It seems that Google has implemented a duplicate content filter across their search engine. One of my higher trafficked sites has been hit squarely in the jaw - and it may not get up off the mat!
On this particular site, I loaded several thousand keywords into the database, and associated each of them with a category. Then, I wrote a brief description of the category using a main keyword. Then I replaced the main keyword with each sub-keyword for the category over and over. It was basically duplicated content, with keyword replacements. Not exactly junk, but definitely not a useful "article" - it ranked very well in the SERPS for terms with little competition. I was the king of my category for every obscure search that didn't warrant a big article by the majors - and I did very well.
The latest google update has dropped this site to the bottom of the search results, but not completely out. It seems that google has implemented some sort of algorithm to detect text that is used over and over, in sufficient quantity to be duplicate content. This seems to be a site-wide penalty because of dup content - and not a individual page ranking issue.
Although I feel that this site offered information that was useful to somebody that found it (customer reviews of companies that provide services), the method that I used to rank in the search engines was not directly in line with the Google webmaster guidelines and therefore I cannot complain that it got booted. I applaud their spam fighting efforts, and I'm sure the SERPS are better off with this algorithm in place.
BUT - They'll always be a step behind the people that put the spam on the web. They will forever be reacting to new techniques by spammers to get content on the web and links pointed to their sites, and traffic flowing across their servers. But, they always do a good job of reacting, and the spammers need to keep on the move to stay in the SERPS. A site that's making money one day can be in the dumper the next.
So, the question that needs to be asked is this: As a webmaster, is it worthwhile to be a spammer? The answer is...
Unfortunately - the answer is still "yes". But, be ready for a high amount of volatility in your business, and be prepared to spend a major amount of time trying to find the secret sauce to get by google's amazing algorithms.
btw - as of this writing, Yahoo and MSN have not come close to G's spam detection algorithms. The traffic from these two sources is still flowing.
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>> There are only 10 kinds of people in the world - those that know binary and those that don't.
Labels: seo