Inbound Internet Marketing Blog

SEO, Blogging, Social Media, Landing Pages, Lead Generation and Analytics

SUBSCRIBE

The HubSpot Inbound Internet Marketing blog covers all of inbound marketing - SEO, blogging, social media, lead generation, email marketing, lead nurturing & management, and analytics. Join 53,183 others and subscribe now!

Subscribe to RSS feed Add us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter

Get Free Marketing Info!

Get the world's best marketing resources right to your inbox! Join more than 817,000 inbound marketers!

Subscribe by email

Your email:

Listen to this blog!

HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog

Current Articles | RSS Feed RSS Feed

Google Changes Algorithm to Punish Content Farms

 

.

At HubSpot, we are huge advocates of creating content as a way to educate customer, increase reach engine traffic, and improve lead generation. It is critical that businesses create content that is interesting, insightful and, most importantly, original.  A recent announcement from Google will have a major impact on businesses trying to take SEO short cuts.

content farm

Recently, Google took action to reduce the rank of lower-quality sites such as "content farms," and, in turn, improve the results displayed to their users. In their press release they announced that the change "noticeably impacts 11.8% of [their] queries" and that the "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." You can read the entire press release here.

This change is likely a direct shot to Demand Media, a company that recently went public and generates much of its revenue from traffic generated by low-quality articles written simply to target new keyword searches.

Marketing Takeaway

What does this mean for you? As a searcher, you should have less garbage results to wade through in order to find a decent result to your query. As a marketer, you no longer have to compete with low-quality scraper sites and content farms for high results on the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages).

As a business trying to get found online it is important today more than ever, to make sure that you are following SEO best practices. This includes creating interesting and engaging content relevant to your industry as a way to drive traffic and links to your website. Google's announcement as well as recent penalties they have announced against J.C. Penny and Overstock.com demonstrate that the search engine giant is in the midst of a crack-down against businesses looking to cheat their way to the top of rankings.

What do you think about these changes?

Free Download - Improving SEO: A Practical Guide

Free Download

Posted by Eric Vreeland on Sun, Feb 27, 2011 @ 05:00 PM

COMMENTS

this is great news. a lot of my clients suffer from their great keywords being hijacked by content farms. I have been reviewing the SERPs and it really has helped

posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 5:14 PM by Andrew rodgers


Pleased to see Google working to improve the end user experience. If ranking are lost by sites employing these cheap-cuts, then we all benefit

posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 5:19 PM by Pete Martinez


It's about time that google realized it was becoming part of the problem in serving up crap content. Giving high page ranking to keyword-rich but poorly written Chinglish pulp adds to the problem not the solution. Let's see if this change by google actually makes a difference.

posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 5:24 PM by Richard Keeves


This is good news for us White Hat Marketers. It's going to clean up the Google SERPs by eliminating the garbage content that has no substance.

posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 5:56 PM by PJ Naughton


This sounds like a good move that will help out the little guy, like me:)

posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 6:43 PM by Lisa


Apparently, Yahoo is in their sites too. Do a search on Yahoo Fantasy Golf. Watch closely as the results appear then disappear, leaving only two, neither of which is the site, only the forums. That doesn't seem to be a helpful, revelant presentation if I can't get to what I wanted. Same things happens with Bing, so it appears that they have the inside track on Google changes too. 
 
Not that I am any fan at all of Yahoo, but it demonstrates the enormous power Google has. Odd that Google who has been the victim of censorship worldwide should decide to practice it itself.

posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 7:25 PM by Chris


I have seen quite a few of the article were all they were doing was placing key words in them without any good reason for it. You can tell that the article was for content only, not achieving any real information. Thank you Google. Tim

posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 9:45 PM by Tim Wheeler


This is good news for us White Hat . It's going to clean up the Google SERPs . very nice. Thanks

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 1:13 AM by Carl


Great news - good to see them go away. What about the ones that just provide links and no content?

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 5:23 AM by FancyScrubs


very good move..

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 5:38 AM by stock market tips and picks


Just checked on some of our keywords that had been ranked in the mid to high teens lately. They are now appearing on SERP in the top 10. Great content wins - thanks HubSpot!

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 7:36 AM by Robert Kelly


Finally, Google focusing on their core product. It's about time.

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 7:49 AM by Nick Robinson


Hopefully, this algo change won't negatively affect the legitimate websites with large amounts of content pages.

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 9:51 AM by Brian Farrell


Great news!! It will definitely help the little guys working hard to create real content.

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 9:59 AM by Ross Davis


"This change is likely a direct shot to Demand Media, a company that recently went public and generates much of its revenue from traffic generated by low-quality articles written simply to target new keyword searches." 
 
Unfortunately this is not the case there are reports around the web saying that Demand Media has gained even more traffic after the Farmer Update.

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 11:25 AM by SEO Bedford


This is great for those of us creating unique, hard to find content. There are too many sites with ranked, irrelevant content. 
.

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 11:46 AM by Jordan Krizman


Key point, "This includes 
 
creating interesting and engaging content relevant to your industry as a way to drive traffic and links to your website". If you build it, they will come. Have something to sell before you clog up the search engines.

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 1:45 PM by Chris Piekarz


Steps which have been taken by Google is very interesting. Still Quality content is a major factor for getting ranked.

posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 11:12 PM by Sajith Anandan


I love this. I felt like I was spinning my SEO wheels trying to compete with the biggies and cheaters. We will all benefit from a more level playing field.

posted on Tuesday, March 01, 2011 at 12:28 PM by Audra


HOW COULD WE KNOW THAT GOOGLE CHANGED TO A BETTER WAY OR THE OPPOSITE? SEEMS LIKE THEY CONTROL THE RULES. A LOT OF COMPANIES WITH GOOG CONTENT COMPLAINED ABOUT VALUING THEM WRONG.

posted on Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 1:36 PM by CICELY


about time!!  
 
They are the biggest rip off. As I always said....create original content yourself! Period!

posted on Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 12:33 PM by Richard Harmer


In a search for Google's recent change to their Algorithm I came across your post. I certainly can understand about nixing link farms and links of bad reviews but.... why is Google penalizing the good merchant? Is it truly about content or add dollars spent? On one account I dropped from 11,978 in Google organic visits in 2010 to 8,498 in 2011 for the same period after Google's algorithm adjustment. Sales have dropped 1/3rd too. In this economy is it a good business practice to put the small business out of business? Thanks Google... Looks like Bing is getting Delectably Yours Decor advertising dollars until this is corrected!

posted on Monday, March 21, 2011 at 11:11 AM by Gail


Personally I like these changes - and I am an internet marketer. One thing I heard about this change is that it effected pretty much all of the article directories. 
 
So the question is - is it even worth it to submit articles anymore (even if they are quality content)? Are you going to be getting any link power at all from submitting articles now? 
 
This has definitely changed the game for internet marketers, as article marketing was a big part of the internet marketing world. 
 
Just wondering what your opinion on article marketing is and how it has changed with this recent change in Google? Would love to hear your opinion...

posted on Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 9:33 PM by Greg


Comments have been closed for this article.