The SEO world was abuzz several weeks ago when it became clear that Google had made another major revision to their search algorithm that determines how web sites are ranked and which sites show up on search queries.
I've read various figures, but it seems the new changes affected something like 10-20 percent of search queries.
The main concern for Google when it makes changes to its search algorithm is to provide the best possible experience for the person who has come to their site to make a search.
They want to identify and display the most relevant web sites that fit the searcher's query.
In some sense they are trying to judge the intent of the searcher and give that person what he or she is looking for.
Google knows that web masters can, to a large extent, figure out what it is Google is looking for.
This is from simple observation and experimentation.
People try certain things on web sites and make observations about what works and what does not.
I think it is fair to say that Google has a vision of the ideal internet and what an ideal search experience is.
In general they like sites that offer unique content and they oppose sites that only regurgitate content that has been found elsewhere on the web.
In the latest Google algorithm update, sites that use or provide duplicate content were severely punished.
The largest of all the article directory sites, which offer content for use on other sites, reportedly lost something like 80-90% of their traffic immediately.
Other article directories reported similar results.
This loss of traffic directly reflects itself in lower revenues for those sites.
In fact some article directory sites seemed to be classified as authority sites by Google, and some of the individual articles they posted would rank quite high.
I have a web site in the golf niche that was bumped to page 2 of Google search rankings because of one or two of these articles.
I thought my site, which had pages of unique and relevant content, should have been ranked higher than those single articles.
They are gone now, and my site is back on the bottom of page one where it gets decent traffic and is making sales again.
Web masters need to keep in mind that their sites will do better in Google rankings if they give Google what it feels it needs for its searchers.
This is lots of good and original content.
I've read various figures, but it seems the new changes affected something like 10-20 percent of search queries.
The main concern for Google when it makes changes to its search algorithm is to provide the best possible experience for the person who has come to their site to make a search.
They want to identify and display the most relevant web sites that fit the searcher's query.
In some sense they are trying to judge the intent of the searcher and give that person what he or she is looking for.
Google knows that web masters can, to a large extent, figure out what it is Google is looking for.
This is from simple observation and experimentation.
People try certain things on web sites and make observations about what works and what does not.
I think it is fair to say that Google has a vision of the ideal internet and what an ideal search experience is.
In general they like sites that offer unique content and they oppose sites that only regurgitate content that has been found elsewhere on the web.
In the latest Google algorithm update, sites that use or provide duplicate content were severely punished.
The largest of all the article directory sites, which offer content for use on other sites, reportedly lost something like 80-90% of their traffic immediately.
Other article directories reported similar results.
This loss of traffic directly reflects itself in lower revenues for those sites.
In fact some article directory sites seemed to be classified as authority sites by Google, and some of the individual articles they posted would rank quite high.
I have a web site in the golf niche that was bumped to page 2 of Google search rankings because of one or two of these articles.
I thought my site, which had pages of unique and relevant content, should have been ranked higher than those single articles.
They are gone now, and my site is back on the bottom of page one where it gets decent traffic and is making sales again.
Web masters need to keep in mind that their sites will do better in Google rankings if they give Google what it feels it needs for its searchers.
This is lots of good and original content.