt that the domain’s got hit per se, but, rather it looks like thousands or tens of thousands of pages actually got hit and subsequently lost their rankings.
Yes, I firmly believe that this was a necessary step for Google to change and update their algo’s because, how many of us are building nice quality websites and trying to rank for terms, only to be out done and out ranked by a Hub page or Squidoo with very few back links or effort invested into that particular page. If the search engines are looking for the best information, then do they look at the entire website as a whole, included within those parameters, the pages and whats on the content?
Maybe its a combination of both and something that there will surely be and has already been a lot of theories and speculation going on in the internet marketing community. Look, only Google really knows what they did and they are not coming out with offering too much information, but they have provided enough information for those that are paying attention or have actually been paying attention for some time.
Were Main Stream Keywords and Rankings Affected?
I was checking out some ranking of various terms to see if some of the sites that supposedly got nailed the biggest, were in fact hit as people are suggesting. I looked at the term, home based business, yet I still see Entrepreneur in the number 1 position. Actually, their page went up to number 1 after being in the number 2 position for the longest time. The number 2 spot is homebasedbusiness.com, which is a quality site by the way focused on home businesses. That to me is a perfect example of a quality site.
Entrepreneur is a quality site as well, so its not suggesting they are a content farm, but clearly based on the initial data results, they clearly got hit for quite a few terms for individual terms.
I checked out the term make money online and the sites that I have noticed are still where they have been for some time. So it doesn’t look like they got hit. There are no single Hub Pages or Squidoo on page 1 either, so that makes sense in what should be ranking.
I also checked out the term financial planning and the sites that were there before, are still there. Its interesting that the site learnfinancialplanning.com is actually number 3 now. That site for the longest time has been hovering around number 4 or 5. I noticed that site about a year ago as I thought overall it was a pretty good site, but I was concerned as it seemed a little too focused for Adsense. They have a lot of ads, so clearly the owner of the site was developing it for that type of monetization. Although, Sean who owns the site (note sure if he sold it recently), did offer some detailed information focused on investments and stocks etc. In other words,
So it seems on the initial surface, big keyword terms and websites are basically where they should be ranked. Now looking at more long tail keywords, lets see if the same holds true.
Its also clear to me that many individual pages still survived, but for how long is anyone’s guess. Was this enough of a change that individual website owners will go in and start deleting what they consider low quality? I can tell you Chris Knight over at Ezine Articles has already implemented a number of changes as well since last week. These are far sweeping and immediate changes that I believe will have a positive outlook on Ezine. If you check out there last 2 Blog posts, you will see they are targeting and ensuring that only quality content is allowed. Although they come across as suggesting they have always had high standards, I know many low quality articles did actually get included. It was interesting to read people’s comments and ones that placed links in the comment on poor quality articles as examples. When I checked to read those articles, they have now been removed.
As well, at Ezine, the minimum is 400 words and your resource box has to be relevant to the topic of the article. For example, if you wrote an article about auto parts, yet in your resource box include a link to weight loss programs, your article will not be accepted anymore. Unlike in past practices, your article would be. I know they are going through many articles as I write this post and cleaning house from the looks of things.
So, can and should you use Ezine for promoting your websites products or services? Sure, because by making these changes, I believe your links from Ezine in time, might actually be stronger link juice and be more valuable. That is my take on Ezine anyways.
Of note from all this crap that happened, its also interesting to note that brands like Amazon, Target and other major brands actually improved their rankings for many terms. So, is there something to be learned from that?
I think you should take away, that having high end quality sites can protect you in the long term. Like I mentioned on my previous post. Develop high quality sites with the end user in mind. Write for people and not the spider bots. Offer real solutions to peoples questions and problems. Become the final destination point, rather than someone in the middle.
The Future Of Internet Marketing and Online Business
After all the chaos, changes in rankings, I believe this opens the door to many opportunities on a personal note. While there was a vacuum left with all those content farms positions disappeared, other’s took their place too. I know that if I can offer some real quality content, that over time, enough people will notice and I will be able to create more relationships and more sales potentially in the future. Its not immediate, but its sure a better way to go for any online internet business.
Update March 5th, 2010
I was reading over at Wired about a Q&A that was just recently done with them and Matt Cutts and Amit Singhal who were part of the team for the new algo update. They referred to the algo update by the name of Panda. There Q&A provided a few insights, although only a few on some of the things they were looking at. One thing that is true of any update, that you should wait a couple of weeks for the dust to settle. I would say you need a couple of week for the Google dance to settle down personally. But, I think you get what I mean.
One interesting reference was made about the Chrome Site Blocker which is a way for people to block what they perceive as a spammy site from appearing in their future searches. While, I like the idea, as I mentioned previously, there could be a way for some to game the system to create problems for their competitors. Time will tell with that one.
The interesting part when wired asked about the Chrome site blocker, they said that they didn’t use it in their results this time. Here is a quote that Amit made - “we didn’t use that data in this change. However, we compared and it was 84 percent overlap [between sites downloaded by the Chrome blocker and downgraded by the update].”
Using my crystal ball, I would say they will definitely be including it in the next update based on the above comments. I also noted how Matt referred to Suite 101 as one of the sites on their radar and being of low quality. Again, this should be a strong reminder to anyone reading this post, create quality content that adds value for the end user – your readers/searches that find your site.
