Google updates its search engine (algorithm), from time to time. It does so in order to increase the relevancy of sites that appear its search results.
(This is explained in more detail, below).
In this post, we will delve into the recent updates that were made to Google's search engine, why some Internet businesses are upset re these new search policies and how you can still maintain your site ranking, despite these changes.
Let's begin!
According to article,"Google “Panda” Algorithm Update – What’s Known & What’s Possible" by Chris Crum from Web Pro News, the objective of Google's recent search engine update is to give better-quality sites, a higher ranking in Google search results.
This is to facilitate the user getting more relevant results when he/she searches for sites, based on certain keywords or keyword phrases.
Examples of keyword phrases are: "organic eggs" or "cheap vacations jamaica".
The thinking behind this change is that when a user searches for websites that he/she wants to find, based on certain keywords, the more relevant the sites that appear on the first page (more exactly - in the first 3 positions) of Google's search results, the more predisposed the user will be, to continue using Google Search for their online searching needs.
This is versus using Bing or Yahoo.
So, in order to ascertain which websites are preferred by users when interacting with the Gogle search engine, Google sent sample documents to human testers to see which they preferred, from a quality perspective.
These human testers gave their feedback to Google, who in turn used this feedback to update their search engine algorithm.
According to article, "Google “Panda” Algorithm Update – What’s Known & What’s Possible", by Chris Crum - WebProNews.com, the characteristics of sites that will be highly ranked by Google's search algorithm, are those that:
1) Are trustworthy - sites are considered trustworthy when users will willingly leave their credit card info and personal information on the site, based on its appearance and content.
It was also found that sites with older formatting are also considered untrustworthy by most users.
2) Have deep content - longer articles - say of 300 words or more, are ranked higher than shorter articles of 100 words or less (aka known as "shallow" content).
This is because Google's search engine assumes that the more an article-writer has to say about a certain topic, the more research has been done on said topic, which makes the article more reference-like.
This is why sites like Wikpedia.org (page rank of 9) and Answers.com (page rank of 8) are so highly ranked.
So if your site contains a greater proportion of longer articles to shorter articles that are optimized for search engines, then it should be ranked higher than one that doesn't.
3) Are chock-full of unique, original content. The greater the proportion of original content to auto-generated content on your site, the more highly ranked it will be.
So if your site consists of articles from free or paid article sites, that are just copies of the original, watch out!..your site's ranking will be affected.
Spun articles from article spinners (or article-spinning software), that change a few words around, in order to try to differentiate the spun article from the original, will also be hardest hit... for if the spun articles aren't sufficiently different from the original, your site will be penalized.
[Google's search engine sees undifferentiated, spun articles, as duplicate content, which guarantees that your site will not be indexed (listed in its search results)]
4) Have a low percentage of ads in the actual article write up. So articles/posts with less ads, which make the article/post more legible and more enjoyable for the reader, will be ranked highly.
So too will websites/blogs with less ads, as this too affects the legibility of the site.
5) Are of good enough quality for print - meaning articles that are of sufficient quality to qualify as newspaper or magazine articles.
So forget about creating sites with shallow content, geared solely at generating Google Adsense revenue - yep, you know them - e.g. sites based on "get your ex back" and "tv for pc"...
...If Google's search engine sees that your site is centred around these keywords - it will just not index it.
Please see the tables at the end of article, "Google “Panda” Algorithm Update – What’s Known & What’s Possible", for other keywords that guarantee that your site will be placed in search engine "no man's land".
==========
So if you notice that your site's Google page rank and/or Link Popularity (for Google) has dropped substantially, you should look back at the above points, to ensure that your site wasn't penalized for being in breach of the above quality criteria.
We will now discuss why some Internet businesses/website owners are upset over Google's new search policies.
Why Some Internet Businesses/Website Owners are Upset Over Google's New Search Policies
Article "Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update", by Danny Sullivan - Search Engine Land, states that Google claims that a small number of sites were affected by the recent algorithm upgrade (about 12%).
However, some website owners, with legitimate content that has been copied by unscrupulous website owners, without giving the original authors' credit, are crying "foul".
And to add insult to injury - these copycats' sites are now higher-ranked than the sites of the original content owners.
Website owners who depend heavily on spun articles and auto-generated content are also complaining:
(Auto-generated content reduces time spent on having to develop original articles for your site...or so it was originally thought).
So too, are those who:
1) Just created shallow content for the sole purpose of generating Google Adsense revenue.
2) Heavily-depended on backlinks from famous article sites like Hubpages.com and eHow.com.
So how can your business maintain it's site ranking despite these changes?
Let's examine this, here:
How Can Internet Businesses/Website Owners Maintain Their Site Ranking, Despite These Changes?
To ensure that your site ranks highly in Google, it's simple: just follow simple SEO rules and ensure that you don't break Google's quality criteria, as mentioned above.
If you need original articles for your site, that are optimized for high placement in the major search engines (including Google), please email us here at Market Opportunities Unlimited.
We have worked with over 40 businesses to create quality, unique, content, that helps to showcase their brands, products and services, in a positive light.
Gillian
Sources Include
1) Article, "Google “Panda” Algorithm Update – What’s Known & What’s Possible" by Chris Crum,WebProNews.com, March 4,2011
2) Article, "Google Misses With Both Barrels And Duplicate Content Kills" by Morris Rosenthal - FonerBooks.com, February 25,2011
3) Article, "Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update" by Danny Sullivan, SearchEngineLand.com,February 24,2011
4) Article, SEO Rules of 2011, SiteMarketing.co, Janauary 11,2011
Comments