Over the past two weeks Google has really been making big news and cleaning up their search results. First we heard all about the debacle of J.C. Penney from the NY Times for not playing well online and using too many black hat SEO techniques to even list. Some of the topics that they used to rank #1 on now are not even found in the first ten pages of search content. Clearly, Google will not tolerate people trying to cheat the system and has no problem acting with authority they possess when needed.
Then last week they announced major changes in social search results in Google. No longer will the results just show up at the bottom of the page, but they will now be ranked into regular results along with organic traffic. This means that social media platforms like Twitter are even more valuable to your business. I just did a test to see how this affected my results while logged into my Google account. As many of you know, we built custom WordPress Sites, so when I did a recent search, there was the link to our site sitting at #3 in the results. Granted, my results there might be slightly skewed as I am the owner of the social media accounts, logged in, and in the same geolocation, but when I checked with a friend on the other side of the country, I was #6 there. So, if you aren't yet using social networks, START NOW!
Following these two big headlines from Google over the past 2 weeks came another HUGE announcement today. Google has declared war on the content farmers. Content farms are websites that simply pull content off of other websites and publish it out as their own. They are also sites that have thousands of pages of random content about absolutely nothing of value at all. People have built these sites because in the past the massive amounts of pages of content would rank well and help them to generate some good income through ads running on the sidebar and people clicking on links within to affiliate programs.
But, Google has recognized that these sites are not worthy of such well placement in the SERP's and have started to take action accordingly. This means that sites that have a blog attached where users are generating their own unique content to their own site are going to start to see better ranking results. I noticed that already I have seen big jumps by some of my keywords. For example, that same term, Custom WordPress Sites, when I search it in a cache cleared browser not logged into Google, it used to rank on page two of Google. Now I have moved onto the first page of Google and am sitting at number 6.
This once again places a greater importance on blogging and writing new fresh content for your site regularly. If you are not creating new unique content for your site on a regular basis you will probably find yourself dropping down into the abyss of results with the content farmers, black hat SEO users, and plain old spammers. Develop a writing strategy, get a plan in place and start. If you don't think you can find ideas to write about regularly, there are services to help with blog topics from really great bloggers. Saying you don't know what to write about is an excuse that can no longer be tolerated.
From my perspective, I am really happy with these recent changes from Google and am excited to see how this will affect online businesses as things move forward. If your business isn't as successful as you want it to be online, it might be time for a change.
Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors
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I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. I have traveled the country as a social media speaker. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly. We specialize in social media training, online consulting, and the creation of your own custom WordPress site.
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There is so much to keep up on with technology. I always loved activerain for the "google juice"..good to see them cracking down on the BS.. Thanks for the info...great!
Good as it happens news. As we all tweak, torque, rewrench our broadcast signal media beams, you can see that plus changes behind the SE curtain creating waves to catch. Wind to adjust your sails to capitalize on. Organic, lots of leafy home grown organic copy, local images, local video, local maps wagon jack up your marketing reach, frequency, penetration.
I found the JCPenney story to be pretty fascinating. Glad to hear that Google has figured out a way to stop rewarding those that game the system.
Marcie- Google Definitely laid the smack down on them!
Thank you for this info...appreciated, indeed.
thx Jeremy. It sounds like all of these changes are good and will benefit the real content providers. Glad to hear it.
Sounds like just rewards for those of us who blog on a regular basis. Thanks for sharing the news.
Jeremy,
There are so many cyberspace farmers. This really does raise the true value of original content.
Steve
Jeremy, this is very good news as far as the scrapper sites go. I have been so sick of them taking my content and then getting a Google Alert on it.
I need to check my stat's since the change.
Jeremy, lots of good stuff here. Gotta digest it sloooowwwwllly. Thanks.
Jeremy, as always, great info and thanks for sharing. This must mean that AR blogs will continue to garner good google juice due to the original content.
Another fantasitc post Jeremy. You teach me something new everytime. I'm glad to hear that other can't farm the benefits of our hard work. Keep up the great posts.
Thanks Jeremy, I feel I have so much more to learn everyday. I have a blog Link on my website to my activerain blog. How does Google view this?
Jeremy, wow, what an interesting post. I am still new to SEO and the baggage that goes with it but am trying to learn just as fast as I can. Thanks for the information, going to bookmark your page so I can find it easily a little later. "Suggest".
Dear Jeremy,
Nice to know that Google is concerned about the people who study the system to take advantage of it.
Reminds me of the eyeglass crook that finally got "taken down" for his online behavior. His whole technique was to make people so angry that they made many online complaints which boosted his count.
A completely outrageous person who tried cheating one time too many. A young woman stood up to him and eventually prevailed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/business/07borker.html
Have a happy day -
Lynn
Wow...I had no idea. You get the suggest button for me. This just blows me away. I'm glad that they're drawing the line.
Thanks for hitting suggest for me Larry! I'd love for this to get a gold star & spread the word to others!
Missy has hit it, I have been Google alerted on stuff of mine that is on other sites, and not in a good way. This is good news, and I will be following the progress a bit more closely. Thanks for the heads up
Dear Jeremy,
One more thing - forgot to thank you for your teaching videos - great help!
It would be wonderful if you did one post with links to all your teaching videos.
A big help for *newbies* like me and everyone else who wants to do this medium up royal.
Have a happy day -
Lynn (again)
Glad to hear Google is finally taking on the content farms. This is long overdue.
Thanks for the heads up but my site just went down 3 pages for some reason? Why would that happen as I write original content.
I checked my stats the other day and found that I had moved from ~60 up to 16 in my local market. I'll definitely take that and kiss google on the cheek.
Thanks for the update Jeremy! Way to stay up on the ever changing Google technology. It's amazing the content farms got away with their game for this long. Glad to hear of this change so results become more accurate.
Thanks for helping us keep up
Thank you. This is really great news for me.
I was super excited to see my rankings now. I had three out of the top ten and I wasn't there three weeks ago.
Thanks for the update Jeremy. Glad to see Google kicking the content farms to the curb!
Another informative post today. Thank you for getting this out to us.
Patricia/Seacoast NH & ME
JB...
Excellent info and I'm glad to hear that Google is striving to return relavant resukts.
I read about this on the NY Times the other day and was very glad to know the news. I was also surprised at the number of people in the comments who either didn't like the change or didn't understand what it meant.
Jeremy, I read this earlier today and was doing back flips! I am thrilled. We work hard at keeping our content valuable and pump our blog full of informative articles 4-5 times a week. Cheaters be gone, lol.
Thanks a lot, Jeremy.
The story about JCPenney is fascinating... Finally, playing by the rules will be rewarded!
Tatyana.
Jeremy thanks for the update. It is really good to see Google stop rewarding sites that were basically garbage. Now is definitely a great time to make a blogging push.
Jeremy,
There are so many changes taking place always. These sound like good changes for those writing fresh contest daily. Thanks for the update.
Great Blog..Thanks for the insight.
Pete Gentry
Managing Broker, Florida Commercial Real Estate Services.
Hi Jeremy. I read about the latest changes. At least with blogging... fresh content rules.
"If you are not creating new unique content for your site on a regular basis you will probably find yourself dropping down into the abyss of results"
Well put and absolutely essential! Thanks for posting this
You lost me on a lot of it, but the one thing that I did understand was that Google likes original content!! Sites that have blogs attached creating original content . . . Google likes. I get that. That's good news.
Jeremy,
Thanks for the information. I plan to develop a new strategy to deal with Google. I did have them deactivate a blog which was hosted by Blogger. It had excellent placement in terms of search results, but it's now been gone for 2 months.
Brian
Google certainly keep everyone on their toes and playing their best game... Some interesting changes are the works.
Jeremy, I've been working on the front page of my website for the past several days. Today is the first time I've been on the first page of Springfield Mo Real Estate......thinking it was all my hard work. Now you tell me it's google changing! My bubble just got busted........the good news is I'm on the first page.. now I need to work on my social media presence.
Jeremy, this is fabulous news for those of us who work hard to create original content. Sometimes I get StepRep alerts and I go to the site and there my name is weaved in among thousands of words and sometimes some other AR people - not those guys will be put in the hinterlands of Google, where they belong :)
Sharon
I love it. Get through the clutter and on to the real results. Thanks for the info.
I also need to check my stats. It looks like a good time to post those drafts I've got written.
Jeremy- I would like to tell those who do have good content on their sites, they may see their sites drop into abyss but don't fret. If you have good keyword rich content and using a social media strategy along with that content and attracting good links, you will rise back up. Whenever Google shifts like this, good sites seem to get punished but when the algorithm adjusts you will find yourself back on top. We have some clients we coach who even got letters from google saying they are scraper sites when they are not. It happens.
More importantly if your placement has changed I strongly suggest for you to do nothing, but have patience and wait. Google baits. So don't get caught eating their bait. If you do some major changes in SEO because of falling off of page one, that will be detected, if you wait, most often you will be back on page one soon again.
This also makes getting good inbound links a priority. They are placing even more importance on good links into your site that are from authoritative sites.
I'm thrilled to see Google constantly updating their algorithms. Each effort they take to remove some of the tricks out there will help the public get better content.
It's a tremendous undertaking to post regularly. I am at the point where I am going to support my main domain and let the others slide a bit.
Jeremy - Thank you for the update on what Google is doing and how we can use it to our best advantage.
Hi Jeremy,
very interesting, this may in fact have us re think our web approach cuuently we use AR for blogging and P2A for our website, not sure if this is still a workable method.
thanks
Vickie- You can still post to your other sites. Google still loves syndication. Use Social media and RSS feeds, Social Bookmarking and writing comments to help get links back to your main site. Use your outer sites to feed links to your main site. IF your outer content sites gets dropped it is not the end of the world. Just make sure your first original content goes on your main site. Then syndicate from there to the others and feed the links back into your main site and you should be fine:)
Great information Jeremy. Thanks for sharing. Google is always changing things and you help keep everyone updated
Thanks for the post. I wasn't aware of content farmers. Hope this change will be good for me. Have to blog regularly now!
Jeremy,
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it that you understand this stuff and then share in a way we can all grasp!
Excellent. Thank you for sharing. Big news and good suggestions.
Jeremy - I have a question for you in response to this. I frequently write articles on my AR blog that I replicate on our flagship website. Do I need to link back to the original post to ensure the duplication on the second site does not hinder either site? Just curious - and thanks for the update. I find this to be fabulous news, truly.
Wow thanks everyone! Glad you all found this post helpful. As Katerina mentioned, your stuff might slide a little in the beginning, but if you give it time and continue doing things properly you will see it rise to the top. Remember cream rises to the top :)
I am excited to Jeremy as all the custom content I produce for years will have more of an impact then ever before! :) I do also tell my clients the same thing that if they slip, no fear, it will readjust since we staying on track.. can be shocking though when it happens.
Ok Fine
I have fallen ... I can't get up!
Jeremy,
Read this the other day and I say YAY! and about time!! Those of us that work in the arena may have some liverage, of course until we see what's next that we'll have to over come.
It amazes me how one company like Google have so much power when it comes to the Internet. Go America
Isn't it amazing to see what can be done on Google! It is increeible to know that the little guy can get his/her message out there for the world to notice!
Thanks for explaining the changes to Google search. I heard about this when they announced the change, but didn't quite know the impact. jay
Good morning Sir and thank you for this timely heads up.
Actually Graham, that does no good... you links on posts on AR are given a <nofollow> tag, so the search engines do not see them & give you zero backlinks from it.
Secondly, you are violatinng AR community guidelines that state you should not advertise yourself in the comment section of another persons blog.
Graham #65, per AR community guidelines, you aren't supposed to link off of posts in your comments. Following rules is a pretty important part of selling real estate.
Jeremy...I jumped over from the cave when I read this "guideline" violation. Who doesn't know climbing on someone else's shoulders to improve your view is wrong?
So very true Steve.
Came from the Cave, too. If this was an accepted fact (ala #65), every comment would just be jammed with links. Rediculous.