Keeping Search Results Helpful and High-Quality
Every day, many people use Search to find the best information on the internet. Google had rules and automated systems for a long time to fight against spammers trying to manipulate the search results with low-quality content. Google regularly updates those rules and systems to effectively deal with new spamming tactics. This allows Google to keep delivering useful content and connecting people with high-quality websites.
On March 5 Google announced important changes making to improve the quality of Search and make the results more helpful:
- Better quality ranking: Google is enhancing its core ranking systems to make sure Google surfaces the most helpful information from the web in the search results. This will prevent unoriginal, copied content from showing up.
- New and improved anti-spam policies: Google updating its policies against spam to keep the lowest-quality content out of Search results. This includes old, expired websites that new owners try to fill with spam, as well as spam related to obituaries.
By making these improvements, it aims to provide you with more useful, trustworthy search results from high-quality sources across the web. Its goal is to make Search as helpful as possible for finding what you need.
Reducing Low-Quality Content in Search Results
In 2022, Google started adjusting its ranking systems to remove unhelpful, copied content from Search results and keep the amount very low. it is now applying what Google has learned from that work into a major update happening in March 2024.
This update involves improving some of its core ranking systems to better identify if web pages are unhelpful, provide a poor user experience, or seem to be made just for search engines rather than for people. This could include sites created mainly to match very specific search queries.
Google believes these updates will decrease the amount of low-quality content showing up in Search results and instead send more traffic to helpful, high-quality sites. Based on its testing, Google expects that by combining this update with their previous efforts they will collectively reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%.
The goal is to make sure Search results contain useful, original content from high-quality sources across the web. Google wants to provide you with the most relevant and trustworthy information when you search.
Keeping More Spam Out of Search Results
For a long time, Google has used advanced systems and policies to prevent the lowest-quality, spam content from appearing in search results - and it is continuing that work.
Google making several updates to its spam policies to better address new and evolving abusive practices that lead to unoriginal, low-quality content showing up in Search results. Starting on March 5, Google will take action on more types of these manipulative behaviors. While its ranking systems already keep much low-quality content from ranking highly on search, these updates allow Google to take more targeted action under its spam policies.
Mass Content Spam
Google had a policy against using automation to generate low-quality or copied content on a large scale with the goal of manipulating search rankings. This policy originally targeted instances where it was clear automation was involved.
Today, methods for creating content at scale are more advanced, and it's not always obvious if automation is used. To better address these tactics, Google is strengthening its policy to focus on this abusive behavior - producing content at a massive scale to boost search ranking - whether automation, humans, or a combination are involved. This will let Google take action on more types of low-value content created largely to try to rank for popular searches.
Site Reputation Abuse
Sometimes, websites with great original content may also host low-quality third-party content with the goal of benefiting from the site's good reputation. For example, a third party might publish payday loan reviews on a trusted education site to gain better rankings.
Such low-value, third-party content produced mainly for ranking purposes and without close oversight from the site owner will now be considered spam. Google has announced this policy change two months in advance on May 5 to give site owners time to make needed changes.
Expired Domain Spam
Occasionally, people buy expired domains and reuse them with the main intention of trying to boost low-quality or copied content's search rankings. This can mislead users into thinking the new content is part of the old site, which may not be true.
Expired domains purchased and repurposed with the intention of boosting low-quality content's search rankings are now considered spam.
Google helps billions of people find information every day, but there are always areas for improvement. Google will continue working hard to keep low-quality content in Search results at low levels while showing more helpful, high-quality information.
0 Comments