Very interesting post on the recent Google Slap..

[Kim Standerline]

By Jim Morris

Really gives some food for thought
Google’s Latest Algorithm Shift – Did You Get Spanked by the Farmer?

Kim

[Steve Peters Benn]

It's helpful, but I really don't agree with 'rewrite all your low quality' posts argument he suggests... I think that might look more suspicious (slap time!) and the time spent sorting out the article - you might as well write a new one.

Still, thanks for the link - like you said, food for thought!

[tpw]

Originally Posted by Steve Peters Benn

It's helpful, but I really don't agree with 'rewrite all your low quality' posts argument he suggests... I think that might look more suspicious (slap time!) and the time spent sorting out the article - you might as well write a new one.

Still, thanks for the link - like you said, food for thought!

I agree.

I find it much easier to write something new, than to fix something that is seriously broken.

[Piper Anderson]

I totally agree. If something isn't good enough for Google or the article directories for whatever reason, I'd MUCH prefer to just write something new, with a fresh frame of mind and viewpoint, rather than going back and re-writing the old content. Just delete and start over! It's way less tedious, and I think you end up with a better article overall in the end by simply starting anew.

[clever7]

Thank you for this interesting post, Jim.

This change was advantageous for me because I’m a real expert and a real writer, so my websites’ content is helpful and original.

However, I’m very sad with what happened to Ezinearticles. They didn’t approve any of my articles this week… they are probably too busy with all the problems they are having with the traffic they lost, etc.

Too bad that so many websites suddenly lost their ranking, after years of work… Of course, they made many mistakes, but it’s sad seeing this sudden change beat so many websites.

I should be glad with this change, but I’m sad and very worried because my best free traffic generating method was beaten this way. My EZA articles were sending massive traffic to my websites, while now only a few articles are still sending them the same traffic they usually do. This change had a collateral effect, beating also original content. Since EZA lost its ranking in general, even original articles like mine, are not getting the ranking they deserve.

Fortunately I’m getting a lot of traffic from Google, and this way, having more traffic than before. However, I’d prefer to have a lot of traffic from Google And from EZA like before. I hope that everything will be better in the future.

There are solutions. I had given many ideas to EZA’s members (at their blog) 3 years ago about many changes they could do to improve their article directory. Nobody paid attention to my suggestions at that time. They did exactly the opposite of what I had suggested, and they started charging for massive article submissions with immediate approval. This means that they started immediately approving many spun articles!! I condemned their attitude, but they attacked me instead of paying attention to my complaints.

Now, if they’ll remember my suggestions, they will get their ranking back in a few days. However, I’m afraid that nobody paid attention to what I said, or cares about my solutions…

[Ernie Lonardo]

Meh with all this fuss about the google slap, my earnings and traffic haven't been effected.

Could it be that I got lucky for a change

Thankfully I always submitted content to MY site before EZA.

It does feel like a part of article marketing/EZA has died though....we'll have to see what happens.

[garben2011]

Originally Posted by clever7

I should be glad with this change, but I’m sad and very worried because my best free traffic generating method was beaten this way. My EZA articles were sending massive traffic to my websites, while now only a few articles are still sending them the same traffic they usually do. This change had a collateral effect, beating also original content. Since EZA lost its ranking in general, even original articles like mine, are not getting the ranking they deserve.

Fortunately I’m getting a lot of traffic from Google, and this way, having more traffic than before. However, I’d prefer to have a lot of traffic from Google And from EZA like before.

Good points although I wouldn't feel bad for EZA or any other directories that were impacted by the change.

It was their own choice to approve well over TWO MILLION "articles" on how to get your ex back, acai berry, reverse cell phone lookup and other known "spam" topics.

Here are some interesting numbers should anyone care to have a look.

And I think perhaps just seeing those numbers will open a lot of people's eyes on why affiliates are getting a bad name. Over 2 freakin million articles at ezinearticles.com alone just for these 7 keyword phrases. ha ha!

Check it out here.

See, most of us doing affiliate marketing probably don't think of ourselves as spammers. I surely don't but I never really looked at it this way before... not until now. You see, I always looked at it from the perspective of an individual. Just from what I am doing. But really.... to see it from the perspective of outside of the Internet Marketing world... well, collectively, we are the spam content kings and queens. Essentially, we are one huge distributed farm churning out all of this content to pull in traffic and make a few affiliate sales. I still find it kinda crazy to think that collectively we have churned out over 2 million content pieces covering just 7 keyword phrases. ha ha! WOW! =)

[J Bold]

Food for thought maybe, but just seemed like a lot of guessing to me.

Who really knows exactly what Google wants? If you are trying to worry about SEO, at all, you are always going to be gaming the system in one way or another, at least in that you are trying to get your site ranked above others because you want to reap the rewards. You can do it in a "white hat" way but it will always still be trying to force a ranking that you may or may not deserve on merit alone for keyword relevancy, anyway.

[Sylonious]

Probably not very helpful, but extremely interesting. I'm going to keep following him.

[inter123]

The link in the OP has a quotation from Google:

"...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."

When reading various forums, the emphasis is producing quality content. But how does one produce quality content, if they are not experts at it?

Take a random keyword such as "Roofing". When a Marketer want to write a content of this subject, typically they research the net and put together some thoughts. They can pay someone to write the content but they are a writer and not an expert in the field.

The writing might be fantastic and every other positive adjective but the information produced is not going to be of the same class as someone who actually does it for a job. If the marketer / writer was to interview a Roofer then write an aricle on it, the content is likely to be class.

But going to all this extent is not only time consuming but expensive too. It just seems Google is tightening its grip more and more but life goes on.

Originally Posted by garben2011

But really.... to see it from the perspective of outside of the Internet Marketing world... well, collectively, we are the spam content kings and queens.

Without a shadow of doubt!

[LauraJames]

Thank you for posting this. Definitely something to keep in mind. Not sure of the need to rewrite some of the articles though. I would lean in favour of writing new articles, while keeping the latest rules/guidelines in mind.

[ocd]

Did somebody mention roofing? I laughed when you said to interview a roofer because of how one would go about deciphering Spanish and cussing while providing an excellent article at the same time.

Ahh, google.

[jacksonlin]

I don't think the article has a lot of facts that are proven and confirmed.

I have many sites that are 100% unique in content and are STATIC and they were smashed by the algorithm update.

Also, there are heaps of forum goers talking about how their Autoblogs INCREASED in traffic.

So there's a lot of inconsistencies.

[Natlex]

I really dont think the google slap can really detect low quality content. I received no penalty but most of my articles are at least 400+ words on my website so maybe those with something like an article under 300 words got a penalty. Either way, I think the reason article directories and other networks got a slap is simply because they are not niche specific, I think none of our niche specific websites would lose rank ...

[inter123]

Wikipedia is not niche specific.

Originally Posted by Natlex

I really dont think the google slap can really detect low quality content. I received no penalty but most of my articles are at least 400+ words on my website so maybe those with something like an article under 300 words got a penalty. Either way, I think the reason article directories and other networks got a slap is simply because they are not niche specific, I think none of our niche specific websites would lose rank ...

[kjhosein]

I'm surprised that there's no one voting in favor of the article rewrites. Why not make your content better instead of starting over from scratch? Why spread your effort over say 1 mediocre/poor article and 1 good/excellent article instead of having 1 excellent article?

I also fail to see how a rewrite would result in a slap. I improve existing articles all the time and they've usually improved in SERPs.

BTW, I don't in the least feel sorry for EZA, despite having articles there. It's mostly garbage. I think the better quality content in EZA is what will continue to bring in the organic traffic for them.

Just my $0.02, but this is an interesting & important subject to continue.

[frank07]

Originally Posted by kjhosein

I'm surprised that there's no one voting in favor of the article rewrites. Why not make your content better instead of starting over from scratch? Why spread your effort over say 1 mediocre/poor article and 1 good/excellent article instead of having 1 excellent article?

Just my $0.02, but this is an interesting & important subject to continue.

Because search engine want that. If you search some thing relate to commercial products, you will receive the promotion articles, and some of them is no value.
Some people write about that with good content but no one read. Why? Because they do not know, or do not have time and money to put hundreds backlinks to get high search engine ranking.
So we test and see what make higher rank for our site. We use it and when search engine change we will adopt to them.

[clever7]

Good points although I wouldn't feel bad for EZA or any other directories that were impacted by the change.

It was their own choice to approve well over TWO MILLION "articles" on how to get your ex back, acai berry, reverse cell phone lookup and other known "spam" topics.

Here are some interesting numbers should anyone care to have a look.

And I think perhaps just seeing those numbers will open a lot of people's eyes on why affiliates are getting a bad name. Over 2 freakin million articles at ezinearticles.com alone just for these 7 keyword phrases. ha ha!

Check it out here.

Thank you for this link. I like PotPieGirl’s style. I discovered her Squidoo lenses 2 years ago and since then I keep following her lessons whenever I have the time.

EZA made many mistakes, but it provides all authors with many fantastic tools. It’s an excellent article directory in many ways. It’s a shame that it lost its superiority. I hope that it will recuperate its top position, after getting rid of all the low quality articles.

Without EZA I wouldn’t become known online so fast. My first articles were displayed at Google’s first page whenever a user would type in its main keywords from the beginning of my career only thanks to EZA’s work. I would never manage to get top rankings with my articles from the beginning if I would only submit them to regular article directories. EZA’s team is very well organized and very powerful.

[Monta]

Originally Posted by Kim Standerline

By Jim Morris

Really gives some food for thought
Google’s Latest Algorithm Shift – Did You Get Spanked by the Farmer?

Kim

Very interesting, thanks for this link Jim.

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by Kim Standerline

By Jim Morris

Really gives some food for thought
Google’s Latest Algorithm Shift – Did You Get Spanked by the Farmer?

Kim

Kim, That article is the kind of useless content that Google is trying to get rid of. It was extremely repetitive and offers very little (if any) value to the reader.

I want my 10 minutes back!

[Kim Standerline]

Sorry mate, You've spent it, no refunds

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

I want my 10 minutes back!

[Avo19]

quality info... Google’s Best Weapon – Fear by Example

[John Broberg]

Originally Posted by garben2011

I still find it kinda crazy to think that collectively we have churned out over 2 million content pieces covering just 7 keyword phrases. ha ha! WOW! =)

I was also shocked to learn 10% of EZA's material is on penis enlargement, ACAI berry, reverse cell phone lookup, how to get your ex back, etc.

The thing is... How are they going to respond?

If they dump those topics, they'll lose money from their "auto-acceptance" program where they basically let you post anything for $97 bucks a month.

They've got to weigh the loss of that income against their adsense revenue. Ranking in G is their bread and butter, though. Without rank, their premium membership is worthless.

Really, I don't think they have a choice but to start cleaning up. It's just a question of when.

[yukon]

Thanks for the regurgitated article.

Always nice to see a thread moved to the SEO forum, from the main forum.