Google updates algorithm, targeting content farms

We saw this one coming a while back, and now it's live: Google has made changes to their algorithm that will reduce the ranking of so-called "content farms" like Demand Media or eHow, who create all those wonderful articles like "How to Get Pregnant" (seriously). These articles, though marginally informative, don't really exist to provide unique, useful information; they exist to sell ads on those very pages, and that advertising is big business - Demand Media's IPO was valued at more than one billion dollars.

It remains to be seen exactly how content farm pages will suffer in ranking. Demand Media and other large-scale content providers have been anticipating this change for quite a while, so I expect they're already attempting to work around it. But, there's no denying that web users have staged something of a revolt against low-quality, high-volume content creators, and Google had no choice if it wanted to be perceived as delivering good search results.

The twist? Google, as the largest online ad network in the world, makes millions off the ads that are shown on these sites. Reducing the ranking of high-volume content farm pages will undoubtedly impact Google's ad revenue. No one has any idea how much impact this will have on ranking or revenue, but if you're interested in an in-depth overview of the change, Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land has put together a thorough, detailed analysis.

Maybe that Groupon deal isn't so awesome

Check out this article over at the eBlox e-commerce blog about MerchantCircle's latest small business survey – some great info on social media and the effectiveness of deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, including this money quote: "55 percent of people who have run a daily deal campaign said they would not do so again."

This Thursday, we'll discuss local deal sites as part of our Web Marketing seminar, and this is good reading ahead for that. The eBlox blog piece is here. The full press release from MerchantCircle can be found here.

Is Google Ignoring The HTML Title Tag More Often?

With all our talk about the importance of title tags, this one comes as a bit of shocker - many webmasters are complaining that Google is ignoring title tags in certain situations and generating its own titles for search engine results. That means that the carefully keyworded, clickthru-optimized titles that you wrote for your pages might not show up when someone searches for your site on Google.

Don't worry, though: they'll always show up on your own site! This may mean that Google is giving less (or no) weight to the keywords and order of title tags, which probably makes sense given that Google focuses pretty much exclusively on page content. Also, Google's own Chrome browser happens to do a terrible job of displaying titles in its tabs if you've got more than a few tabs open, so it's possible that Google feels the tag itself isn't as important as it used to be.

More than likely, though, Google is treating the title tag the way that it began treating the meta description tag a few years ago: it decides what to do with it based on an algorithm. If it's good, brief and non-spammy, Google uses it, but if it looks loaded with keywords, or perhaps over-optimized for click thru, Google will ignore it and create its own. I'll keep you posted on this one....

Search Optimization and Its Dirty Little Secrets - NYTimes.com

Comprehensive overview of how JC Penney gamed Google's search engine over the holiday season. If you're looking for a reasonably succinct explanation of how "black hat", or under-the-table search engine optimization works, this is a good place to start.

In JC Penney's case, they weren't caught until the New York TImes pointed it out, and they weren't penalized as harshly as others who game Google; they were just demoted in ranking to where they should actually be based on their quality. It's an interesting story, and it shows that even big companies who try to game Google can only be successful at it for so long. Full article here.

The Huffington Post and SEO

Some interesting detail on what, exactly, AOL was paying for when they purchased The Huffington Post last week. Similar in some ways to the strategy used by so-called "content farms" such as Demand Media, The Huffington Post employs techniques that mine the internet for popular trends and searches. Once a popular set of keywords are determined (e.g. "what time is the Superbowl?"), Huffington Post writers often create articles geared specifically to capturing clicks from search engines for that content.

To be fair, The Huffington Post also creates a good deal of original editorial content that is less engineered toward search engine eyeballs. But their search engine-tuned content chops are what bring in the money and triggered the acquisition. I'll leave the determination of whether they are contributing to the rise of junk content up to you. Full article here.

PayPal's Micropayment Solution Opens to the Public

PayPal's Micropayment Solution Opens to the Public

For those of you selling any kind of digital downloads, I've always recommended E-Junkie's digital delivery service as a simple, fast way to plug in paid digital downloads to your site. Now, PayPal has released a similar product for anyone selling electronic content like ebooks, music or videos. Get the full story here.

Specialization and Cross-Selling

An article from Identity Marketing on how specialization and cross-selling can be a primary strategy for online sellers in very competitive spaces. Worth checking out if you are planning on selling something where the main keywords are very competitive - like "shoes" or "promotional products". Check it out here.