Say Goodbye to Content Farms in 2011
Over the years, Google has improved a lot in providing relevant search results. The majority of the ranking pages we see have plenty of content related to our search query. However, are all of them really the ones we are looking for? Does the content say something helpful about the topic we are concerned about? Some are just pages with lots of text which are not as useful as they should be. They might only contain advertising material, such as Google ads or affiliate ads. These pages are called “content farms”.
Matt Cutts posted on Google’s Blog about content farms, defining them as websites “with shallow or low-quality content”. He pointed out in the said article that Google has been taking steps to eliminate such pages: “In 2010, we launched two major algorithmic changes focused on low-quality sites.” These include the Mayday Update and other tweaks. However, it seems like it is not enough as they hear people “asking for even stronger action on content farms and sites that consist primarily of spammy or low-quality content”.
Google’s response: “We take pride in Google search and strive to make each and every search perfect. The fact is that we’re not perfect, and combined with users’ skyrocketing expectations of Google, these imperfections get magnified in perception. However, we can and should do better.”
The statements above means only one thing: they are going to take a closer look and implement the necessary steps to eliminate content farms.
So, if you have a site made with Google ads or another sort of advertisement, make sure your content contains something worth sharing to searchers.
