Content and Google's New Algorithm
It looks like Google has implemented the new search algorithm change that which has impacted 11.8% of all their queries. Currently, this algorithm only affects search in the US, however, this algorithm may be rolled out to the rest of the world at a later date.
Officially speaking, Google says "This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value 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."
Obviously rankings are shifting downward in Google's search engine for content that is labeled low-quality or "shallow". Thus, as the algorithm works its magic, you will probably see changes on a page by page basis. But how will it affect a webmaster's domain overall?
I, at first thought that the algorithm change would take it on a page by page basis, pulling bad copy rankings down, and good copy rankings up or leaving it the same.
However, the algorithm change, seems to have affected some domains. Some of the winners and losers were: EzineArticles, HubPages, ShopWiki.com, and The Find.com, while some of the big winners were Wikipedia, eBay, Walmart.com and Amazon.
As I researched the web, regarding this issue, The consensus is that many felt that it was directed only to the "content farms". However, the people at Google claim that these changes were not meant to penalize any particular site, or type of content.
My main question, "How does Google identify "high quality" and "low quality" content? Of course, Google is not going to share the details of their techniques. So, if sites want to get into the good graces of Google, it's time to either tweak or overhaul your website if you want to survive another day on the Internet. (In the coming days and weeks, you will be seeing some changes to my site. Which, I'm rather excited about, because I've realized for some time that it was needing a major overhaul.)
Note: Just for your information, this Google update does not include the new "chrome extension" that Google launched a short time ago.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Online Fraud-How To Protect Yourself
Online Fraud-How To Protect Yourself
Can you become a victim of online fraud? Yes. If you surf the net for something interesting, or you're looking to purchase a specific product, or you do business online, or you work online you can become an unsuspecting victim of fraud. However, there are some common sense precautions that can help you to stay relatively safe online
Check out the following article:
Online Fraud, How To Stay Safe
Online fraud can come in many forms. The two most recognized forms of online fraud, with the purpose of stealing your identity is phishing and pharming. I will explain what phishing and pharming is, and then go into different ways in which you can keep yourself safe...
Can you become a victim of online fraud? Yes. If you surf the net for something interesting, or you're looking to purchase a specific product, or you do business online, or you work online you can become an unsuspecting victim of fraud. However, there are some common sense precautions that can help you to stay relatively safe online
Check out the following article:
Online Fraud, How To Stay Safe
Online fraud can come in many forms. The two most recognized forms of online fraud, with the purpose of stealing your identity is phishing and pharming. I will explain what phishing and pharming is, and then go into different ways in which you can keep yourself safe...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Your Content and the Algorithm Change
Your Content and the Algorithm Change
Google is looking for ways in which to improve the quality of their searches. That means filtering out content spam. This brings up some issues about content which includes addressing issues about content scraping, republishing or copying of content and content farms.
Reducing Search Engine Spam
Matt Cutts gave an update on his blog regarding algorithm changes that is being implemented to reduce search engine spam.
It's Google's hope to decrease spam. The site(s) that Google is trying to take aim at are the sites that copy others' content, as well as, sites that have low levels of original content. These changes will affect those who scrape, republish or copy others content. Why? In some cases, the website that is scraping another's content has ranked higher than the original sources.
For those blogs or websites who rely on content, you may find in the near future that your content will become more valuable. Why? If you have the original content you will not be out-ranked by other sites republishing your content (with or without your permission).
Content Farms
There has also been quite a buzz about content farms. For those who are not familiar with what a content farm is, let me give you a quick definition. A content farm has many authors writing content on different topics, and in some cases, giving the author a portion of their Adsense revenue. Both the company and the author can benefit, (more so the company) if the content is a good draw in the search engines. Yes, Content is good, but many of the content farms has a tendency to ignore the quality of the content and instead emphasize popular keywords to get the article to the top.
Google Baby Step to Content Farm Control
What is Google doing about content farms? Google has introduced an extension to Google's Chrome browser that is called the "Personal Blocklist". The software will allow you to remove a site from future searches. How is this done? Personal Blocklist will let you click a small link that is below each search result. This will remove the site from any of your future searches. After you have made those blocks, anytime you do a search you will only see those sites momentarily before Personal Blocklist removes them from your view. You will then see a message by Personal Blocklist stating that some of the results were removed.
You can recover those blocked links by clicking a "show" link next to the message or by clicking a red icon, with a hand facing outwards in a "stop" gesture, in Chrome's toolbar. You may be thinking that this baby step is counterproductive and not helping remove content that is not helpful. This is not true. According to Matt Cutts:
Could this mean trouble for content farms? Maybe, maybe not. I've read many comments regarding content farms. Some people state that, "no it won't hit sites like Demand Media, because Google is only looking to remove shallow or low-quality content". Other states, "yes, it may help improve the quality of the searches".
My take on the issue is relatively simple. People can define content farms in any way or form they want in order to soothe their troubling soul and their worry about lost income. But the bottom line is clear, it's only Google definition and their algorithm that will matter in the end.
Google is looking for ways in which to improve the quality of their searches. That means filtering out content spam. This brings up some issues about content which includes addressing issues about content scraping, republishing or copying of content and content farms.
Reducing Search Engine Spam
Matt Cutts gave an update on his blog regarding algorithm changes that is being implemented to reduce search engine spam.
It's Google's hope to decrease spam. The site(s) that Google is trying to take aim at are the sites that copy others' content, as well as, sites that have low levels of original content. These changes will affect those who scrape, republish or copy others content. Why? In some cases, the website that is scraping another's content has ranked higher than the original sources.
For those blogs or websites who rely on content, you may find in the near future that your content will become more valuable. Why? If you have the original content you will not be out-ranked by other sites republishing your content (with or without your permission).
Content Farms
There has also been quite a buzz about content farms. For those who are not familiar with what a content farm is, let me give you a quick definition. A content farm has many authors writing content on different topics, and in some cases, giving the author a portion of their Adsense revenue. Both the company and the author can benefit, (more so the company) if the content is a good draw in the search engines. Yes, Content is good, but many of the content farms has a tendency to ignore the quality of the content and instead emphasize popular keywords to get the article to the top.
Google Baby Step to Content Farm Control
What is Google doing about content farms? Google has introduced an extension to Google's Chrome browser that is called the "Personal Blocklist". The software will allow you to remove a site from future searches. How is this done? Personal Blocklist will let you click a small link that is below each search result. This will remove the site from any of your future searches. After you have made those blocks, anytime you do a search you will only see those sites momentarily before Personal Blocklist removes them from your view. You will then see a message by Personal Blocklist stating that some of the results were removed.
You can recover those blocked links by clicking a "show" link next to the message or by clicking a red icon, with a hand facing outwards in a "stop" gesture, in Chrome's toolbar. You may be thinking that this baby step is counterproductive and not helping remove content that is not helpful. This is not true. According to Matt Cutts:
"If installed, the extension also sends blocked site information to Google, and we will study the resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results."
Could this mean trouble for content farms? Maybe, maybe not. I've read many comments regarding content farms. Some people state that, "no it won't hit sites like Demand Media, because Google is only looking to remove shallow or low-quality content". Other states, "yes, it may help improve the quality of the searches".
My take on the issue is relatively simple. People can define content farms in any way or form they want in order to soothe their troubling soul and their worry about lost income. But the bottom line is clear, it's only Google definition and their algorithm that will matter in the end.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Adsense Public Service Ads Retiring?
Adsense Public Service Ads Retiring?
Yes, it does look like Google is retiring the Public Service Ad. Per Google Adsense Team, Google is beginning to slowly remove the Public Service Ads from Adsense sites. Even though the public service ads are being retired, it looks like Google will be creating new opportunities for their non-profit partners.
For those new to Adsense or for those who need a quick review, a PSA (Public Service Ad) is an unpaid ad that appears on publisher sites when there are not paid ads available to service that particular page. The predominant reason these ads appear is due to no relevant ads available for that particular page.
However, Google non-profit partners will not be left in the cold. Google will continue to offer free AdWords advertising for these advertisers through Google Grants. For those advertisers in the Google Grants program, you'll see no changes and you will continue to receive earnings from the valid clicks and impressions.
For Adsense publishers, if you selected Public Service Ads in the "Backup Ads" in the new Adsense interface (Alternate ads or colors in the old interface) you're begin to see that it will be replaced with a blank space. If you opted to show non-Google ads from another URL or to show a solid color, you wont be affect by this change.
You will eventually see that the PSA option will no longer be available to choose. Even though the PSA option is being removed, they are working on new backup ad options.
To update the settings for your backup ads, you can sign in to your account and do the following:
1. New Interface: Visit "My Ads", Select ad unit you like to update, then change settings for "Backup ads".
2. Old Interface: Go To "Manage Ads" under My Account click "Edit Ad Settings" for the unit you'd like to change.
Yes, it does look like Google is retiring the Public Service Ad. Per Google Adsense Team, Google is beginning to slowly remove the Public Service Ads from Adsense sites. Even though the public service ads are being retired, it looks like Google will be creating new opportunities for their non-profit partners.
For those new to Adsense or for those who need a quick review, a PSA (Public Service Ad) is an unpaid ad that appears on publisher sites when there are not paid ads available to service that particular page. The predominant reason these ads appear is due to no relevant ads available for that particular page.
However, Google non-profit partners will not be left in the cold. Google will continue to offer free AdWords advertising for these advertisers through Google Grants. For those advertisers in the Google Grants program, you'll see no changes and you will continue to receive earnings from the valid clicks and impressions.
For Adsense publishers, if you selected Public Service Ads in the "Backup Ads" in the new Adsense interface (Alternate ads or colors in the old interface) you're begin to see that it will be replaced with a blank space. If you opted to show non-Google ads from another URL or to show a solid color, you wont be affect by this change.
You will eventually see that the PSA option will no longer be available to choose. Even though the PSA option is being removed, they are working on new backup ad options.
To update the settings for your backup ads, you can sign in to your account and do the following:
1. New Interface: Visit "My Ads", Select ad unit you like to update, then change settings for "Backup ads".
2. Old Interface: Go To "Manage Ads" under My Account click "Edit Ad Settings" for the unit you'd like to change.
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