Google tinkering tightens the screw on 'Content Farms'

by Steven Mostyn - Feb 25 2011, 16:30

While there’s no doubting the worth of Google’s prowess in the search market, one reoccurring annoyance thrown up by its formidable engine is the sheer number of seemingly irrelevant, SEO-optimised websites that queries can often return.

However, in an attempt to rectify that particular search-based shortfall, Google has this week tinkered with its ‘secret recipe’ algorithm so that such ‘content farms’ are shoved down the pecking order while sites offering more original, high-value information will be promoted.

“Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them,” outlined Google in an official blog post. “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,” it added. “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.”

Although Google is to be applauded for its pro-active stance, one such controversial content farm, Demand Media, is remaining defiant in the face of potentially compromised momentum.

“It’s impossible to speculate how these or any changes made by Google impact any online business in the long term,” commented company executive vice president Larry Fitzgibbon. “But at this point in time, we haven’t seen a material net impact on our Content and Media business.”

Despite the apparent improvement, it may take some time for the algorithm tweak to have any significant effect as it has currently only been introduced across the U.S. market, which is probably why Demand Media is not yet feeling any pain.

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