The latest update to Google’s Search Engine Ranking Algorithm, known internally as the “Panda” update and externally as the “Farmer” update, primarily targets content farms. This update was rolled out on Wednesday, February 23rd and tweaked on Tuesday, March 1st.
You may have already heard, as there’s a wealth of excellent coverage currently out there such as:
- Google Forecloses on Content Farms – Danny Sullivan
- The Panda that Hates Farms – Wired
- Google’s Panda/Farmer Update – Distilled
However, we found ourselves explaining and comforting to such a degree that we thought we’d publish a simple how-to guide for the layman who wishes to determine if he’s been affected.
What is a Content Farm?
Essentially, a content farm is a web property or group of properties that creates low-quality “optimized” content en masse designed more for the purpose of ad generation than valuable information. Other attributes include:
- This content is created quickly and doesn’t offer any value
- It happens in such a volume (4,000 pages per day for some properties) that it pushes well crafted content out of the search engines
- Content for content’s sake
For example: eHow.com, about.com and examiner.com
How to Tell if You’ve Been Affected by the “Farmer” Update
The fastest way to tell if you have been affected by the “Farmer” update is to check Google Analytics. Unfamiliar with GA? Here’s a play by play:
- Log into Google Analytics
- Click on Traffic Sources
- Click on Search Engines
- In the list of Search Engines, Click on Google
- Under the graph, where it says “Show” click on “non-paid”
If you use another analytics program (Coremetrics, Omniture) look in organic referrals by Search Engine.
Once you’re in, there are a couple things you need to do:
- Check to see if you have seen a dramatic decrease in traffic since February 24th
- Compare that to the previous week and the previous month
Saturday and Sunday may be normal low traffic periods.
If it’s looking grim, you have the option to request consideration from Google. Make sure you’re very detailed when writing out the case for reconsideration.
What About Paid Link Penalties?
Do not confuse the “Farmer” algorithm change to Google’s recent crackdown on paid links. Stay tuned for more info on how to verify if you’re being penalized for paid links.
Wow, very well written Aimee. Helpful stuff. I’ve been trying to track this ever since it hit the news. Google’s been truly attacking some of the major issues they’ve decried for years, and it’s great! So rewarding to be driving around and hear about Google changes on the radio(!!). And then sound REALLY smart at cocktail parties when you explain it to everyone with such ease… Cause that’s why we all love this field, right? Cocktail party stories? No? Just me, huh… sigh…
Thanks for the kind words, Ryan. I actually didn’t do any research on the subject at all, just went to a bunch of cocktail parties and listened to really smart folks like you, Timothy & Nate talk about it.
I definitely think Google needed to get into this. Though they’re enormous and I can’t imagine them toppling from their position on a big golden search throne, they were starting to get a lot of well-deserved flack. It’s hard to push quality content when SERPS are littered with ye olde farms in coveted positions.
All that to say, looks like content is still king.
Nice post, Aimee. I was starting to think all articles on the update had been taken from content farms themselves. It’s nice to hear a different (and pithier) take on the matter.
I am wondering how the content farms will respond. Do you think they will now focus on slightly more valuable/lower volume content, keep the faith, or just start pushing out more garbage than ever?
Honestly, it’s too early to really say what the biggest grossest of the farms will do; only time will tell. Reworking content is not easy when your piles upon piles of content is useless (or very close to).
For folks that are on the fringes, Google’s made it very clear that they need to:
[1] Evaluate all the content
[2] Improve the overall quality of pages on the domain
[3] Remove low quality pages or move them do a different domain
I get the impression that this isn’t solely based on content quality. I fully believe that the signals Google is using to identify low quality sites probably include ad-to-text ratio and some additional “trust” metrics. I have a suspicion that design/usability is going to become more important to visibility in the coming months.
So there’s my speculative conspiracy theory for you.
That’s a lot of lost ad revenue. I’m sure the farms are working furiously to realign their sites asap (I know I would if I were in that game). I predict a new kind of farm will arise by fall. They’ll find that fine line between farm content and good content and they’ll ride it all the way to the bank again.
Jesse, you may be right. The hit to revenue makes me wonder what they’re even capable of doing. I don’t know much about their business model/cash-on-hand/etc., but it seems like they’d end up out of order before ever having a chance to realign – again, that remains to be seen at this point.
If I were a content farm, the first thing I’d do is try to game that algorithm. Just sayin’.