Google Modifies Ranking Algorithm to Push Down Low-Quality Sites

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Late Thursday Google announced it made a major change to its ranking algorithm in an attempt to improve the rankings of high-quality websites in its search engine results. This change would also reduce the visibility of low quality websites.

While Google did not explicitly say this, the modifications appear to be focused in part at content farms like Answerbag and eHow. These websites generate articles based on popular search queries so they will be placed at the top of the rankings and attract clicks.

Google has been facing criticism from some users for allowing articles that aren’t useful to appear prominently in search results. That has now changed, according to the company.

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other Web sites or sites that are just not very useful,” Amit Singhal, a Google fellow, and Matt Cutts, who leads Google’s spam-fighting team, wrote in a company blog post. “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.”

Google says it makes about 500 revisions a year to its algorithm, but most are so small that Google doesn’t announce them. This one is predicted to affect slightly less than 12 percent of search queries, Google said, so it is big enough to significantly change the ranking results seen.

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Chris co-founded DoubleDome Digital Marketing, merging his business degree and technical consulting experience with his fondness for all things Internet. Focused on sales & marketing, Chris has led DoubleDome to 20 straight years of profitability. He leads the marketing and sales groups.
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