Webmasters have been waiting for February 24th with bated breath because this is when Google’s Farmer Update made its touchdown. The aim of the Farmer update is to “revoke rankings of low quality sites that are low value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are not useful at all”. A commendable aim indeed.
According to Google’s Amit Singhal and Matt Cutts, this recent change in their algorithm impacts up to 11.8% of query results.
It must be remembered that Google makes slight changes to its algorithm from time to time and many of the changes have little impact. However, this is a significant change and 12% is a huge number.
Although Google estimates that the change has impacted 12% of its results forever, what is the ground reality? Has this change really caused an upheaval on Ground Zero? It would seem so.
According to the Online Publishers Association, Google’s Farmer Update could change business revenue to the tune of $1 billion. A poll conducted within a week of the update showed that 40% of the websites polled experienced a decrease in Google traffic, 25% had the same volume of traffic and 18% reported more Google traffic while the rest were unsure of the impact.
A number of popular websites like Mahalo (which was hit the hardest) and eHow did admit that they had been hit. Websites like Buzzillions added that, “while we respect Google’s right to make changes, we do not believe that the new experience is better for the users”.
However, Google is not surprised at the low pitched protests making their way hotly from different parts of the web. Google has been targeting content farms and the like for a while and changes were in the horizon since January.
According to Google, the pinch would be felt by those websites that featured low quality content, like content farms. (For Google, the definition of Content Farms is any website that features low quality content). The main problem that is faced by websites that feature low quality content is that little effort ever goes into researching and providing high quality content. Therefore, users get little value from such content although they feature at the top of listings. Since the content is of little value, it has no right to be there – that is what Google believes!
Therefore, if a website is badly hit by the Farmer Update, all they have to do was replace current content with high quality content and wait for Google to notice this change. That is what it might look on paper. However, the unfortunate reality for most websites hit by the changed algorithm is that their ratings may not recover in the short term despite their best attempts. Once low quality content sites have been weeded out, it will take time and effort for other websites to find their right rankings.
When all is said and done, it seems that Google has only been partially successful in its endeavor. A large number of high quality websites could also be hit by the new algorithm. Also, many search engine optimization company have contrasting opinions and range of reactions about the latest change. As one web visitor said, “Even after the update, some of the first page results are full of crud”. Makes one wonder whether Google has missed its target this time and whether the 12% affected are those websites that really deserve the treatment they got.
BY SEO Expert Team
