By Mikal E. Belicove|For Entrepreneur.com|March 17, 2011
Let’s face facts: Your business isn’t on the Net if it isn’t highly indexed by Google because Google is the Internet.
So when the world’s most popular search engine recently announced an update to its search algorithm, many of those businesses that use low-quality content to drive search engine traffic to their sites found themselves at the bottom of the heap. Under the new regime, publishing copied content, spun articles, fabrications and keyword stuffed content actually devalue the ranking of these so-called “content farms.”
However, if yours is an altruistic enterprise with a web site or blog that is in the habit of publishing unique, high-quality, relevant and useful content, you’re likely to be rewarded with an improved search ranking. If your site helps users find content that is relevant to their searches, Google’s updated algorithm — dubbed Farmer/Panda — helps you stay in Google’s good graces. Like supermodel Heidi Klum is fond of saying on Bravo’s Project Runway: “One day you’re in, and the next day you’re out.”
How devastating was this smackdown to content farms? “A whole lot of low-quality domains lost significant visibility” in the U.S. Google search engine results pages, according to an analysis by independent SEO software company Sistrix.
In a sense, Google has drawn a significant line in the sand and expects all website owners to add, maintain and nourish unique content on their pages. If you’re running a business site, this development is an opportunity to provide potential visitors with useful information as well as establish your startup or business as an authority on your product or service.
Of course, these changes instituted by Google have prompted complaints from the owners of web sites that were downgraded in the process, including charges that Google has the capability of manipulating the rankings.
Speaking at Search Marketing Expo – West in San Jose, Calif., over the weekend, Matt Cutts, who is Google’s principal engineer in the company’s Search Quality Group, says…
Continue reading Google’s Panda Puts Content Farms Out to Pasture