Rumours of targeted Google algorithm changes yet again surface with news of a massive visibility reduction for the website Ciao.co.uk. The Microsoft owned website has taken a big fall in the search engine results on Google, resulting in fresh calls for sanctions over the way Google can easily block out the competition. This is an issue purely because of the shear dominance of Google in the UK search market.
Not a stranger to controversy in recent years, Google has been a victim of success in the same manner which Microsoft found during the 1980′s and 90′s. Any change to operations and strategy come under intense scrutiny, and the virtual laws of democracy demand competition enquiry at every turn, let alone U-turn like the Panda update.
Ciao is a price comparison shopping portal which offers not just up-to-date pricing information for would be consumers, but also reviews. One of the main problems with this is the fact that the reviews are not unique, something which causes a problem with content duplication. This usually only comes into play when a certain percentage of a website page is not unique.
Because Ciao is a website populated with duplicated product descriptions, duplicated reviews and very little unique text, the Panda update served them with a severe rankings blow. Intended or not, the message included in the algorithm change was very clear- offer your own opinion, something authoritative, instead of copied text that can be found on various other shopping sites.
Google have a history of making sweeping changes to their Algorithm, and have a documented history of citing user experience as the main motivation behind any update to their famous algorithm.
Not just Microsoft are feeling a hit from the Google Panda update. Other prominent websites which have taken a big fall in ‘visibility’ include Hubpages.com, an all time favourite of SEO companies across the globe. Just like article websites and PR sites, duplicate content is an ever increasing thorn in the side of those wanting a quick fix to search positioning.
HubPages is traditionally one of the places where a SEO company would post an article which links back to a target website, in an attempt to increase the popularity with the search robots. This meant that the content wasn’t usually unique, just one of dozens of places where the one article had been syndicated.
The key questions likely to be raised are not just from a Microsoft or competitors point of view. No doubt the search giant will quote their ongoing quest to make the search engine results pages a better resource [when it comes to the sites found first]. Indeed any drop in rankings on a significant scale are obviously countered by the domains which benefit from the changes.
