In a chess move with so-called Content Farms, The Google revised its methods to improve the usefulness of its results last week, according to The New York Times.
But the new algorithm change does not address the full scope of techniques that sites use to manipulate Google. It is a constant cat-and-mouse game — as soon as Google makes a change, Web developers figure out a way around it.
“This change is about more than just cleaning up content farms,” said Chris Copeland, chief executive of GroupM Search. “Google has a relevancy problem, and they are trying to do something about it.”
Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land, said, “The change may not necessarily improve the results — hopefully it will — but it will definitely improve the perception of Google.”
On his site, Sullivan offers a working definition of Content Farms:
- * Looks to see what are popular searches in a particular category (news, help topics)
* Generates content specifically tailored to those searches
* Usually spends very little time and or money, even perhaps as little as possible, to generate that content