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Google Makes Major Changes To Page Ranking Algorithm

googleprIn a bid to give users more relevant answers to queries as quickly as possible and reward high-quality (content) Websites, Google has announced a major tuning of its search algorithms. Whilst previous algorithmic changes have been on a small scale and often difficult to notice, these latest changes is on a much larger scale and will noticeably impact about 11.8% of search queries.

According to Google, the update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites which add low-value to users (black-hat seo practitioners beware!), copy content from other Websites or simply sites that are not very useful. Consequently, high quality Websites i.e. sites with original or unique content and information such as research, quality reports, thoughtful analysis etc., will receive much better rankings. As a result, many Webmasters should expect that their site rankings may be affected as this major update take place. Thus, a previously high ranking site may get a lower ranking while a low ranked one will be ranked higher.

As part of its decision making process, Google was quick to point out that this update did not rely entirely on feedback received from its recently launched Personal Blocklist Chrome extension. Overall, the new ranking update is a result of over one year of tackling issues and several months of working on specific changes. However, one can only presume that it will substantially improve the quality of search results and effectively dissuade spammers who use malicious methods to boost their page ranks. At the moment, the new algorithm will be operational in the United States alone and gradually introduced to other countries over time.

Talking Point

Judging by Google’s reputation as the most popular search engine in the world, do you expect smaller Websites to benefit from these recent changes to its page ranking algorithm?

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49 Comments

49 Comments

  1. Computer Smart Phone Technology

    February 28, 2011 at 8:23 pm

    This is a good news for site with unique quality content. I think lots of small site are going to benefit as well in as much as the content is unique.

    • JJ

      March 23, 2011 at 4:29 pm

      I agree! small sites with great content are making a killing right now! Small sites will always be big for google because of adsense. google simply makes too much money off of them!

      • Admin

        March 27, 2011 at 1:44 pm

        Good point about the importance of smaller sites to Google.

      • Nabil

        May 14, 2011 at 4:45 pm

        Actually, 1.5% of Google’s advertisers generate about 80% of their money meaning the small webmasters such as me and you don’t really matter.

        • Danny Strampel

          August 18, 2011 at 9:55 am

          I immediately believe that.
          You can see how Google moved from a great Search engine with a good algorithm, to one that trades quality for rules that benefit Google and their many “small” companies.
          They are making use of the peoples habit for using what they’ve always used because that is comfort and trying something new is risky.
          That same habit is the reason why still so many people use internet explorer.
          As with Internet Explorer Google also has been surpassed in quality.

          If your goal using internet explorer is to surf the web safe and fast then you wont choose IE. If your goal for using a search engine is to find the most relevant results then Google wont be your number one choice. Not anymore.

  2. Annika Holm

    February 28, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    Very good news that google take actions against spammers! i really hope this works well for does that provide quality content. Thanks for keeping us informed!

  3. Henway

    March 1, 2011 at 3:07 am

    I don’t think smaller websites will benefit at all. We all know Google is a hypocrite. They’ll lower rankings for content farms but for the really big players that have media exposure such as Demand Media, Huffington Post, and AOL, they won’t do much. Because they dun want to risk the backlash. Against the smaller websites, they know the small webmasters can’t do much. So in the end no, it will not help the small websites at all.

    • Akash Kumar

      September 12, 2011 at 3:47 pm

      I don’t think the idea is to support small sites but it is help good sites get what they deserve as we know getting a PR was very easy earlier you just have to get link from any PR site and that would get you PR so it encouraged the spammers to spam more for an easy link to get high PRs but at least its changed now.

  4. Wholesale Suppliers

    March 1, 2011 at 9:48 am

    Matt Cutt usually talks about the minor changes in Google Algorithm but this time he clearly mentioned about a major changing in algorithm. Google is being mature with their every up coming step. Its time for the ‘quality content’ , Google made this changing to bring a positive change in Content world and analysis the whole content theory again.

  5. Marc

    March 1, 2011 at 3:34 pm

    I’ve taken a massive hit on a few sites because of this. I only use white hat seo but I guess Google likes Affiliate based sites less and less with every update. More quality unique content is the order of the day.

  6. Russ

    March 2, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    I don’t think ythis will be great news for smaller sites – when trying to get exposure for non-niche products or services it’s difficult to have unique content. Before long it will be Adwords or ‘no traffic at all’

  7. Dragos

    March 3, 2011 at 5:31 pm

    Smart move from Google, a lot of spam content was ranking to high. Now Good content will have a bigger chance.

  8. John

    March 4, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    It’s amazing that everytime I turn around Google is making a new change to their algorithm. However, as long as you don’t practice any black hat seo tactics these changes shouldn’t worry you. And yes, I do think smaller websites will benefit from these changes. Thanks for the update.

  9. fantastic sams

    March 5, 2011 at 5:27 am

    It is good step of Google to provide ranking to all those sites that have quality contents and are excellent as concerned to their development and designing

    • Admin

      March 14, 2011 at 12:35 am

      Well, if it means that you get more traffic I bet you won’t be complaining eh? 🙂

  10. sudeep

    March 7, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    Nothing much great,even one of leading blog like Labnol have suffered… hmm does not seems to be good anyways (atleast for now)..

  11. JJ

    March 8, 2011 at 9:29 pm

    All of my websites are doing fine. I think that google was really targeting sites like ezinearticles.com because they allowed articles on spammy topics like how to get your ex back and gambling systems.

    Where as websites like squidoo who didnt take a hit banned those types of topics last year…

    If you are designing your websites for people and doing a little seo, like proper meta tags and mentioning your keywords once or twice then Im sure everything will be fine. Thats what I do and all of my sites are doing great!

  12. Kevin

    March 11, 2011 at 4:20 pm

    Google is the most widely used search engine. And any change in their algorithm is bound to affect a lot of websites especially if the change is a big one.

    I think this change should help websites both big and small that provide quality content. What Google seems to be trying is to ensure that when you search you get top quality results instead of getting a lot of garbage and then having to sift through them.

    Some good sites like labnol have been hit by this but hopefully Google can iron out the problems soon.

  13. chris

    March 15, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    the google changes have been pretty devestating, it really means you have to rethink your content alot more now

    • Admin

      March 27, 2011 at 1:46 pm

      Perhaps, that is why a lot of article directories are only accepting unique content in recent times.

      • chris

        April 4, 2011 at 5:32 pm

        It always should have been checked for originality or at least scored on originality. In fact what Google are doing is good for the non-lazy marketers.

        • Josh

          April 12, 2011 at 6:07 am

          INDEED! Hard work always pays off in the long run and cheaters never prosper! OK well I wish cheaters didn’t prosper, but unfortunately sometimes they do…. and big! It’s nice to see Google stand up for the “WORKIN” man/woman!

          JOSH

      • Sammy

        June 9, 2011 at 1:08 pm

        Yup, you are right here, I’m agree with your view.

  14. Josh

    March 21, 2011 at 10:17 pm

    Spammers have really hurt those of us that actually take the time to honestly contribute to the blogging community. I take the time to actually read the articles and comment on them thru the blogs I deam worthy. This takes up a lot of my time! It’s strange after google changed one of my sites tanked so I re-wrote my homepage content and within about 36 hours I broke the top ten within my keyword phrase. It’s all about the homepage content and QUALITY of links not quantity!

  15. Jeff

    April 13, 2011 at 7:13 am

    I really don’t understand how sites like eHow actually *increased* the number of keywords that they rank for after this update. I thought eHow was pretty much who would be targeted by this. And how is it that a huge percentage of articles at sites like ezinearticles.com did not take a hit, while other did. Any thoughts?

    • Admin

      April 14, 2011 at 4:21 pm

      I believe both sites use different systems and guidelines however, it will be somewhat difficult to say exactly why some appear to have been more affected than others.

  16. Dan

    April 29, 2011 at 3:34 am

    I don’t necessarily think that all small sites will benefit from Google’s algorithm changes – IMO, Google is giving more weight to sites that add content naturally and not a site that goes from 0-60 in 4 seconds. In other words, sites that are new and produce an un-natural amount of content will not get the ranking they once did. In real life, building a small business takes time and building a reputable website also takes time. I think the new changes award webmasters that go by the book and slowly and steadily build their sites.

    • Admin

      April 29, 2011 at 1:17 pm

      That wouldn’t be a bad way to reward hard work.

  17. clear

    May 3, 2011 at 5:30 am

    new algorithm make many of my blog index is down …..

  18. raymund

    May 12, 2011 at 6:29 am

    Actually, the Google Panda gave my blog 200% increase in traffic. I am very sure that the increase in traffic is a result of the Google Panda. Bye Bye to low quality contents, you will have zero visibility.

  19. Nawaz

    May 30, 2011 at 3:00 am

    This announcement is encouragement for all those webmasters that have of doing hard work and their sites has original work.

  20. Sammy

    June 9, 2011 at 1:11 pm

    it’s a good news for whom, who really works hard for unique and niche content.

  21. Nawaz

    June 12, 2011 at 7:41 pm

    I welcome this step of Google. I think death of spammer is announced because of this change in the algorithm..

  22. Josh Blackburn

    June 15, 2011 at 11:35 am

    This is bad news for me 🙁 some of my sites or should I say robo sites are affected by this. Or maybe I should blame myself of this because I’m doing it but it is just for extra income. And now, I’m adjusting and hoping I can get my main sites as good as anybody.

  23. dan

    August 1, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    You know, Google constantly says they are making changes and reducing spamming, but honestly, I check my competitors links ALOT and I just don’t see it.

    Many of the #1 ranked sites that I am trying to bump off are ALL using link and blog farms. Totally irrelevant content spammed across article farm blogs.

    It’s just not fair. I refuse to resort to spamming. The spammers are still winning, and Google says they are doing something about it, but it seems that unless you flat out report someone (Like JCPenny), nothing will change.

  24. Africanlegend

    August 5, 2011 at 4:47 am

    I think google has just lost credibility. The constant tinkering is not encouraging to webmasters. I am just going to ignore it from now on. Not that I obsessed about it but it’s always nice to know your link building and reputation is growing naturally.

  25. Lisa

    August 10, 2011 at 4:55 am

    I know that this post is older but just lately I’ve noticed that my company’s website ranking has been all over the place. One day I check it and we have a page rank of 0 and then the next it’s a 5. There’s no way that a single website can make such a huge leap overnight. Have they made any further changes that would make it so up and down since this blog was posted?

  26. Jon

    August 12, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    I have noticed a lot of inconsistent ranking since the new update.

    Granted, my PR went up, but I jump around in google search results almost every day! Some days I am 4th in google search results, other days I am 30th.

    Perhaps this is unrelated, but I did start to notice this rebound since their update.

  27. sudha

    October 17, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    Hey everyone ! I have a great news for you. Google has updated the page rank again. Don’t forget to check your site’s pagerank.

  28. Akash Kumar

    October 17, 2011 at 10:55 pm

    I don’t see a change in mine, sadly!

  29. Medx Power

    December 14, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    Very informative post for those who have a very small biz. and would help to bring quality work up.

  30. Dipendra

    March 9, 2012 at 8:09 am

    It is really difficult to follow how google changes. They change frequently. The only way to boost search engine is by being genuine or google has many ways in their algo to find the cheaters.

  31. Carmen Brodeur

    March 22, 2012 at 4:17 pm

    I welcome these changes. I work had on updating content and adding regular blog posts to my website. It is frustrating to see websites that haven’t changed in years, that are full of outdated information, ranking well for my keywords. Bring it on!

  32. Rita Dawson

    April 30, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    I think it can be of great benefit and also the worst effects for different websites. Websites with spam work are going to face a lot of trouble and its going to put light on websites with unique content.

  33. لپ تاپ

    May 3, 2012 at 10:26 pm

    Very Great blog

  34. arena

    May 17, 2012 at 9:36 am

    thanks for your site

  35. Gary

    May 27, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    The latest algo change has been a total disaster for some niche site owners.

  36. روان کننده بتن

    August 27, 2012 at 5:03 pm

    I recently came across your blog and have been reading along.I’m satisfied that you shared this helpful information with us. Really looking forward to read more.

  37. Rohit kabdwal

    September 29, 2012 at 11:50 pm

    is there any effect of backlinks in the page rank.., wanna ask you., what are the basic requirements to get the page rank updated.., i am a PR 0 blogger 🙁 and want to know every thing that effect the page rank..

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