Biggest Losers in Google’s Algorithm Update
We usually don’t post anything on SEOmistry on the weekends as we let our readers take a bit of a break to soak in all the info that has been thrown at them over the past week however today I really wanted to share this with you all in light of the new Google update.
On 24/02/2011 Google announced a change in their algorithm targeting low quality sites (via Google blog). It has been reported that this algorithm change has impacted almost 12% (11.8%) of queries but who really has been affected by this major change by Google. I have compiled a list of the biggest losers in terms of rankings from a variety of different sources. This gives us a good idea of what not to do and what the new algorithm change actually targets.
According to Sistrix they managed to figure out the biggest losers of the algorithm change by analysing a data set of over 1 million keywords which they studied the day before and day after the major change. They studied the change in rankings between the two days and created the table below.
via SISTRIX
This table from Sixtrix shows us the URL, percentage SISTRIX loss, SISTRIX before Google update, SISTRIX after Google laptop and the number of keywords that the respective site rank for within the Sistrix 1 million dataset both before and after the change. The table is sorted from largest absolute SISTRIX loss to least and by judging by the sites within this Sistrex top 25 biggest loser list it seems as though Google has done a great job with penalising low quality content farms.
According to SEOClarity who have analysed a data set of 60,000 keywords looking at before and after rankings to come up with their biggest losers and winners. From this data they have come up with the top 10 losers in terms of overall rankings. Here are their top 10:
- TheFind.com
- BizRate.com
- ShopWiki.com
- EzineArticles.com
- HubPages.com
- Buzzillions.com
- Shopping.com
- Suite101.com
- Kaboodle.com
- AssociatedContent.com
In addition to the biggest losers SEOclarity also looked at the sites tat received the biggest gains. Here are the top 10 in terms of gains.
- Amazon.com
- eHow.com
- NexTag.com
- Wikipedia.com
- Walmart.com
- Target.com
- Etsy.com
- Answers.Yahoo.com
- Sears.com
- bestonlinecoupons.com
It seems as though brands have benefited greatly from the recent change. Surprisingly eHow.com and anwers.yahoo.com experienced significant gains too. According to the data eHow.com experienced the 2nd highest gain behind Amazon.com.
More details in the SEOclarity pdf report
Despite Google not admitting that they are targeting content farms with their new update the stats show otherwise with nearly all the biggest losers being huge content farms. There are some exceptios however such as Demand Media’s eHow.com which very surprisingly received a gain in rankings. Here s Demand Media’s statement in regards to the Google Algorithm update:
http://www.demandmedia.com/blog/a-statement-about-search-engine-algorithm-changes/
As Google continues this fight against low quality “content farms” it is becoming increasingly important to ensure you pump out high quality unique content. It is always good to remember when doing SEO work to try to “work with” the search engines rather than trying to “game” or trick them.
Would love to hear what you guys think about the recent algorithm change and the biggest losers/winner above…
[...] update on biggest winners / losers from the google algorithm changes via seomistry.com [...]
[...] to one independent analysis, the overall rankings for EzineArticles and Associated Content had tumbled, but eHow’s had [...]
[...] in Google’s search results after the changes were put into place. SEOClarity, which independently analyzed 60,000 keywords, reached the same [...]
One thing I’m not hearing a lot about is the effect on link juice. Many sites may have links on “Farm” sites and as their authority and rank decreases so will their link juice. In reality the amount websites affected by this change is much higher than 11.8%. IMO.
This is huge. I can’t believe this has happened. Personally, I love it. I love when these big shifts take place, watching people freak out about it on the net, but the observing and taking part in the inevitable recalibration to get back on track and conform, if you will, to the new “rules.”
Wow, ezine got hit really hard! But that’s probably a good thing for the internet in general. It’s not much fun getting bombarded with hundreds of ezine articles when you’re trying to find useful information on the net.
yeh I think this farmer/panda update is really great. The update is definitely in favor of sites who are really working hard on white hat seo and gaining rankings the “proper” way through relationship link building.
Content farms and spammy sites are somewhat weeded out from results which gives more space for “proper” sites. If you did see a drop in traffic and you are working hard with white hat seo that isn’t the end of the world as rankings that were lost were probably for queries that weren’t very relevant or high converters.