Google made on of he most consequential algorithm updates in the last decade. Deemed the “farmer update”, the recent slap removed websites deemed to be “content farms” from many of the results. The outcome has left many websites teetering on the brink of obscurity.
What makes a content farm?
For several years now, content farms have been a big part of search engine optimization strategy. these sties were vast repositories of articles, editorials, and how-to guides, which existed to boost other websites search rankings.
Content farms worked like this…
1. the content farm published (or stole) large quantities of cheap, low value articles on a number of assorted links.
2. google’s natrual bias toward information-based sites rewarded the sheer volume of content with a good search rank.
3. these small articles attracted links from other bloggers futher boosting the farms search rank and authority.
4. once the farm’s authority got high enough , it could then link to other websites in need of SEO help and boost their search rankings. (usually for a price)
** Google steps in and makes an update to their search engine and on 2/24/20111 google engineers step in and take action against content farms. The google engineers said “this update is designed to reduce ranking for low quality sites which are low-value add for users, Conny 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.
***
Who was affected?
when the google slap came, it hit hard, wiping out millions of top search ranks across a myriad of supposed content farms overnight. The slap affected targeted websites in a number of different ways. Search engine research blog SIStrix uses a forumla to measure how well a domain is ranking for searches related to it’s content. This is known as “visibility”, and the recent google slap wiped some sites clean off the map.
Five sites that lost the most visibility.
1. articlebase is down 94%
2. suite101 is down 94%
3. associatedcontent is down 93%
4. business is down 93%
5. essortment is down 91%
if losing nearly half all visibility is a death sentence on google, loosing a major percentage of top search rankings is the nail in the coffin.
Top five biggest search engine rank losses
1. suite101 is down 79%
2. associatedcontent is down 75%
3. buzzle is down 72%
4. ezinearticles is down 71%
5. hubpages is down 67%
Of course with so many top search rankings removed, there had to be new websites to take their place. As a result, some companies received huge gains in the google results as their pages rose to claim the empty slots on page one.
top five biggest wins
1. bestonlinecoupon is up 89%
2. answers.yahoo is up 26%
3. ehow is up 20%
4. etsy is up 20%
5. sears is up 19%
curiously, ehow, regarded by many as a blatant content farm, not only wasn’t affected by the slap, but actually benefited from many of it’s competitors being wiped out of the top ranks.
What does this mean for SEO?
seeking links from content farms is no longer a winning strategy. when the google update came out it not only affected the content farms, but also the blogs that received links from them.
when a blog with good authority links to another site, positive link juice is passed along. If that website loses it’s authority, those links become worthless, and could even pass along negative link juice.
blogs that built their SEO strategy around content farms saw their search position plummet as a result of the slap.
Now that google has put an end to the power of content farms how can you avoid being hurt by the new algorithm?
1. DO NOT COPY CONTENT
google’s anti-scrapper update was a preamble to the content farm slap. the update punishes any blog caught ripping content from an orginal source.
2. Do not repost your content on other blogs
your orginal content should stay on your blog. posting copies on it elsewhere could cause google to deem your site as a scraper and hurt your rankings.
3. Do not buy links (not confirmed)
google’s algorithm rewards sites with many inbound links. some websites, including JC penney and Overstock, have tried to trick google by buying huge amounts of links, but if google catchs on, your rank will be damage.
4. always check your inbound links
sometimes your website may have inbound links from content farms without your knowledge through no fault of your own, your rank will fall.
