Google vs. Content Farms
Well if you haven't heard about it by now, you don't read the news online at all. When even CNN and ABC are writing articles about it, you know Google's latest algorithm update has had a major impact.
But, just in case your home is under a nice shady rock, here's the gist: Google updated its algorithm on February 24th in an attempt to clean up their search results, removing the rankings of sites it considers "content farms" (though exactly what defines a "content farm", in true Google fashion, they've never explained).
This change affected roughly 12% of known search queries. That's pretty significant. Google has stated that "the outcome was widely positive", but has also admitted that there will inevitably be some collateral damage in a major update like this. Google has also stated that they are working to tweak and improve this change to restore lost rankings to some of the affected sites that aren't "content farms."
So the big question for all of us is: "What is a content farm, and how can I keep my site from looking like one?"
While that question can't be answered with authority (as I said, Google is pretty mum on the subject), I can tell you that what I personal do to rank sites has resulted in exactly ... ZERO lost rankings.
So instead of attempting to define a content farm, let me just outline my method for building and ranking sites in Google:
1. Unique content on the site.
Never, I repeat, never post an article on your web site and then post the same article to any other site (article directories, blog networks, whatever). Make sure the content on your site is unique.
I personally use my article spinner, The Best Spinner, to make sure that the articles I submit to other sites are unique. My definition of "unique" here is that the rewritten article passes a Copyscape check after the article posted to my primary site is already indexed in Google. That last bit is important: the article on your site has to be indexed in Google in order for Copyscape to pick it up when it checks for duplicates.
The reason you need the article on your site to be unique is that, if it isn't, the other copies of your article on other sites will be in direct competition with the original on your site. And since other sites (such as EzineArticles) have massive numbers of links to them, their articles generally get indexed more quickly than the article on your own site will. That means Google could end up seeing the copy as the original -- bad news for your rankings.
2. Put related quality content on the site.
This may seem like a no brainer, but I always put 10-15 pages of quality content that's related to the home page subject matter (though not on exactly the same topic).
That is, if the home page is focused on Bar-B-Que grills, the inner pages might be around BBQ utensils and BBQ recipes, etc.
Even if I'm not trying to get the inner pages ranked, I still post a variety of related content on the site. I want Google to run its latent semantic indexing algorithm on my site and see that it's content rich on my topic of choice. That is, I want Google to feel my site has "content authority."
3. Get links to all of the pages on the site.
I have a hunch that this is where the "content farm" gets identified by Google.
It's easy to get a bunch of links to one page, the home page, but it's equally important that you get links to all of the inner pages of your site as well. That's something I always do for my content sites.
Even if I'm only wanting to rank the home page, I still get links to the inner pages of the site. This gives the impression that the whole site has some "link authority", and not just the home page.
It's my personal guestimation that Google is also analyzing the linking patterns to determine what is and is not a "content farm", and not just the "quality" of the content itself. This theory holds up when you start analyzing the linking patterns of some of the sites which are generally felt to be content farms that did not get the axe in this latest update.
I'm not going to start a flame war in the comments by naming the content farms in this post, but if you're interested you can read this thread at WebmasterWorld.
In Summary
So how do you make sure your site doesn't get slammed by Google's new algorithm? My personal formula is simple: unique content on the site, high quality themed content on the site, and links to all the pages, not just the ones you want to rank.
That formula has served me well, and none of my sites were hit in Google's latest update.
Please post your thoughts and questions in a comment below.
Enjoy this article?
March 19th, 2011 - 00:52
It kind of defines why my site has had no significant google ranking. I’ll try the procedures mentioned above. Let’s see what happens.
Cheers !!
March 18th, 2011 - 15:15
my site dropped recently too. on some decent keywords, and your last point sounds pretty true to me. I have build many links for my site, but they all mostly point to domain not to any other pages.
March 18th, 2011 - 06:20
Hello, can you tell me how to get link to all the pages of the site?
March 16th, 2011 - 04:23
You should also make sure that the spins using TBS are above 70% in uniqueness. One should also be careful about the quality of the spins. Poorly spun articles will not get indexed as per experience.
March 16th, 2011 - 03:24
I’m with you on the links theory. It’s a pretty natural reaction by Google really. A lot of the “content farms” were ranking highly because of their domain authority.
Perhaps a good opportunity to write great content, get/build links, and rank higher easier than before? Who knows.
March 15th, 2011 - 10:51
it may be that Google has simply removed manually or shock to the Seo again, or take smaller pages
March 15th, 2011 - 01:41
For sure, you have to make Google happy. When I browse who is online on my site, i see google crawlers looking at my content. I do think unique content is good and will save you if google starts penalizing autoblogs.
March 14th, 2011 - 09:54
still anyone doesn’t know the google algorithm. but your tips sounds good, worth to try. Thanks
March 10th, 2011 - 17:36
While this content farm algorithm update is called farmer I’ve recenty heard people talking about another algorithm update called “big panda” that is supposedly aimed more at duplicate content. At the end of the day I have to feel like the folks over at google are probably implementing hundreds of algorithmic changes during any given update…but are these two updates actually different? or are they all just part of the same set rules? If they are different anyone care to explain the impact of each?
March 9th, 2011 - 15:03
I can’t say the advice in this article is not sound but Google really shouldn’t be able to dictate what you do with your content. If you want to post an article on your site and do it elsewhere, that should be no big deal. The issue is when this is exploited and posted to many different places. I don’t think posting to just one other place or a couple of others places should be that big of a deal.
March 9th, 2011 - 23:26
It would be nice to not have to worry about how Google views our content. But, at least right now, if you’re looking for search traffic, you have to make Google happy.
March 8th, 2011 - 07:11
I think Matt Cutts is paritcularly interested in your products. The scraping articles really makes him alert. So pay attention to him. Maybe several months later Matt release his anti-TheBestSpinner or 1waylink stuff on his own name. Maybe just a Chrome Plugin. Haha!
March 8th, 2011 - 14:31
I don’t have any article scraping products. My tools help people do research and rewrite it to be unique. It’s that exact attitude, the “Google knows all” that prevents people from taking action, which results in their failure to ever succeed.
March 7th, 2011 - 07:40
Jonathan, thanks for the comprehensive tiered approach on how to engage TBS for solving the various ranking issues that many are currently facing since the algorithm change, excellent.
TBS smart solution!
Give it a try, you’ll be glad you did!
March 7th, 2011 - 07:13
My site is not affected by the update of google this time. Because i am a user of “the best spinner”. It really great help to me .
March 7th, 2011 - 03:30
Thanks for the article.
I’ve jumped on this late after ignoring the latest slap. When I heard that someone’s Ezine article account had been suspended… I figured I best take it a bit more seriously!
I had been posting the same content on my blog to article directories… but best be safe so for the future I’ll be following your advice.
Thanks for the interesting article!
March 6th, 2011 - 12:50
Boiled that down to 3 simple points, I like that. The other thing I’m trying to do is make each posting a bit longer and more developed. Hopefully each page adds a little more value that way, rather than just posting little blurbs that barely touch on a subject.
March 6th, 2011 - 04:13
Me too, I’d like to know if your 3-way link site was affected by this new google dance. I’m a noob when it comes to article spinners. What I use instead is a article reviser. Anyway, Jonathan your blog posts are always interesting and helpful.
March 6th, 2011 - 14:33
As I stated in reply to an earlier comment, I’ve seen absolutely no effect on my 3WayLinks or 1WayLinks sites.
March 5th, 2011 - 18:12
>>So how do you make sure your site doesn’t get slammed by Google’s new algorithm?<<
HINT: writing just another content farm article is the wrong appropriate. When you're the 1861st article about the same thing… that isn't all that original.
March 5th, 2011 - 10:34
Unique content still main “item” in google algorithm. But i think links from authorized websites are strong factor in SEO.
March 4th, 2011 - 19:41
Interesting post Jonathon I am wondering how this would affect a new site like mine. Still not up to speed on how accurately check rank but will keep all this in mind. Thanks for the education Russ
March 4th, 2011 - 19:39
I’m glad big G is cleaning up…unfortunately ehow.com did’nt escape…they increased in rankings…something wrong with that picture.
Everything will shake out in the next couple of months. It’s best to throw a few good links at our own articles on our sites.
EZA deserved what they got. I’m sorry for the ‘good’ authors…but them’s the breaks. Time to get creative once again.
March 4th, 2011 - 19:36
Thanks;
The latest Google update didn’t affect me at all. But I did notice one my blog got more Google hits. I guess that’s a good thing.
March 4th, 2011 - 13:27
I notice on another site this morning that there are reports of Squidoo and Hubpages seriously losing traffic since the algorithm change. Has any one else noticed this? I have not but I’m interested in what others ahve experienced.
A.
March 4th, 2011 - 12:19
It’s great to see that originality and authenticity is being rewarded Jonathan (or at least not being at a disadvantage) with the new Google algorithm. Now just to sort out those blast Twitter and Facebook robots. Where’s Will Smith when you need him?
March 4th, 2011 - 10:50
Sorry, but I don’t really get the concept of content farms. How can you tell if a site is a content farm? I know Demand Media provides content farms, but does the tag ‘content farm’ apply to Mashable?
How can Google see if the content is good enough? Like for instance, if you are Indonesian (no offence) and you write an article, but with easy words, is that regarded as bad content?
Thanks in advance
March 4th, 2011 - 10:07
Thanks again for the great products Jon. I have enjoyed reading this informative post and all of the responses.
March 4th, 2011 - 01:53
Some suggest that it’s better to link to inner pages for which there are a number of sub-pages which all link back to that one. For example, if you can imagine your homepages as a “Tier 1″ page, then your “category” type pages would be “Tier 2″ and your pages within each category would be “Tier 3″.
The “Tier 2″ category pages are like chapter headings in a book and since internal links from sub-pages (Tier 3) come back to them, the idea is that they carry greater “link-juice” and therfore, authority on your site.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
March 4th, 2011 - 10:15
According to the SEOmoz study on the farmer algorithm it didn’t have as much to do with duplicate or similar content issues as it had to do with the article site’s format. I think this explains why sites like EzineArticles got slammed, but sites like Wikihow and eHow actually improved in the rankings.
Their advice:
Don’t use article sites with many intrusive block ads (Ezine?).
Don’t use article sites with “ugly” web 1.0 design (Ezine again?)
Don’t use sites that attract “thin” contributions (Ezine, Hubpages, Buzzle).
*Do* use sites that allow “rich content” (think pictures, video, readability options). Sites with less usable/readable/easily consumable content (i.e. AllBusines, FindArticles) got slammed.
March 4th, 2011 - 00:42
I am getting tired of Giggle yanking our chain and saying jump every time they want some attention. Personally I don’t use Google for searches anymore they are way too outdated with junk in their searches. More people are using Twitter, Facebook as a search engine. The more Google manipulates search, the further from the truth they get and it is going to hurt them in the long run. That is why they are busy diversifying and getting into the phone business. They really are getting old and tired. When I search for something I don’t want a wikipedia, an about, an ehow and a corporate site on the first page. It’s all junk. I have to now search to page 3 or 4 and its getting to be a bore to use Google at all. Wise Up Google, your losing Friends.
March 3rd, 2011 - 21:40
Thanks for the actionable advice.
March 3rd, 2011 - 21:40
As long as “Content Farm ” is not defined well ,we can all do is assumptions. And anyways this clearly proves how risky this business is.
Google is slowly creeping into everyones life like anything.
March 3rd, 2011 - 21:29
Thanks for letting us know about the latest Google Algo update on 24th Feb. I was really unaware of this update.
March 3rd, 2011 - 21:18
Thanks for the tips on “content farm” topic and what to avoid. I think I will depend on my creative writing skills a whole lot more and keep learning more about how to integrate my keywords for each article I write.
All the best!
marsha
March 3rd, 2011 - 20:58
Great post Jon,
how soon, if somebody starts with 3waylinks,
he/she would be able to see any results
ranking, earning, linking..
Do you have any recent results from any of your clients or yours?
Thank you
March 3rd, 2011 - 20:22
I am a proud user of your the best spinner and instant article wizard
March 3rd, 2011 - 19:00
Jonathan, thank you so much for explaining about content farm, I am a newbie in the world of internet marketing business and have a hard time understanding how Google works and the news about Google algorithm. I never use any article spinner, but I will have a look at The Best Spinner.
March 3rd, 2011 - 18:55
This algorithm change by google has really shaken the internet world. Every webmaster is talking about it but google being google, they did not divulge the slightest clue as to what they really mean. Not surprising. Concerning spinning. What exactly is the % uniqueness? This too has generated controversies. Some say 30% minimum while some say more.
March 3rd, 2011 - 22:00
It’s not so much the percentage, but whether or not the article passes Copyscape. The reason this is important is explained in this The Best Spinner video:
http://thebestspinner.com/help/auto-select-frequency/
March 3rd, 2011 - 17:40
Ditto Ditto…
I have found that of 5 of my sites I checked 2 remained the same and 3 went up…
Mind you, among other things I to use your Best Spinner and now the revamped Instant Article Wizard to create and ‘Uninqify’ (I know it’s not a real word but I like it…) all my content.
And thanks for the reminder to ‘spread the link love’…
Keep up the great work Jonathan…
Steve
March 3rd, 2011 - 16:30
Well said Jonathan. The blatant copycat grab and cheap rubbish content rush for internet dollars needs to be dampened.
Come to think of it, it’s time I started linking to some internal pages on my sites. Thanks for the reminder.
March 3rd, 2011 - 15:15
Hi, thank you for taking the time to share what you’re finding that’s working. It’s much appreciated.
March 3rd, 2011 - 15:02
Hi Jonathan,
When ever the Google wind is blowing I find your posts as a solid rock of information.
Some of my sites went up.
But one new site (begun at 2011) was blown away from the search engine… From 80-90 daily Google visits.. to 0 !
All the content on site is unique (except product features and product tech info), for marketing I posted the same 15 articles to many article directories with links to inner pages. The articles where 50% rewrite 50% unique (not spun). I think Google indexed those before it indexed my site and maybe thought my site was the ‘copy’.. and pulled it out of the search results..
Thanks again for just being there with the calm advice.
March 3rd, 2011 - 14:30
Great advice about posting unique content on our site first then submit content to an article directory after spinning it. I was doing it backwards!
March 3rd, 2011 - 14:14
I’ve noticed a significant increase in my rankings in the past week or so. I saw the same for Hulu. A lot of the scamming video sites dropped off which is great for genuine VOD sites like mine.
Thanks for your post and the useful info. We have natural links coming in to all of our pages and therefore can confirm that what you said is totally true and correct.
March 3rd, 2011 - 13:37
Hi Jonathan:
Yes, I had already read about this new change on Google’s alghorithm but I can say your post is much more enlightening than others do. Will have to convert, if needed, the content of our websites following your recommendations. I already submitted your post to Twitter and Facebook.
March 3rd, 2011 - 13:31
I agree with you most definitely.
Great content, related content, spread backlinks… As long as you give Google what they are looking for, there’s no reason for them to reduce your rankings.
March 3rd, 2011 - 13:29
I don’t think it’s possible to get anything like an even distribution of links for the different pages on your site. Web content follows power law dynamics not just across websites but across articles within a single website. A handful of your pages are going to account for the vast majority of links and traffic; it’s just unavoidable at any scale but especially at a large scale.
March 3rd, 2011 - 13:07
I’ve got a small catalog site so I’m wondering what’s the best link strategy
to inner-site linking so that I will get the very best advantage with big g and the other engines…
March 3rd, 2011 - 12:43
Here is the content I have a question about:
“My definition of “unique” here is that the rewritten article passes a Copyscape check after the article posted to my primary site is already indexed in Google. That last bit is important: the article on your site has to be indexed in Google in order for Copyscape to pick it up when it checks for duplicates.
Currently I am running my article through copyscape before I publish it with you or on ezinearticles. Is that not the way I’m supposed to be doing it? I guess I don’t understan what you mean by checking it after it’s indexed. I can tell on your site when it’s indexed, but I’m not sure about Ezinearticles
March 3rd, 2011 - 12:40
I have to echo Jayson above about the syndicated content approach. I wait until my articles are indexed in my site and then publish them often as-is in EZA and ArticleBase. Yes, those articles may rank higher in the article directories for a while, but in time the articles in my sites climb higher.
This approach saves me a great deal of time and I like my articles as-is because I spend time crafting them. I’ve purchased the Best Spinner and use it for other purposes (it is excellent), but not for altering my articles for syndication.
The reason I love publishing my articles on article directories (after indexed in my site), is other webmasters publish my articles. I strive to write 500 to 1,300 word quality articles and every day more webmasters publish my articles which exponentially increases my backlinks and readership.
I’m not saying spun articles won’t get syndicated by other webmasters, but given I spend time writing my articles to get them to read just right, I’m not keen about changing it.
Besides, logic dictates that if a copied article would harm the originally indexed site, then competitors could simply copy articles and publish them all over the Web.
Yes, this could divulge into a long debate. We all have our systems. If what we do works, then so be it. I don’t begrudge other methods by any stretch. I just thought I’d throw some support behind the syndication of articles “as-is” perspective.
One adverse consequence with syndicating my work is I constantly find webmasters removing my resource box and links. This is annoying, but I do pursue them when I have a few spare moments.
Thanks a lot for your great posts Jonathan. I read your blog with keen interest.
March 3rd, 2011 - 12:16
Very interesting post. I have come through this more or less in tact, with only a slight drop in the rankings. Thanks for the tip on linking all the pages, something I’ve not been doing. I do write for Ezine articles but I don’t use the same content on my website, although I know others who do and I’ve passed along the information.
Good job Jonathan.
March 3rd, 2011 - 12:15
Thanks for the tips, Jonathan. I’m using several of your products and have always spun all the articles with The Best Spinner because… well, it’s the best!
March 3rd, 2011 - 12:03
Hi John, I’ve always been an advocate for original content and articles.. but going against the grain.. I screwed around with an auto blogging system for days, when I could of produced a hundred articles…
Two of my sites that are clearly, xfactor adsense sites that I have done nothing with for 2 years remain at number 1 or 3 respectively and on one of them, I get knocked off the 1 spot by my ezine article..
We can all get caught up with googlisms [google-iz-ums] Did I just make that up?
Just remember the job at hand and realize there is life beyond google…
March 3rd, 2011 - 11:47
What are your thoughts on people using your RSS feeds? I have several that use the feed from my site to post articles. I do use wordpress and they articles get indexed very fast but I was curious what your thoughts were on this.
March 3rd, 2011 - 11:35
I’m happy to report my site hasn’t been affected by Google’s latest attempt to control the Universe. The way I see it, if they ever do mess with my site then they will have messed with something that actually provides a service. I think that’s the key.. provide something that’s actually useful.
March 3rd, 2011 - 11:30
Good advice Jonathan thanks
March 3rd, 2011 - 11:24
Hello Jonathan
Since were discussing content farms. How much money do you think these websites are making off each article submitted?
I’ve heard sites like ezines make millions of dollars from advertising
March 3rd, 2011 - 11:14
Thanks for the post! I had not paid attention to this latest Google issue.
March 3rd, 2011 - 10:49
Hi Jonathan,
Yes this worked for my site too. For a search “How to draw a Coconut Tree”, today my site is listing on top 5 and on images it is No.1.
I had a terrible time, when two to three sites stole my content along with images and my site never use to get listed, but images use to get listed with their url getting linked. Today i am very satisfied looking at this. Cool.
Thanks to Google.
Regards
Madhan.
March 3rd, 2011 - 10:47
The term “content farm” comes from journalists. They like to give things a short, catchy name – they think it’s a cool way to get attention. Ever notice? Here’s an example: Lucas Oil bought the rights to name the new stadium built for the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis. No sooner than the name was on the marquee, journalists started writing and broadcasting it as “The Luke.” Lucas Oil protested this way of using their name after paying millions to give prominence to name Lucas Oil. It’s not referred to as the The Luke anymore, thankfully. Just don’t forget to be aware of how journalists “set the agenda.” They are.
I’m new to internet marketing and my blog shows it, but I’m not new to journalism.
March 3rd, 2011 - 10:35
A nice article…and yeah, it’s all falling in place now! Good for the authentic people out there.
March 3rd, 2011 - 10:24
YEA….finally and end to the ‘make millions from autoblogging’ crap. I am sure that with the hundreds of thousands of autoblogs hitting the web over the last year or so that this is the reason for the change at Google. I saw that one right off. You can only ‘trick’ the big 3 for just so long before they make a change.
12% basically includes the ‘auto post’ article directories(done with software) and the latest autobloging craze.
Unfortunately, I feel the auto-posted content to blogs similar to 1waylinks(there are MANY and not as well designed as 1waylinks) that auto-post WITHOUT TAGS and leave a footprint, are contributing to the change. After all, the top 20 or so auto-post to blog companies out there have created millions of pages of crap content and Google needed to make a change. I was using another auto-post place to get some random content from and I received an article that was pure jibberish, absolutely unreadable. I put in a support ticket about it and they replied ” we have no control over the content, if you don’t like it just delete the articles”. If my blog had been set on auto-approve the crap article would have been posted. As with any ‘system’ you will have the idiots that ruin it for everyone.
One can only circumvent the proper methods just so long. Quality content, properly structured site, quality backlinks and NOT participating with the auto-anything will guarantee you some love from the S.E.’s for the long term.
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:53
Thanks for sharing. I was waiting for your post for last few days in effect.
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:24
Currently my sites are safe…hope its not affected in future…
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:20
Great post Jonathan and it should be easier for good sites with fresh content to move up in ranking, since the bogus sites should disappear from the google front page.
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:10
Good advice Jonathan, Funny how it always seems to come back to original, quality content & backlinks.
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:23
Yeah. I sometimes get bored writing these kinds of posts because I say the same thing I’ve said for years, no matter what Google’s done to their algo.
March 3rd, 2011 - 08:51
At least for me, not only is unique quality content important, but using LSI keywords seems to really help boost my ratings. Like you, I have not seen any of my sites fall in ranking.
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:11
But Google says it doesn’t use LSI technology yet… right?? Sure Google, sure.
March 3rd, 2011 - 08:45
Great post, after reading it, I fear that I may have been making a mistake or two while posting articles to other sites. Thanks for the correction.
March 3rd, 2011 - 08:32
Jon, is “unique content” truly the secret sauce?? What about the sites doing massively well that are merely aggregating existing topical content from all over the web…then curating it with a bit of spin, opinion or controversy? Drudge for example…
It seems those sites get Google love based on their exceptional traffic flow. It suggests that the Google algorithm ascribes “trust” to those sites, based on this demonstrated (or implied) “authority”….not unique content, per se.
March 3rd, 2011 - 08:37
Unique content is only one part of the algorithm. The reason you want unique content on your site is not that it’s impossible to rank duplicate content — it’s not. It’s just A LOT harder. So if you’re huge site with millions of backlinks, sure, you can rank duplicate content ’til the cows come home. But for the typical webmaster you’re setting yourself up in competition with sites who can easily outrank you.
March 3rd, 2011 - 12:46
I noticed that low level unique content doesn’t perform significantly better than aggregated content.
To have a difference, you need great quality content, that is expensive.
March 3rd, 2011 - 08:06
I have seen no effect on my rankings for 3 of my sites but I am planning to follow your tips while building my newest site. I will also keep an eye on my older site rankings as I go back and do some touch ups.
I am very curious about your 3waylinks system and how it could help a site that is not a WordPress site.
March 3rd, 2011 - 08:05
Change and change again, Google still confused and give headache. thanks John for the info.
March 3rd, 2011 - 07:59
Right on target. I use “The Best Spinner” so much I am afraid I will wear it out. With over 50 sites, I think I hear it groan from the load from time to time.
March 3rd, 2011 - 07:46
Thanks so much for explaining this whole confusing process to a newbie! Most of the terms I am a little confused on so I am just trying to do the best that I can? With your article trying to break it down into digestable bits I don’t feel so intimidated.
March 3rd, 2011 - 07:39
CNN is not writing about it JL, they are actually just copying and pasting from Mashable. So is USA Today and yahooo. But they don’t get whacked for being content farms. Imagine that.
I wrote about it, but alas, no response from Matt Cutts.
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:24
That’s (IMO) because of the link structure of their site. It’s not just About unique content.
March 3rd, 2011 - 07:37
Nice post Jon its really helpful for me. I am completely agree with your post. Thanks mate………
March 3rd, 2011 - 07:16
Good points, Jon. It is all about the old mantra of adding value and good content. Just keep doing that and we should be okay.
March 3rd, 2011 - 06:29
Thanks. Linking into not just the homepage but internal pagees is something that i have not done enough i think. I will make sure to implement that into my link building plans.
March 3rd, 2011 - 06:11
I am actually a couple articles in on trying to get my platinum status on ezinearticles and happened to start reading the changes to Ezinearticles due to this recent slap.
I’ll tell ya… this has caused some quakes and even the big guys seem to be shaking in their pants.
However, you’re right Jonathan… Quality unique content will always rise to the top like creame in a barral. Thanks for this post… Some great info!
March 3rd, 2011 - 05:54
i don’t think the page rank is that important. i have new pages with less back-links then my competitors (which are probably scratching their heads ) in the first pages. I think that quality and diversity is the key.
March 3rd, 2011 - 05:46
Hey Jon,
Thanks for your insight! I wanted to ask though, what do you feel about squidoo lensese, hubpages…etc? Cause mine got hit badly though I’ve written their content myself. I occassionally write product reviews on them and promote them. What’s your take on this? Are they dead? What do you think would help regain their rankings?
Thanks!
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:29
Think about the link structure of those sites. Most of the inner pages have no links to them. People start the lens, for instance, get no traffic because they don’t promote it at all, then give up and walk away.
March 3rd, 2011 - 05:43
Jonathan, Thanks for the post. You’re one of the few IM who actually provides meat on the bones instead of endless screenshots of click accounts with $millions and $millions…
I’ve been searching around and cannot find an answer to this question:
If your website has inbound links from content farms (EZA? Squidoo? Hubpages? etc.) will the value of those inbound links decrease following this google update?
Perhaps nobody knows the long term implications yet, but it would be nice to try and prempt any changes coming on down the line.
Cheers.
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:30
I haven’t seen that happen no.
March 3rd, 2011 - 05:42
Hi, thanks for the tips, I didn’t realize that I would be competing against my own articles, it looks like I have some work ahead of my to change the content on my own website.
March 3rd, 2011 - 05:39
Scary post actually but i have to ask if Google will ever figure out the dublicate content when using the WP Unique plugin?
March 3rd, 2011 - 07:30
Very good question. I use both. After I pull a spin out of TBS. I then use WP Unique on the post.
March 3rd, 2011 - 05:38
Your article is right on Jonathan, content needs to be unique and for that reason I also use The Best Spinner to produce multiple unique copies of the articles I have created for my blog.
I’ve mentioned before that content, not to long ago, was able to be about 30% unique and work but then it seemed that they needed to be 50, then 60 and now I am not happy unless I create them more than 90% unique.
I do have to work harder or smarter I guess and get more backlinks to my inner pages.
March 3rd, 2011 - 05:11
thanks John.
Information is vital as we were making copy some of our content into blogs. we will stop…
thanks once more
regards
March 3rd, 2011 - 04:58
Very insightful post Jonathan, one of my sites is affected by this and I am happy to get some good advise on the subject. Can you tell me how to proceed with micro blogs? I have three of these and they have just 3 -4 articles each. Shall I post more (I use TBS) articles to get ranked again?
Thanks
March 3rd, 2011 - 04:42
Hi Jon, thanks for a great post – again..
One question, what’s the best way to get backlinks to the inner pages of our sites. I’m still not clear how to do this??
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:31
The same way you get them to the home page. Articles, link networks, guest posts on blogs, link bait write-ups etc.
March 3rd, 2011 - 04:37
A few days ago, Google slapped autoblogs which only copied content to the website, but it seems now it goes back to the old algorithm?
I am now paying attention with an autoblog which was disappeared in the #1 of Google, but now it is back at #2 of Google first page, above my blog post which is on the #5 place.
So I am not sure about Google war against Autoblog, since I myself noticing autoblog rank higher than my original content in the same keyword
March 3rd, 2011 - 04:28
Just be original and don’t copy paste content to your blog will maintain your SEO and Page Rank.
March 3rd, 2011 - 03:43
Jonathan, I totally agree and I liked your clear summary at the end. Quick question, when you post articles to the article directories do you think it’s okay to post the same article to multiple directories as long as it’s not on your web site?
Thanks,
Will.
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:32
I’ve had success doing that yeah. Though it seems to be easier to get Google to index unique content than syndicated content.
March 3rd, 2011 - 03:30
Actually we did not know about the Google algorithm change until we were notified by your blog post.
Anyway, thank you for sharing how you made your sites to the top rankings, we believe if we duplicating what you did, our site should be up on the top page soon.
Cheers!
March 3rd, 2011 - 03:27
Thanks for that information Jon. I haven’t noticed much change to my rankings since the 24th but usually follow the path you suggested.
Seems to be a constant battle but if you’re ethical we’ll win.
March 3rd, 2011 - 03:20
Thanks Jonathan,
here’s an example:
One of my sites has original, lsi rich content, image optimised, linking to outside sources (bbc news, wikipedia etc). good seo optimised theme, basic/essential plugins, kw in domain-description-title. 4 posts (400-500 words) alltogether published within 2-5 days gap. Moderate link building (ezine, soc bookmarks, rss….).
You can say that this is the descent recipe for “minisite” with excellent rich content. However, I’m on the pos 9 with “ugly junk” above me and just not moving at all.
Your point on original content is notable, however, it’s nothing new. In a nutshell, trying to figure Google out is a “road to nowhere”.
Do we sit still and wait for Google to recognize true quality or go and fight with other measures to reach no1?
Cheers
Alex
p.s. Off the wall, how Keyword Snatcher operates today?
March 3rd, 2011 - 03:08
Jonathan
You are correct of course however one point that everyone seems to be missing is that although our individual sites may not be affected directly i can assure you that many of them will be in time.
If you use content farms to link to your site, by content farm i mean, hubpages,squidoo and yes, 1WayLinks and the like as well. (Google rarely uses those links from link networks although they still appear in site explorer -Yahoo).
If you post spun crap on those sites including blog networks it will be ignored. It is unlikely that all the content on a content farm will be affected, just the low quality stuff. Ehow.com is a perfect case example, a lot of the crap on there is written by folks like us, marketers just for the link, same applies to the others mentioned. Crap content will have no value and over time your backlink count and therefore your rankings will be affected if you use crappy content on farms for linking.
Not suggesting anyone does but making the point that it is not really your individual sites that will be affected directly – they will be affected through your link profile, perhaps time to think about your linking strategies and makes actuallyrank.com all the more pertinent.
Iain
March 3rd, 2011 - 09:56
Google does not know what is good quality content and what is not. Similarly it cannot distinguish between quality of unique content and spun content.
March 3rd, 2011 - 02:53
Jonathon
Thank you for some ‘great reads’ and lovely logic
Respect!
March 3rd, 2011 - 02:28
This nearly gave me a heart attack, because our web site is content rich and link-poor, but I’ve looked on google and our rankings are unchanged. We’d like to come top instead of 11th, 12th etc. but I don’t think we can ever succeed, short of a domain name change (fraught with difficulty). Anyway most of the sites ranked ahead of us are holiday directories – don’t see a realistic prospect of coming ahead of them – and people tend to skip past them anyway to see real meat ! But this ranking thing is a reminder that nothing ever stays still – unlike our website which hasn’t been touched for ages. Thanks.
March 3rd, 2011 - 02:22
I’d like to take on Point no.3. the internal linking affects 2 issues on Google algorithm. No.1 “User activity” – this means a user spends more time on your site and it reduces the bouncerate. No.2 means that you have suffient content for that keyword or keyphrase (mostly if you use wordpress, tagging is key for your content) infact some tag pages rank higher on search results than individual pages.
Most people dwell on (onpage optmization and backlinks) and forget the 3rd factor which is user activity (comments on post, sharing of links on social media, bookamarking, content availability on mobile phone e.t.c
Think user first – then later consider monetisation and SEO and you can never go wrong
To higher rankings,
Mike Ndegwa
March 3rd, 2011 - 02:14
From your experience, how much should you spin an article in order to pass copyscape check? Is 50% enough? I’m asking this because I’ve used TBS but I never checked the results with copyscape. I usually spin around 60%.
March 3rd, 2011 - 02:05
Hi Jon, Me too im a bit worried about the new google algo change,
do you think that The Best Spinner can Help?
let me tell you something yesterday i saw your landing page for Instant Article Wizard 3, man it’s a Beast , Well done.
March 3rd, 2011 - 02:04
Just wondering if your familiar with the way Google sniper sets up… if not that is ok. If you do what do you think of the way snipers set up, let me know. Thanks again..
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:54
This article is good but only refers to blogs or text rich content sites.
What about image galleries or sites with low text content such as games website ?
I got hammered by G and really don’t understand why…Also getting link to inner pages is quite difficult (without having to go into black hat seo).
From my experience only a small % of people actually share the content of the page they are on.
Thanks.
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:53
Good post.
I was just writing my own blog post about this as well.
In a nutshell, this is what I said:
“I have a lot of sites, and none of my niche sites were affected by the change. On the contrary, many of my sites’ ranking actually improved”.
And, for what it’s worth, I use 3 Way Links on a lot of my sites… these were not affected at all.
All the best,
Steven
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:51
Using Only Wire to submit to social sites, do you think this is also a bad thing according to your comment “Never, I repeat, never post an article on your web site and then post the same article to any other site (article directories, blog networks, whatever)”.
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:47
Does anyone have any thoughts about using an article spinner to create many web pages, in order to make a web site content-rich, and thus more attractive to search engines? In my experience, many of those pages then get indexed.
March 3rd, 2011 - 19:03
Hi Jonathan,
To me spun content is not unique content unless it provides additional information to the original content. If I have 5 articles that I just rewrite over from scratch but they all say the same thing then to me that is not what I call unique content. I’m not saying that spun content does not work. Just wondering what your opinion was on that.
A book for example has a progression of ideas, concepts, methods beginning with the first chapter. Not the same idea rewritten in each chapter. At least most books are that way.
I see a lot of people calling “spun content” unique rich content. I would have to say I don’t call that original content but a method to try and trick a search system. It is what it is. Personally I think that is what Google does not want.
Thanks
Ernie
March 3rd, 2011 - 22:02
You’re right. Spun content is probably not what the Google engineers want or would define as “unique” — but Google isn’t the only one in this game to make a living, so us webmasters have to do what works. And spun content works. It’s also virtually impossible to algorithmically detect as long as your spun content passes Copyscape because Copyscape uses 4-word segments to check your content. And any algorithm that uses a segment size less than 4 words would find duplicates EVERYWHERE where there are none.
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:44
If my blog post is indexed by Google already, it that ok to submit to other article directories site like ezine? Since Google will treat mine as original.
Cheers,
Ming Jong
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:41
Hi Jon,
Is autoblog considered as content farm for Google?
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:38
Fortunately none of my sites affected too.
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:26
Using both your spinner and article writer – my next question – based on this post – what WP plug in do you recommend / you using to check for INTERNAL links – i.e. to check for broken links etc?
March 3rd, 2011 - 02:40
With the latest version of WordPress, you can build links to your content easily with a quick search and click – all within the link editor box.
I use AskApache Google 404 (http://bit.ly/S1NPg) and Permalink Finder (http://www.blogseye.com/) to help eliminate the 404 page. Both plugins will search my site for relevant content based on the link coming in. I know it’s not exactly what you’re asking for, but they help. I believe the Google Webmaster tools help sort out broken links, too, if I recall.
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:21
Do you think that affected sites with this update also lost their link strength or link juice that they give to sites that they link to? If not, even if an autoblog is effected with this update does not bother me cause I build it for my link building infrastructure.
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:12
Hey Jon,
Great post. I’m wondering to what answer you will give Jayson regarding Syndicating your content to other places. I was planning to do a press release but after reading his comment, I’m not so sure now. Can you give a comment on this?
Thanks,
Mike
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:10
Thanks for the information John.
I always learn a great deal from you.
March 3rd, 2011 - 01:05
Hi Jon, I am glad I am a subscriber of your TBS and IAW!
The only real problem I have is that one of my money site is a “replicated site” because it is company approved and that is where the company shopping cart is.
Any ideas on replicated website content? I just am doing aggressive back linking on this site.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:59
I love The Best Spinner. It is great.
I am also using SERPAssist to get the spun articles out and linking back to posts that have the original post.
What other methods are you using to get the spun articles out?
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:58
Thanks for this information Jonathan.
I know we can always rely on you for quality information. I agree with your tactics, although I have had some good experiences with using the same content as on my site being distributed to hundreds of article directories, but that was before The Best Spinner and other spinners came into being.
Cheers,
Barry
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:51
Interesting post, Jon! Unique content is the key, right? Thanks.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:40
I too have just joined the IM world, and I’m currently processing all the learning material I can. Then, Wham! I will definately follow you from hear on out and start implementing your suggestions. Thanks a bunch!
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:38
Thanks for your post Jon, I always do exactly the same as you do..
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:35
Hi Jon,
Thanks for the post. Really, I think it comes down to quality content, for the most part, and how the website is built – the inter-linking of its web pages, etc. Do both of those things with quality in mind, and you should be okay.
All the best,
Laurie
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:33
I have some confusion regarding this update. If I am promoting a product in my site, would it be worthless if Amazon.com and walmart.com has already occupied the top slots of google. Actually, they are just product pages, right? But my page has product listings as well as descriptions in detail.
I wanna know how google’s new update treats this..
Pls reply…
And thanks for the post….
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:31
Great point about getting links to the inner pages as well. This is very overlooked by most internet marketers and I presume because it is so time consuming, but it helps keep things looking natural. Glad to know your sites were not affected by this algo change. All of the content on my sites is original and high quality as well. It pays to do things the right way.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:27
Hey Jon, great info thanks! Haven’t seen any affect on my site yet. How do you think this affects article marketing in general?
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:21
I just started this web blogging stuff and one of my first purchases was “The Best Spinner”. I just managed to get my first sight up to the first page of Google when i read about the algorithm change and I thought I was a goner.
Fortunately – and I will give credit to “The Best Spinner” – my newbie sight also escaped harm and is managing to continue its climb a little at a time.
Thanks for the advice on your blog keep up the good work!
Rick
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:21
Great Post. Good to be aware of. My question is this:
I’m currently a user of 1waylinks – great product by the way- but my concern is that since the blogs in the network are all made up of random content on them (content does not relate on other pages), will they be considered link farms? And if so, will the links from those sites pointing to my sites be considered worthless?
Looking forward to your answer Jon. Really appreciate your expertise.
Thanks
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:19
Kelvin:
3waylinks simulates “natural” linking since it comes from a wide variety of geolocations and the links grow slowly over time. Google loves it.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:18
Supi:
I’ve seen no impact on my sites ranked using 1waylinks at all.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:17
Jonathan will your 3-way-linking software do this
type of linking strategy.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:16
Thanks. Really useful post and fits in well with one of the items that was being discussed on your forums. I have found problems with copied items in the past. Someone posted text copied directly from one of my sites to Wikipedia, one time and they ended up coming higher in Google searches than me, for MY text!
That has clarified a point for me. UCA – Unique Content Always!
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:16
content farm look like autoblog?
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:15
Hey Jonathan – Im a member of your onewaylinks network. But after this Google update im now in two minds, wondering whether to continue my membership or not. What can you really say about the impact of this update on the blogs in this onewaylinks network?
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:13
Jayson:
We will just have to agree to disagree on that point. Especially with new sites, posting the exact articles on your site and everyone elses puts them in direct competition with you for ranking the page. That’s been my experience.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:26
Yeah, I agree that it puts you in direct competition to rank for that keyword as every site to which you syndicate to. But If you take an article and simply rewrite it in different words and then syndicate that one, that still doesn’t solve the problem. You’re still giving topically-oriented content to other Websites.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:11
I do my site articles and link building the same way. That’s no surprise really as I use the same software as you funnily enough. lol.
I love The Best Spinner article database as many an Internet Marketer has stated that you have to make your links appear random. Well, with The Best Spinner your links are random as you never know when someone is going to use your articles. Not to mention that it also automagically makes them unique. Even more so if you allow editing.
My sites have largely remained unaffected as well. Unfortunately that also means I am still making a meager amount but it is still early days yet in my IM career.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:09
Great Post Jonathan! I learned a lot
from this post as I am still getting my
feet wet with SEO.
Atleast I know now what to do from
the start to not be affected by any future
change.
Thanks man!
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:09
Great work, Jonathan! I ranted about the Google algorithm change on my site. You may get a kick out of it.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:09
Kathy:
None of my 3waylinks or 1waylinks sites were affected, no.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:08
Excellent post. Thank you for letting us more of the details of all of the changes going on!
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:07
Good points here Jonathan. I also didn’t have any problems with my sites. Some even gain some positions. The uniqueness of content of the site is extremely important in order to get indexed.
I usually post completely original content on my websites and then I use The Best Spinner to create at least 60-70 percent of uniqueness, including paragraph formatting and additional text for word count variation. This is important in order to get quality backlinks.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:07
John, I always appreciate your posts but I have to disagree with you that Syndicating your content to other places (EZA, blog networks, etc.) has any negative impact. I have about 40 Websites with which I have been doing this as a primary marketing method and none–I repeat, NONE–of them were affected. The Web is full of syndicated content, such as press releases, news articles (think Associated Press), etc. Do you think Google would want to penalize a piece of content for being syndicated so much? That seems counter-intuitive to me. That should tell Google that that particular piece of content must be highly popular if it’s getting syndicated so much.
Furthermore, if it were possible to harm a Website’s rankings by stealing their content and syndicating it all over the Web, you’d have companies sprouting up like mercenaries promising to torpedo your competitors.
That’s just not how it works. It’s simply not possible to negatively affect a Website’s rankings with offsite SEO methods. If anything, syndicating your content across the Web should only produce good results.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:35
Jason,
I’m glad you brought up the subject of syndication. The idea of being able to harm another sites ranking by syndicating their content really doesn’t make sense.
But then, on the other hand. I have definitely experienced what unique content have done for ranking our clients
Thank you both for your posts. Much appreciated
/Mats
March 3rd, 2011 - 02:39
Hi Jayson,
It isn’t that Google will penalize your site for syndicating your content. It’s that it will reward other sites for the content as well, and if the other site is better optimized and has more authority it can outrank you with it’s syndicated copy of your content.
To my mind, this doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. I’ve had newer sites that got more traffic by getting out ranks by a strong site with syndicated content than they did with their own rankings. You just have to understand the trade offs and make decisions based on them.
Some content might be worth sacrificing ranking on to gain something else, while other, stronger content, you might want to consider protecting.
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:07
Thanks john , for the details here, fortunately all of my sites passed and are not affected also , as i do 90% of part as stated by u above. 10% i missed –that i a took note of and will implement them also. cheers
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:07
Jonathan,
What about your sites that have your 3-way links or 1 way links? Were they affected?
Thanks,
Kathy
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:12
Yeah i am interested to know the 3waylink site got affected or not.
March 3rd, 2011 - 16:19
I agree – I want to know the same thing….
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:04
Thanks for explaining your methods!
I’m just using your spinner for my first niche site – it’s amazing so far. Need to explore more, never even knew what Copyscape did! =)
March 3rd, 2011 - 00:03
Great post Jon! And let`s keep our “battle game”… LOL..
Cheers dude!
March 3rd, 2011 - 05:37
I was one of the users of The Best Spinner, thank you because you have created the tool. I am still learning to be a player in the world of internet marketing. Thanks for the information you submit about: Google vs. Content Farms – I’ll try it.