SEO as Spy vs. Spy
The war between Google and various SEO outfits continues:
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 predict another post very much like this one a few months or so from now, after the vast army of SEO zombies has taken another bite at the apple, and tweaked their gaming of the ranking system. The real problem isn't the SEO outfits; it's the places that hire them and use their strategies. At some point, they'll have to sit down and actually do the hard work of creating organic content that brings in links.
I know, crazy talk...
Comments
Re: SEO as Spy vs. Spy
[Lex Spoon] February 26, 2011 16:25:13.766
This ongoing tweaking of the algorithms also has impact on the idea of "search engine neutrality". If Google had to follow strict U.S. guidelines on their ranking algorithm, they'd have their hands tied against SEO.