Google Algorithm Update
Posted on 01. Mar, 2011 by Rick in SEO News
Let’s talk about the new Google “algorithm” change that happened on February 28, 2011. First of all I am using quotes around the word “algorithm” to signify that I am using that term loosely because I think Google is starting to throw math out the window and has decided to use discrimination and censorship as part of their “algorithm”.
Google Algorithm Update Changed What?
Google is continually trying to improve the “user experience” with these changes. I’m still curious as to how targeting Hubpages and Ezines improves the user experience though? If you had any high ranking Ezine articles or Hubpages you will notice that may no longer rank on page 1.
It was easy for me to see about how much Hubpages was penalized because anything I had on page 1 is now about exactly 15 spots lower. So it looks like Google is now giving modifiers to actual domains as if they are playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons – sorry dude you just stepped on a trap and now have a -15 rankings penalty. I’m not sure exactly how far Ezines went down because I haven’t tracked my rankings on my articles but I know they were hit very hard.
Google Algorithm Update Butteryfly Effect
This new algorithm shift that has penalized “content scrapers”, randomly chosen websites (Hubpages,Ezines), and who knows what else the dungeon master put in the “algorithm” change but it will actually trigger a series of major changes from a butterfly effect.
You might be thinking that it’s not a big deal if your Hubpages went down in rankings because you are only using them for backlinks. You would be wrong there and I’ll tell you why.
In order for your backlinks in Hubpages to remain dofollow in your Hubpages articles you must maintain an author score of 75. The score is calculated by many things but one of the major factors is by the traffic you get to your Hubs. With a huge drop in SEO traffic on Hubpages thousands of the members are going to start dropping below 75 which will trigger a nofollow tag on all of their links to their main websites. If they have relied heavily on Hubpages for high authority links their actual websites will now start to rank lower in the search engines.
If part of Ezines “quality update” to get back in Googles good graces includes adding “nofollow” to everyones resource box you will more rankings of websites start to take hits. I always preach that you must get the most diversified set of backlinks from eveywhere to protect yourself because this type of thing happens all the time. Late last year a popular Web 2.0 service Vox went out of business and people lost hundreds and thousands of backlinks built to all different sites. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Actually you need a lot of baskets and a lot of eggs!
Google “Algorithm” Update Butteryfly Effect Will Increase Googles Revenue
Let’s be realistic for a moment and realize that Google is a money machine and their real interest is in filling their pockets with Ad revenue as a priority and saying that improving the “user experience” was the real reason for these changes.
Here is what is going to happen with PPC with the new Google Algo change. There are tens of thousands of people using the Google content network to get cheap clicks. Sites like Hubpages and Ezines are Adsense optimized with the content so that they can make Adsense revenue. The clicks on those pages are usually pretty cheap because they are content network and not related to bidding for Googles front page.
If you were getting a lot of cheap clicks from PPC you may start to see a decrease in your traffic now because so many things targeted seemed to be focused around Adsense. Now to get your PPC traffic you may need to enter the competitive keyword bidding wars where 3 cent clicks are a thing of the past and you will now pay $3 instead of 30 cents. Wait a minute, that means Google can make more money and the little guy gets shut out again.
When you really look at a lot of the changes under a microscope you can see that the bottom line is the change will make them a lot more revenue and they try to do it with the least amount of collateral damage as possible. If they cause too much damage their spin masters will have a hard time getting anyone to buy what the real change was for.
To Be Fair to Google and their “Algo” Change
Too many of us, including me at times, start to feel as though our rankings and the revenue we produce from search engine traffic is our right. The fact of the matter is the Google search engine is a business and they can run it however they want. They may be looking at us as simply parasites that are trying to feed off of their success and the “algorithm” changes are a way to sweep away a portion of those parasites.
Even parasites have a function keeping things in balance but if there are too many parasites things can get out of balance. Maybe their “algorithm” change is a way of keeping that balance, but it really seems to make their pockets heavier. We all want heavier pockets, but Google needs to take their power out of the algorithm and stick to real factors for ranking webpages and sites.
Advanced Apology to Google
At this point I realize that Google has probably become “self aware” or probably will be in the next couple years just like Skynet in the Terminator movies so let me also issue an apology. I’m sorry I said your algorithm is not really an algorithm (even though I did mean it).
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