Google Algorithm Change: Are You Bracing Up For The Impact?

Did you know Google recently effected another algorithm change?

Did you care to know what the change is all about and how it can affect you as a blogger?

Ok, I know that many bloggers don’t really care about search engine optimization (SEO) and of those who care, most consider google as too over bearing on such matters. To them Google is simply a dictator when it comes to search engine marketing.

In fact, I’m sure if those who consider Google as a dictator will have their way, they will be on the cyber streets protesting the over bearing nature of Google just as it’s happening in North Africa right now! 🙂

But the truth is, no matter what you may think, we must give it to google for their effort to sanitize the Information Super High Way.

To better appreciate the stand of Google as regards these constant changes which always impact negetively in the rankings of most websites, you will need to read the official Google blog announcing the recent algorithm changes. Simply, the purpose as stated by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer on the Official Google Blog is:

To give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.

Considered carefully, we must agree with google that these changes are definitely neccessary. You’ll agree that if google has not from time to time effected changes like this, the value of information published on most websites would have fallen below worthless!

But Do These Changes Really Matter To Bloggers?

When I first learnt of the new algorithm changes a few days ago I was concerned for the simply fact that most of my blogs and niche sites depends essentially on organic search traffic.

And I believe that if your blog is deriving much of its traffic from the search engines then you should be concerned also. Of course, the recent algorithm change is mostly in the US but it’s not out of place to prepare your sites now even if you’re not in the US. Very soon the changes will be propagated to other country-specific Google sites like google.co.in, google.com.ng and google.co.uk and if you’re not prepared then you’ll find yourself in the cyber dust!

A Look At What This Recent Google Algorithm Change Is About

Having gone through the Official Google Blog, I was able to pick out some salient points that matters as regards this new change. Here’s another quote from the blog:

Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This 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. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on…

I’m sure you can readily pick out what matters in that statement. The purpose is in two parts:

1. To Reduce Rankings For Low Quality Sites

These are what many people has refered to as content farm sites. Most of them are nothing but worthless aggregated content. Most times these sites simply copy content from other sites without really adding any value. Auto-generated content sites comes to mind here.

But, they are not alone. I’m sure sites that publish articles that are retweaked using article re-writing software may also be affected. This blog post by EzineArticles.com definitely points to that fact:

This past Thursday, Google announced an algorithm change to 11.8% of their U.S. search query results. Their target was aimed at content farms that are typically low-quality sites, sites with only copied content and sites with low value content.

While we adamantly disagree with anyone who places the “Content Farm” label on EzineArticles.com, we were not immune to this algorithm change. Traffic was down 11.5% on Thursday and over 35% on Friday. In our life-to-date, this is the single most significant reduction in market trust we’ve experienced from Google.

I’m sure youll agree with me that EzineArticles is one of the leading article directory on the net right now and that they are very strict when it comes to the type of article published on the site. But did you noticed that this google algorithm change has affected the site so much that Chris Knight, CEO of EzineArticles.com says, “In our life-to-date, this is the single most significant reduction in market trust we’ve experienced from Google.”

And because of these changes, EzineArticles.com is introducing some very serious changes to the type of articles any one can submit to the site! One of the drastic measures the site is thinking of implementing is removing “dofollow” even from the author’s resource box because they realize many people submit articles to the site simply to gain backlinks.

Now don’t you think that is a lesson for those of us who have “dofollow” blogs and accept guest postings?

2. To Provide Better Rankings For High-Quality Sites

This is the second purpose of the algorithm change. And this is where you’d want to be! 🙂 Seriously!

So if you’re want to take advantage of these new changes what should you be doing?

The answer is provided for us right there on the official announcent. Here it is again:

At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

A look at the statement tells you what you should concentrate on if you want to make an impact as far as the google search engine is concerned. And please note that apart from these recent changes, google says more will be coming in the days ahead! And who knows other search engines may just be joining the dance!

Frankly, I see a revolutionary change in the internet marketing cycles because this is where most of these recycled content are mostly found. That of course is good for the internet or don’t you think so?

So it’s time to look and plan ahead now. Don’t let the almighty Google give you a slap that you’ll never be able to wake up from. Think that google is only targeting content farms and not blogger like you? Then read what the regrets of this blogger here.

Over to you: What do think of this algorithm change? Do you support google with the changes? If yes can you suggest some other areas they can affect more changes? If no, what are your reasons?