Takeaways from Discussion with Matt Cutts - The Google Update is Coming

When I first entered the business of online marketing through affiliate programs it was relatively easy to optimize my websites to achieve top rankings with the search engines. All that was required for this was keyword focused content and many link exchanges with other webmasters. These techniques resulted in multiple number 1 listings at Google.

Now, as many of us are already well aware, the days of gaming the search engines, especially Google, are quickly vanishing. Still, webmasters cling to the idea of optimizing their sites to perfection

Excessive link exchanges and writing content solely based on a keyword list and density formula are now considered spam. Google has worked hard to develop and deploy strong measures to combat these techniques. I certainly learned that the hard way when I was “Google Whacked” after an update.

That is where my journey towards becoming a quality content evangelist began.

In seeking help for my business, I began attending search engine conferences and was fortunate enough to meet Google engineer Matt Cutts. I discussed my old approach toward Search Engine Optimization at length with Matt and he responded in part by asking me “How natural is it if your pages are looking too similar in keyword density?” It was at that point that I shifted my focus to content based solely on the visitor and not an algorithm.

When you read the Google Webmaster guidelines it clearly states:
“Make pages for users, not for search engines.”
And
“Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank.”

For the most part webmasters have ceased link exchanges in an attempt to increase link popularity and have moved towards article distribution. Article distribution can be a great way to acquire inbound links. When done properly, it is an effective form of website promotion.

However, article distribution is not without problems. Distributing articles is still a form of link manipulation when it is not performed in a controlled fashion.

Scraper sites that publish uncontrolled articles create content pollution and artificial link popularity. Google has a challenging problem here as black hat SEO’s are now building a quality site and using this as a method to boost link popularity. When done in this fashion, it is nothing more than link spamming.

This becomes difficult to detect due to the mass amounts of free articles that are available. A webmaster can easily produce hundreds of sites using free article distribution sources with each site appearing to have quality elements.

The problem is furthered by widely available content generation tools such as ArticleBot which can take these free articles to generate seemingly unique content.

The way to combat this is to combine duplicate content filters (including semantically duplicate content) and increased link spam detection (further improvements will be made in link spam detection.) Read the Stanford University technical report “Link Spam Detection Based on Mass Estimation”

The Stanford report introduces a measure of link manipulation called Spam Mass (how much PageRank has accumulated from spam pages). When duplicate content filters are combined with spam mass level, article spam effectiveness will be diminished.

With the upcoming Google update rolling out towards the end of this month or possibly early March, there will be a very serious focus on eliminating spam from the index.

What you can expect to see in the next update:

In November, Matt Cutts mentioned to me that the following issues would be part of the algorithm update that is coming:

1. An increased focus on duplicate content filters.

The duplicate content filters will have more sophistication to determine what site was the original owner for the content. This will eliminate at least 3 problems:

- Scraper sites stealing content and profiting from it.
- Reduce the effectiveness of artificial inflation of link popularity via article distribution. (if performed en-mass, this is manipulation of the SERP’s)
- Automated article generation software

By including advancement with LSI technology into the duplicate content filters, Google will be making a huge step towards the elimination of auto-generated websites which are at the core of search engine spam.

2. 302 redirect exploit problem is supposed to be fixed. Finally!

Further to the algorithm update, Google will be measuring temporal duration through data caching. The duration of a visit and depth is certainly a true measure of site quality. After all, why not let the visitors dictate what quality is? I believe Google is already doing this based on a question that Matt Cutts asked me: “What is the percentage of visitors that are book marking your site”?

The only way to keep your visitor on your site and coming back is to provide stellar content. Webmasters must become dedicated to their visitors by providing them with current and accurate information as well as unique ideas that are thought provoking.

To hear more from me, tune into SEO Radio this Tuesday February 14 at 9 AM Pacific / 12 Noon Eastern time where I will be a guest of Brad Fallon.

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