X.Feng

Google had recently announced a change in its search algorithm, which drops low-quality websites in results while elevating high-quality websites with original content such as research, in-depth reports and thoughtful analyses. This change is expected to affect over 11% of all search queries. (Article: Google clamps down on “content farms”)

This was done as a response against “content farms” which are low quality websites that figured out how to play the search engine optimization (SEO) game by repeating content that favours its search ranking instead of writing for quality.

Consumers of content, like you and I, would probably be happy with how we’re able to get better search results on Google. But this move is likely to have more implications on online marketers who are learning to play the SEO game. Certain SEO approaches, especially the quick and unorthodox ones that worked well before may be totally trashed and the new playing field would now require online marketers to work more on their quality of content in order to improve their search rankings. In addition to compelling content, what works is the originality of it. One possible way could be to add social engagement to the site.