Google: "Search Quality is Down, We Will Find You"

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Hi All,

Yes, crazy title. LOL

Google has announced they're clamping down on crap websites with low quality content. The user experience has suffered per Google

Say goodbye to that article spinner crap and cheap article writers. Google has called you out!

The good news is this should drive up the rates for quality article writers.

Here's the Wall Street Journal article...

Google on Bad Search Results: ‘We Can Do Better’ - Digits - WSJ

Dennis
#google
  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    When a script can determine quality, then this might be an issue.

    However, in the spirit of the article link, I suppose we can expect to see all of the article directories disappear because they are loaded with crap.

    I guess we can also expect to see all non-native english speakers/writers sites disappear as well. The intent of the content might be good but the delivery often sucks.

    Might as well throw in most e-commerce sites since a quick paragraph and price doesn't equal quality content. Bye-bye amazon and wal-mart.

    There is far too much Claiming victory before the war is over. I'll believe it when I see it and until then google can continue their PR campaign to make everyone believe they are actually doing something.

    Whatever move they try to make, it's going to hurt legitimate sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author stevemarino
    Article directories would be a very good resource if you didn't have to navigate through the crap. Hopefully this will lead to high quality article sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    No one would like to see high quality content be the biggest factor in ranking more than me, but just because google wants to filter out all the crap sites, doesn't mean that they have the technology to do so.

    Google has always said that they don't want crap sites to rank and they have taken the measures that they can to stop them from ranking.

    The problem is that this needs to be done carefully or you end up taking out a lot of good sites in the process. There's not enough resources in the world to look at each site with human eyes so it needs to be done algorithmically and I don't believe the technology is anywhere near being able to tell "good" content.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Originally Posted by Ken_Caudill View Post

    It is impossible to quantify language with any depth of meaning. Better minds than those employed by Google have tried and failed miserably.

    In fact, Google is responsible for the low quality of writing on the net. Its algorithm can't tell Jack London from some high school sophomore in Podunk. The reason we have low quality writing on the net is because Google makes crappy writing profitable.

    Do no evil, my ass.
    Heck!!! They can't even perform a "paid links scheme" report!! Or cloaked pages report!!! How are they supposed to be dealing with "low quality content"????

    This is getting really out of control.

    Edit: Just last week I saw a site ranking top 3 thats has nothing more then a couple pages with NO CONTENT. Well, it has 30 words between Adsense.

    I reported this exact site almost 6 months ago. So what gives? Quality score?

    Disclaimer: that's a site in a niche I never had a site and don't intent to: it's homedecor.
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    People make good money selling to the rich. But the rich got rich selling to the masses.
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  • Profile picture of the author RaptorGabe
    Thanks for bringing this up! As someone who hates article writing and loves good article writers I hope you are wrong about that price change
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  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    I predict this thread will end-up getting locked. But until that happens...

    Take a close read at the article in the OP. I love the comment one person
    makes about G having become a tropical paradise for marketers. All the sites
    have links that either make them or G money.

    Oh my doG... those evil marketers who just want to make money!!!

    Oh.. hey warriors, that's you. I forgot! Sorry... lol. It's also G.

    But, today, I was researching something and THIS was my result in Google.

    This is Google's idea of delivering high quality search results.

    By the way, my hearing's fine.




    I just love the way people blame everything that's wrong with G search
    on dastardly article spinners.

    Read the comment from Wired, too. I'm sure all of their content is spun.


    Ken
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    • Profile picture of the author DennisM
      Originally Posted by KenThompson View Post

      I predict this thread will end-up getting locked. But until that happens...

      Take a close read at the article in the OP. I love the comment one person
      makes about G having become a tropical paradise for marketers. All the sites
      have links that either make them or G money.

      Oh my doG... those evil marketers who just want to make money!!!

      Oh.. hey warriors, that's you. I forgot! Sorry... lol. It's also G.

      But, today, I was researching something and THIS was my result in Google.

      This is Google's idea of delivering high quality search results.

      By the way, my hearing's fine.

      I just love the way people blame everything that's wrong with G search
      on dastardly article spinners.

      Read the comment from Wired, too. I'm sure all of their content is spun.


      Ken


      Ken,

      Should I take this as an insult or a compliment? I'm simply reporting what I read in the Wall Street Journal.

      Dennis
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      • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
        Originally Posted by DennisM View Post

        Ken,

        Should I take this as an insult or a compliment? I'm simply reporting what I read in the Wall Street Journal.

        Dennis
        And I'm simply reporting my direct experiences, today.

        Certainly not intended to insult and not complimenting either. I think my point
        is rather obvious when you read the article and look at the screenshot.

        If you're looking for someplace to buy a hearing aid, locally, then those are great
        serps. But if not, then they kinda suck unless you like a carnival atmosphere.

        People here love to rag on people who do things differently from them, such as
        article spinners, for example. If one believed all of them, and you "perhaps," then
        the conclusion would be that spun content is the sole reason for whatever is
        supposedly wrong with G's serps.

        But if you look at the screenshot... look at what G wants you to see "first."

        Whether or not you feel insulted is your decision.


        Ken
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  • Profile picture of the author sitefurnace
    I don't think it's going to be the content per se that they are going to try and measure but everything else instead.

    You are right when you say that quality cannot be measured algorithmically but there are a lot of other variables associated with that content that can.

    Mainly traffic and backlinks. Google could easily measure parameters that would easily reveal low quality and so could rate the content accordingly.

    Take for example the latest craze for profile links to create backlinks to your pages. There are pages ranking well just from a few hundred profile links but you or me would look at this backlinking profile and see exactly what is going on in a second.

    We would then be inclined to think that this page has its rankings due to the links and not the content. Take another backlink profile that has contextual, natural links on authority sites and we would expect a lot more to find quality at the end of it.

    This stuff is measurable. They may not be doing it just yet but if they can and they need to, bet your ass they will.

    And what about traffic. Bounce rates, time on site, traffic from a natural and varied number of sources, social media popularity. They could all be measured more accurately and used to 'measure' quality. It may not be perfect but...

    What about promotion of user feedback - if google provided more of an incentive for users to rate sites themselves they could use that to police the SERPs - social media may be the new algorithm?
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    @sitefurnace - I do agree with you, in fact Bill Platt actually had a great way they could tell if a site/page had good quality that he posted about in another thread and that was if they content got syndicated on other sites in the niche - sites with some authority of course where your content would have to be approved (not article directories).

    Of course, not every website puts articles out for syndication and some of those could be really great sites, so you wouldn't want to punish them because of that.

    And what about traffic. Bounce rates, time on site, traffic from a natural and varied number of sources, social media popularity. They could all be measured more accurately and used to 'measure' quality. It may not be perfect but...
    Yeah, that would be a good thing to look at, but can google measure those things on every site even if there is not analytics installed?

    What about promotion of user feedback - if google provided more of an incentive for users to rate sites themselves they could use that to police the SERPs - social media may be the new algorithm?
    I'm not a fan of this - too easily gamed. I can just picture all the people running to mturk to get workers to report their competitiors.

    Lee
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    Google, you want to clean up the mess? Here is what you do.

    You're current algorithm is based more or less on backlinks, so...

    Give no value to a backlink coming from a PR 0 or n/a page. This just about eliminates all forms of artificial backlinking.

    10,000 forum profiles, spam comments and re-spun articles on EZA will have no value. The added bonus, people will stop abusing those sites to rank their own.

    The result: sites that actually have valuable backlinks from reputable sites will continue to do well. The rest will drop into the abyss.

    That one alteration to the algorithm will clean up most of your problems in a nano-second.

    Google, are you listening to me?
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    • Profile picture of the author bay37
      Originally Posted by jasonmorgan View Post

      That one alteration to the algorithm will clean up most of your problems in a nano-second.
      Nope, because...

      After a couple of years PR1 would become the new PR0. Doesn't solve anything.
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      • Profile picture of the author cashcow
        Originally Posted by bay37 View Post

        Nope, because...

        After a couple of years PR1 would become the new PR0. Doesn't solve anything.
        Actually, I don't think so because it's incredibly easy to get a PR0 backlink simply by submitting an article or entering a profile link.

        A PR1 though would require either backlinking the PR0 link to bring it to PR1 or getting a link on an existing PR1 page which usually requires a human to approve your link.

        A PR1 link is a lot harder to attain, therefore, the work is not really worth it for a crappy site.
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        • Profile picture of the author davevanz
          [DELETED]
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          • Profile picture of the author bay37
            Originally Posted by cashcow View Post

            A PR1 link is a lot harder to attain, therefore, the work is not really worth it for a crappy site.
            Not as hard as you think. Especially if there was a sudden NEED for PR1+ backlinks. It wouldn't take very long for that to happen (PR1 becoming the new PR0).

            Lots of money involved at first, prices would go down considerably with time and BAM - you're back where you started.

            Running away from a problem will never lead to a solution. That's my thinking.

            Originally Posted by jasonmorgan View Post

            It's not a perfect solution but I don't think there is a perfect solution. But I do think it would clean up a lot of the mess. Eliminates most random link spamming of blogs and forums.
            Agree with you completely, but... the clean up would be very temporary.

            And BTW, that solution would kill me financially. I'd be the next one posting a Poor Me, I have no money thread.
            Hahaha! I'd love for it to happen tbh. Massive opportunity.

            I'm not saying that I love spam or that I'd not like to live in a perfect World (maybe not so much tbh...lol)... I just like a good, constructive discussion.
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      • Profile picture of the author CheshireCat
        Originally Posted by bay37 View Post

        Nope, because...

        After a couple of years PR1 would become the new PR0. Doesn't solve anything.
        "A couple of years . . ."

        Reminds me of that line from The Dark Knight: "Imagine what you could do with 18 months of clean streets . . ."



        Chesh
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    • Profile picture of the author sitefurnace
      Originally Posted by jasonmorgan View Post

      Google, you want to clean up the mess? Here is what you do.

      You're current algorithm is based more or less on backlinks, so...

      Give no value to a backlink coming from a PR 0 or n/a page. This just about eliminates all forms of artificial backlinking.

      10,000 forum profiles, spam comments and re-spun articles on EZA will have no value. The added bonus, people will stop abusing those sites to rank their own.

      The result: sites that actually have valuable backlinks from reputable sites will continue to do well. The rest will drop into the abyss.

      That one alteration to the algorithm will clean up most of your problems in a nano-second.

      Google, are you listening to me?
      This is a great idea. Simple and effective with a good added bonus (not for ezine though)

      There are some links that are virtually impossible for spam sites to get and these are the ones that should be counted more.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    After a couple of years PR1 would become the new PR0. Doesn't solve anything.
    It's not a perfect solution but I don't think there is a perfect solution. But I do think it would clean up a lot of the mess. Eliminates most random link spamming of blogs and forums.

    And BTW, that solution would kill me financially. I'd be the next one posting a Poor Me, I have no money thread.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Worner
    @ The OP

    YAWN!!!!!!!!..............

    Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    Hahaha! I'd love for it to happen tbh. Massive opportunity.
    My Empire = House of Cards.

    I do get what you are saying Bay37. Any change brings about it's own set of problems.

    And this is why I am not receiving a juicy six figure salary from the google mothership. But every village does need it's idiot... google, me + you = bliss
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  • Profile picture of the author NateRivers
    Google owns us.
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  • Profile picture of the author OmarR
    even if google's share of the search market drops, people will go to yahoo, bing, ask.com and still marketers will appear on the SERPs. It's all about backlinks unfortunately
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