Many speculated for weeks over the launch of Google’s next algorithm update targeting websites that Matt Cutts described as “over optimised”. The new algorithm update is meant to launch in the next few days and according to the Official Google Search Blog, this particular update will affect sites that employ the following “black-hat” tactics:
- Keyword stuffing
- Link schemes (paid links, excessive reciprocal linking, links from (and to) spammy or unrelated sites etc.)
- Article spinning
According to Matt Cutts, the change will go live for all languages at the same time. The update is meant to affect 3.1% of queries in English where “regular users” will notice. This number is relatively small when compared to the effect the original Panda update had on search queries (12% of search queries for regular users).
So how does one make sure not to fall pray to Google’s next update? Cutts emphasises that in addition to improving site usability, creating “great” content, and improving site speed; site-owners must also need to think of creative marketing campaigns that make sites more compelling “that help search engines as well as social media”.
The SEO community have long known the indirect benefits of launching “high level” online marketing campaigns that gain publicity and higher visibility on social networks and the blogosphere. However, this is probably the most compelling hint that the search giant has dropped on SEOs which stress the need for SEOs to graduate from it’s infant state and take it’s rightful place at a strategic marketing level.
Google’s ultimate objective is to provide the most relevant results for their users and this algorithm update seems to be an aggressive step toward that goal. We will be updating this space as and when we hear more from the search giant so be sure to watch this space. Also feel free to voice your opinions and share your thoughts with the community.
Hello. I am a webmaster from Mexico who manages about 120 sites, all in top SERPS, and I think I just got hit with this Over Optimization Update. About 10% of my URLS have dropped anywhere from 3 to 20 places in SERPS and some of them (2 or 3) have disappeared altogether from SERPS in G. During the Panda update only about 3% of my sites were affected and I managed to get them back on track in a few weeks and some of them just came back to its original places without me doing anything radical to them. I don’t use black hat techniques (that is I don’t buy links, I don’t think I have an excessive amount of reciprocal links, and don’t use Article Spinning I don’t even know what this last thing is) although I include a large amount of relevant keywords in my sites. I have been reluctant to include social networks in my sites, but I have just started to do it because of popular demand. I know it is probably too early to have an assessment of the situation, but I would appreciate any feedback from other webmasters having the same problem and their thoughts.
Hii,
Sounds good that google going to launch another algorithm for improvement in SERP. I do all seo activities and always goes with white hat techniques, my question is here that how i know that “this directory site is spammy and will effect my site ranking on google” ?
Hi Veronica,
The fact that you oversee about 120 websites, puts you in a very unique position to actually notice significant changes to rankings. It was also quite interesting to note that Matt Cutts specifically mentioned the fact that some languages will be hit more than others…
“The change affects roughly 3% of queries in languages such as German, Chinese, and Arabic, but the impact is higher in more heavily-spammed languages. For example, 5% of Polish queries change to a degree that a regular user might notice.”
Are any of your websites targeting languages other than English? Also, Google considers linking out to non relevant and low quality sites as spam too.
Hello Shaad:
Thanks for repling.
To answer your question, about 99% of the sites I oversee are in Spanish and only 1% are in English. About linking back to low quality sites, I am very, very carefull not to do that. Although I am worried about links between my own sites since I have a lot of intersite linking. That is, sites hosted within the same server. I try only to link my own sites with relevant sites, but I am not sure how Google might percieve this.
On an update note since my last post, I have noticed a slight recovery in some of my affected URLs, so I am hopeful they might recover further within the next few days, but something is definetely happening. I am thinking about leting the dust settle before I start taking corrective measures. What do you think about this, should I wait and see what happens or should I start taking corrective measures right away?
Hi Veronica,
In times like these, knee-jerk reactions are always best avoided. So, do take your time to assess and evaluate all elements before arriving at any conclusions.
In my opinion, I think the best thing to do is to revisit Google Webmaster Tools and take a good hard look at your link profile. I’d also suggest using backlink analysis tools such as Majestic SEO, Open Site Explorer and Linkdex to see if there are any obvious links that could harm your site.
Then check to see if there are any serious duplicate content issues on your site. I can’t confirm that sites on the same server will harm you or benefit you – I personally think that this shouldn’t be an issue. Most major organisations, including government bodies, universities etc. host most of their web properties on the same server. Most of these big organisations in some cases have separate domains for different departments, so in my opinion this shouldn’t harm you in any way so long as the links add value to your users and makes logical sense.
But to answer your question; yes, do start gathering as much info as possible before taking any serious corrective measures.
Also just out of interest, has any other webmasters who operate within the Spanish market have been affected? If so, what’s the discussion amongst those circles? I’m quite curious to know :)
Google dosen’t like me either. Dropped me from the top poisition on all main keywords this morning to second page listings. Larger national companies seem to have benefited on this algorithm. I’ve always outsourced my SEO to reputable companies that use white hat methods, but obviously this has failed.
Here is a quick overview of what I have found about my own site’s rankings:
All pages that I we had been doing linkbuilding for (using anchor text) have dropped significantly. Pages with no artificial link buidling don’t seem to be affected.
What seems to hurt most are a high number of keyword as anchor text links.
We have been saying this for months: Don’t stuff keywords in your links: Use the URL as anchor (which is natural), use ‘click here’ once in a while as anchor and so on.
I am seeing big brands and super-authority domains rising: Such as Amazon, Facebook and so on. Often pages with no content at all or almost no content at all will outrank legitimate quality sites. I see Facebook pages with almost nothing on it and even parked domains outranking quality sites!
Hi Stefan!
Those are some very interesting observations. We have always known that bigger brands would someday overhaul businesses who don’t give any thought or prominence toward branding http://www.seomoz.org/blog/why-big-brands-get-all-the-breaks
Also, it’s worth noting that although this algo update is meant to target spam, it necessarily wouldn’t mean that Google’s SERPs will provide ultra relevant results 10 times out of 10. I think we as SEOs should keep in mind, especially when evaluating our rankings, to look at the other listings and put ourselves in the shoes of the users and ask ourselves, “has the searcher’s user experience improved?” If so, and if we have lost out, we need to ask ourselves, how can we better serve the user’s search query.
I used to look forward to Panda updates, each time I’d profit with regards to SERPs which would in turn mean that my traffic would increase greatly. This one has hit me hard though! I’ve disappeared for nearly all long tail keywords (previously ranking Page 1), and now it is no longer indexing my homepage!? Having read numerous articles, I’m struggling to understand the logic behind my drops, like many people I feel that Google has been a bit heavy handed with this algorithm.
Hello Again:
7 days later, and I am happy to report that I have discovered the reasons for the drop in some of my sites. Basically, the sites that dropped had low quality content or similar content (not identical, but very similar) to other sites I own, and those are the ones that dropped in SERPS. A few of them may also have dropped because of slight keyword stuffing problems which I am working on. I don’t think backlinks or exact match anchor texts in links had anything to do with the drop. I have noticed that sites in top SERPS now have to be very authoritative and have a lot of information (not always the case) but in general terms give the visitor a lot of information on the subject.
Now comes the hard part, which is to correct the mistakes. In some cases it is going toe be very difficult since some of the sites I mentioned before belong to 3 of my clients who basically sell the same thing and offer almost the same services. They are 3 different companies but are all located in the same city and have the same area of expertise. After this, I probably won’t accepts customers who work in the same field, since Google will perceive them as Cookie Cutter sites when in reality they are not. They are very similar, they talk about the same products and services, but they belong to 3 different people who have a need to promote and sell their products. My fault for not anticipating this.
Thanks for the information. One of my sites was hit by early panda version. So it took much of efforts to figure out the reasons, and to perform the internal bugfixes. As I noticed – also TITLE kw overstuffing was punished, and off course a lot of links were cut off. So meanwhile with further credible expert information coming up the situation becomes much more clear.
Always a challenge keeping up with the Google (animal) updates, but I think that ultimately their aim is to keep the user experience clean, and integrate as much social media indicators as they can. Hopefully if we’re providing good useful content on our sites, and legit seo optimising as well we should be able to keep up with the changes, and maybe even benefit from them!
I highly agree with Google’s decision, google is just putting the trash out of the search results and this is really helpful for those people who are doing true On-page and Off-page SEO.
This has turned out to be a great update in my opinion. Not entirely consistent but overall better for the web.