Google today took aim at the SEO industry which has gamified search rankings to destroy the value of Google Search results.
“That’s about to change with the company’s latest search update,” the company announced.
On Tuesday, Google announced a search quality update that will specifically focus on improving the search quality ranking of websites and updating Google Search’s spam policies. The company aims to improve the overall user experience by downranking websites that prioritize search engine algorithms instead of providing value to users.
The update will address various kinds of spam, such as “expired websites repurposed as spam repositories by new owners,” obituary spam, and websites created only to target specific search queries. Through this update and previous efforts, Google aims to reduce low-quality and unoriginal content by 40%.
Google’s announcement alludes to the growing impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the web, as automation continues to be leveraged for scaled content creation. It can be difficult to distinguish between human-created and automated content, making it challenging for search engines to prioritize quality.
The company’s focus is on abusive behavior aimed at boosting search rankings, regardless of how the website was created. This could affect websites that falsely advertise answers to popular search queries, but fail to provide useful information to users.
Additionally, Google’s update will tackle “site reputation abuse,” where reputable websites may also feature low-quality content from third parties in an effort to confuse users and take advantage of their existing reputation. This practice has been highlighted by recent studies that have found Google Search quality to be decreasing, with scammers and low-quality websites gaining an edge.
HouseFresh, a niche product review site, has also been impacted by the increase in SEO spam, with their expert reviews being drowned out by less reputable sources. In a recent blog post, they stated, “Google is killing independent sites like ours,” and shared their concerns about big media publishers outranking legitimate reviews on Google.
The update will also address expired domain abuse, where websites expire and are then repurposed to falsely appear as part of older, reputable sites. This tactic is commonly used to boost low-quality and spam content.
If Google is successful in addressing these issues with its search quality update, it could significantly impact consumers’ trust in Google Search. As AI continues to advance and publishers see a decline in website traffic, it’s becoming increasingly important for search engines to prioritize quality and provide valuable results for users. Google plans to implement these changes on May 5, giving website owners time to adjust accordingly.
