The other day when we were checking client rankings on the Google search engine, we noticed something new that was never there before. Google is taking another step towards fighting spam by polling people on the search engine results page (SERPs). This is shown in the image to the left. The Google web spam team wants to know if the results that were found are good or bad.
Gauging Google
With millions of people using Google everyday, this is a good way to gauge what results are spammy and in what industries. As an example, the search results in the payday loan industry are very spammy when compared to searching for a chiropractor. The web spam team at Google wants to know this so that they can clean up the results and deliver at the highest quality for the users.
Guidelines
In the past three years Google has been changing the guidelines to determine which websites should and shouldn’t rank. The search engine giant literally makes the rules for their own results. Yes it has been more difficult for internet marketers. However, it is for the good of the users.
Algorithm Update 1
Panda was the first major algorithm update during this time. Panda is focused on content of a website. For example, if there are less than 250 words on a page then this is considered slim content. Another example, is if the page was in broken English than it would not be considered a useful page. Factors like these hurt website rankings.
Algorithm Update 2
Penguin is the second major algorithm update. Penguin is focused on links coming into a website. Weighing where these links come from, are they natural or purchased, what type of text is in the links. If your site has to many incoming links with the keywords you are trying to rank for, this can be considered spammy. This will hurt your websites rankings.
We think it a great idea that Google is doing this because they are trying to provide the best results for their users. If you want to provide the best results for the users of your website, give us a call at HopInTop.
