Google’s New Search Algorithm To Target Webspam

Google will be releasing yet another new search engine algorithm. The new algorithm is to target those who spam Google’s search results and go against its publishers guidelines to achieve better rankings.  As per Google, the new algorithm is going to impact close to 3% of total search queries.

The company’s official post on Inside Search and Webmaster Central Blog states that:

“In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines……..this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.”

What is Webspam?

Search Spam or Webspam are those pages that attempt to achieve better rankings by any or all of the following means.

• Keyword Stuffing. “ practice of loading a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google’s search results. Filling pages with keywords results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking”..….Google, Content Guidelines.
• Link Schemes. “Examples of link schemes can include:
  • Links intended to manipulate PageRank
  • Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
  • Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
  • Buying or selling links that pass PageRank”………Google, Content Guidelines.
• “Cloaking, sneaky Javascript redirects, and doorway pages” Google, Content Guidelines.
• Deliberately duplicated content. “In some cases, content is deliberately duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or win more traffic.…” Google, Content Guidelines.

White Hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) To Be Encouraged

The official Google release makes a good contrast between “White Hat SEO” and “Black Hat Webspam”.  As always, it has encouraged White Hat Search Engine Optimizers:

“our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics.”

“Sites affected by this change might not be easily recognizable as spamming…….but the common thread is that these sites are doing much more than white hat SEO; we believe they are engaging in webspam tactics to manipulate search engine rankings.”

“We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites.”

Impact of New Search Algorithm

Google states that the new search algorithm will affect about 3% of queries in languages such as English (3.1%), German, Chinese, and Arabic. This percentage will increase for languages where spam has penetrated deeper such  as  Polish, it is expected that about 5%  Polish search queries will be affected.