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Google has launched their last algorithm update for the year just a couple of days back that has already affected 12% of the search rankings. Google seemed to be on the prowl back in February and having released a second major algorithm change just last Dec. 2nd made an impression with a narrowed range of targets. And this time, the focus seemingly has been set on content farms such as eHow and Demand Studios, which is one of the largest content farms out there.
“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.” -Official Statement from Google
Content farms, or content hubs, employ thousands of writers and produce articles like a machine that is able to release at least a thousand per day onto their site, with content considered to be of average to low quality, yet, highly optimized. It is through the volume of their production and their focus on quantity that they gained the term "content farm".
While others exert real effort in creating strategic brand marketing, they have a simple one that they use, which ironically, have them dominate search queries, specially those of long tailed keywords. Other search engines have actually blocked them earlier on and as Google have also received similar complaints, they have decided to make their move.
The impacts from Dec. 2 changes seem to be fairly minor, mostly in the 1 to 3 position loss ranges where they show up, but we have seen a lot of them. For others that have been hit harder, it really does seem to be content quality related. We’ve seen a couple sites that just have okay to mediocre content and have been hit pretty hard. If you’re seeing your rankings negatively impacted by this algorithm change, then try to take a look at your site from a content quality perspective and compare it objectively to the sites that passed you up in the rankings.
