Google vs. the Farms

Perhaps spurred-on by an expose in a recent New York Times article, Google has launched an offensive against link and content farms. These farms exist solely to "juice" other sites with outgoing links, or host repetitive and decidedly useless "information" on often general topics which pay writers according to the number of pageviews their content generates. Google says the algorithm update has been in the works for over a year, but will only affect about 12% of search results.

Granted, this means less than 90% of Google's search results will be affected, but it is significant. Google makes minor tweaks to its algorithm as many as 500 times per year, but this particular update is larger and more sweeping than usual. Some content "farm" owners said they have seen some of their content decline, while other content did quite well -- which is usual for any Google update.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011