After the launch of the new Google Algorithm changes; Google “Scraper” and Google “Farmer” the webmaster and online writer communities are abuzz.
Much of what we can read in the user forums at seemingly effected sites such as Associated Content,
Panic after the Google Slap
Mahalo, Infobarrels, HubPages, eHow and the rest of the Demand stable is doom and gloom statements about Google slaps and end of the “write for search” content farming model. But, it really is quite early to come to any conclusions about how the algorithm change will effect sites that follow this model.
What do we know about the February Google Algorithm change?
Directly from the mouth of Google, we get:
““This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other Web sites or sites that are just not very useful,””
Source: Official Google Blog: Finding more high-quality sites in search
Some important details to take away:
- To date (2-25-11) the algorithm change is only effective on Google.com and is effecting approximately 11.8% of queries.
- The data from Chrome add-on use WAS not used to create the algorithmic changes.
- Google did not publicly state that “content farms” were a target, although it has been discussed very recently by Matt Cutts Head of (anti)WebSpam at Google.
Can Google PR be trusted? This isnt our first rodeo…
Google is corporate powerhouse and their webmaster relations is ironically led by the head of WebSpam, those with experience in the field often have to make their own findings and take Google announcements with a grain of salt. After all, the algorithm is their most closely guarded secret. Major updates to the Google algorithm have completely crushed webmasters income in the past even those who have a honest and quality based program. Many call these loss of rankings for quality sites to be “collateral damage” in the fight against webspam and black hat Google gamers. The plus side is often after the initial update the subsequent tweaks often prove that the initial falls were not signs of any permanent shifts.
It takes very meticulous statistical analysis to really have a handle on what an algorithm shift may actually do, at this point the online writers and webmasters of the world do not have sufficient data to say anything other than their traffic has dropped for the moment.
The Google Florida Update of 2003 was catastrophic for many webmasters and this detailed examination of the update and its effects is an example of what it takes to have any authority in this field
Example Reading: A Statistical and Experimental Analysis of Google’s Florida Update
There are some thriving communities of webmasters that discuss such issues with great knowledge and experience, in fact , I used the term update “Farmer” in honor of one such well researched article.
Currently webmasters are coming out of the woodwork with very detailed analysis of their sites and how this update seems to be effecting them. Many are seeing mixed results, many are seeing as much as 40% declines and their is no clear consensus as to what and why is being effected, but it is clear that the update is not just hitting what most of us would consider “scraper” or “farmer” sites.
One comment that seemed quite logical to me suggests that careful analysis of the SERPS shows that many of the sites that we expect to be hurt are in fact rising and this may be intentional as Google can now target in on these sites which are perhaps over optimized and thinly developed.
Read the entire discussion in context at Webmaster World Forums: Google News and SEO discussions
Some important details to take away:
- NO ONE has definitive answers yet
- Sites of all quality and promotional techniques have seen negative returns
- Its very likely that we are in the midst of some live testing of SERP changes, no proof of permanence exists yet
- Sitewide penalties are suggested by some, page by page by others, it still wait and watch time.
- DO NOT make any changes to your content or sites at this time as your actions will be unfounded.
Are you a online writer or webmaster ? How has your traffic changed?
Loading ...I normally wouldnt be one to “beg” for shares especially on this site which actually is still in pre-launch, but I want the data, share this post please, so we can get a feel for the actual effect this algorithm shift has had, more votes equals more data.
HubPages User Alert – One Data Miner has discovered that Hubpages has lost an average of 31 positions in the SERPs the only site found to be hit harder was eZine articles!
Go to Page 2 for further details on possible HubPages Slap
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a work in progress right now, the important info and authoritative sources are included already but as the “gossip” develops Ill include some of the forum entries from the effected “content farms” and maybe even a poll to see how readers of this site are faring with the update
Well written, good stuff SF. I’m sat here, having mused on this earlier and talked at length with someone far better at the marketing than I am and he’s of the mind that you are – let’s see when a weeks been round. I’m at a 35% dip, yet earnings don’t match, they’re down a little but not in keeping with the traffic drop. All very odd and no doubt things will settle, one way or the other. I’m hoping it’s for the positive for those of us that do write quality content but we shall see
As always Josh a voice of reason through the self promoting maze of over reactionary “writers” – bravo my friend. I look forward to your findings as the saga play out.
I may be naive, but any update is supposed to be an improvement and should bring mostly benefits for those producing good content. I hope Google is working on reducing the need for seo. Thanks for bringing us the developments, Sunforged.
Cheers for this Josh. Appreciate your passion and wisdom, as always. Looks like you may save a few more lives with this site too! Regards mate!
Ive been researching further since these comments and past 20 votes on the poll and found some troubling data. Again, its to early to know if they are permanent and most likely are not, but Hubpages seems to be one of the hardest hit sites on the net! If you are seeing this because you subscribed to updates, you may want to swing back through and read page 2 and check out the linked resources
Hi Josh,Well written piece. I logged in yesterday morning to find RyanKett posting in forums, and since then I have been reading all the hubbub, As with most of us, I have also lost about 30-35% traffic – though I will just wait and see if that effect really persists. Even as of now, I am seeing a modest improvement, but I think we will just have to wait a little longer for things to pan out.
Excellent post. All the help sources and information in one place. I have lost about 30 percent traffic, but would wait for few more days before drawing any conclusions. I just hope it is just a bad week and everything returns to normal!!
Thanks for this post, SF – it gives us somewhere to check the latest without having to piece together info from all of the various threads on the topic.Looks like a case of wait and see, but I am going to concentrate on my own site until the picture becomes clearer
Concentrating on your own site is a great idea. The joy of Hubpages is the ability to focus on content creation without worrying about the technical aspects. But that lack of control may turn around to bite us if HP doesnt quickly identify what the new ranking algorithm is looking for.
Nice objective article Josh. I’ve had a really good look at my hubs over the last 24 hours and what definitely seems to
have happened to many of them is that where a page was ranking number one for 5
or more search terms, it’s now ranking number one for one or two terms and it’s
gone down the serps for the others – not hugely, just a few places – but enough
to cause a big drop in traffic.
Some hubs with just one top 5 ranking have gone down a few places – the stupid thing is though,
that the pages that have moved up past mine are no where near as informative or
useful :/
I’ve also been reading about the algo change possibly prioritising shopping
websites over product review articles in the serps which worries me a little
with my recent focus on amazon hubs, but personally I haven’t seen a great deal of difference to my serps on these hubs yet.
Anyway I’m not going to get too stressed about it just now, because things may settle like they did after the mayday update – just gotta keep an eye on things and come up with a few plan B’s.
Oh yes, do double check your serps sunforged. I’ve checked some of the serp positions for the keywords in the abbamont article and they are inaccurate. e.g. making money online is at number one when I search on google.com and make money online is at number 10, which are both quite a lot different from what the article reported.
I have been tracking a few terms across multiple search engines since Feb 23 and many are jumping about quite a bit. So I would guess the Abbamont article was valid when It was created but the landscape is changing quickly.
A quick note, there are plenty of people who have tried to analyse how hard different article directories have been hit. I think the most concise one I have seen so far is at http://www.sistrix.com/blog/985-google-farmer-update-quest-for-quality.htmlMy personal experience so far shows a 15% drop in overall Hubpages traffic. My focused personal sites have risen, my unfocused article directory has risen, my test bed sites which use duplicate/spun content have dropped like a stone.Personally I am going to continue on as before, creating (Or letting people) create unique high quality content. I think the site trust of websites that allow duplicate content (Hubpages included) has probably put a negative damper on the legit unique articles posted there. Will know more in a couple of weeks though
I would tend to agree that duplicate content is heavily effecting site trust at HubPages. At least that is my pet theory at this early moment. I am seeing that both the original content and the duplicated content are dropping. Many sites that were previously high ranked and copied as a result fell just as the later duplicated sites rightfully should.
Really interesting points here, Sunforged. I believe that we have not seen anywhere near the end of this, and need to give the system time. While my overall traffic has dropped my earnings haven’t been affected very much, and I don’t think a few days is adequate to see what is happening.
Although I have seen a 30-odd% drop in overall traffic, I have seen far bigger drops in some areas than in others. My rankings are bouncing all over the place at the moment and I have no clue what is going on. Only thing to do is go mountain biking and chill the f*** out before I give myself an ulcer.
Ive opted against creating any more pages in this series. The theories du jour are meaningless until the update is complete and passes into the rest of the google country sites. I still cant help but stay up to date in the respectable webmaster forums. As I find interesting theories and background information into past updates I have been sharing it in the hubsacademy twitter and faceboo pages each at the appropriate domain/hubsacademy. Always interested in hearing thoughts on this change as it occurs.
I guess we are still a few weeks away from drawing any conclusions, but whatever I have noticed till now, it seems like google’s new algorithm is favoring big retailers and exact keyword domains. For example, if we do a search on “Make money online”, i see makemoneyonline.com on 9th position on google.com. But I can’t see that site listed in top 3 pages on google’s UK version.I have noticed this for many more search terms. There is atleast one exact keyword domain in the first page of google.com. This has really tempted me to buy a few niche domains but will decide on it only after a few weeks when everything settles down.Sunforged and others who have their own niche websites are your websites seeing a surge in traffic/rankings?