Is Google Really Stricter Now?

With everything I've always known about fighting against spam and providing high-quality content, I do wonder. Is Google really stricter now or just working harder to push standards they've always had?

What Google Has Always Wanted

As far as I know, Google never wanted “junk” in their search engines. They always wanted content that was not only search engine friendly but also was useful to site visitors. I never knew of Google wanting any kind of spammy or poor-written text on web pages. I also never heard of them ever wanting site owners to copy and past content they found on other sites.

So What Really Has Changed?

Of course, no one really knows exactly what it is different post-Panda versus pre-Panda. After all, it's not like Google is going to just announce all their secrets to the world. Why would they? However, they always have had the same guidelines, but now just have a different way of automatically detecting the good from the bad.

The main change now is the new algorithmic calculations Google has made to determine ranking. It's quite a complex system—much too complicated for the average website owner. However, they do need to know that the same standards for website content still apply. The only thing is, now bad content is easier to spot.

Factors Causing De-Ranking

I've heard quite a bit lately about sites that have been de-ranked. This basically means they do not hold the same prominent position in search engine results that they held previously. Why is that?

Image Licensed Under Attribution

The following are important qualities of successful websites:

• Appealing website design-The color schemes work and the images belong in the spots they are displayed. The logo represents the business as well as what's presented on the site pages.
• Unique content-All the articles on the site should be as different from one another as possible. If a website owner chooses to write about the same topic several times, I think it should have enough of a unique angle in each article to set it apart from the rest.
• High-quality content-Every single blog post and article displayed on the site should be free from spelling and grammar errors. However, it's more than that. Each piece of writing should have a definite beginning, middle and end. Solutions to problems and thoughtful epiphanies attract readers more than collections of random thoughts.
• Use of honest ranking techniques-This is a huge subject I'd rather save for another time. To summarize, this means that website owners should show the public who they really are and not hide them from their true identities. They should represent themselves to others.

What Webmasters Should Not Do

The best piece of advice to give as far as what not to do is to make sure website owners do not put nonsense on their sites. I've seen some very ridiculous things on site pages in the past.

Sometimes all it would be is a bunch of random keywords and no real content, and just lists of links. This is not good, and this is the kind of thing Google is now trying to avoid.

     Erin Walsh

About the Author:

Erin Walsh is a technology junky and the Director of Public Relations of Boost Software. She enjoys blogging about topics in technology and occasionally guest posts on popular blogs about some of the most recent techniques that she uses in search engine optimization. You can read more about her speciality topics at PC Health Boost.