Yesterday Google announced on their blog they are making a few changes to their search algorithms in efforts to improve their ranking accuracy which in turn affects trillions of search queries. Changes usually mean things are improving, and they are, for Google and your average user. But for businesses the changes may cause some issues.
Google states the new changes “give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible.” Google’s search quality leader Matt Cutts wrote “People are asking for even stronger action on content farms and sites that consist primarily of spammy or low-quality content.” Google often makes changes to their algorithms but rarely do they have as much of an impact as this one. The changes will impact 11.8% of the searches which is why Google felt it was necessary to inform the public. So in the end, Google wants to reduce the rankings for the low-quality sites.
How do they determine what a low quality site is? Sites which have “low-value add for users” or ones that “copy content from other websites” or sites “that are just not very useful” are the ones who will suffer. High-quality sites on the other hand are the ones who contain “original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.” These sites will see their rankings boosted.
For businesses that are producing original content on a regular basis, you will be in good shape. If not then you might need to make some changes to maintain your current rankings.
For more information here’s the Google link.
