Determine if Google’s Algorithm Changes are Aimed at You — How To

A handy guide to determine if Google is gunning for you.

The prior week Google disclosed some changes to its algorithm that affect a whopping 12% of search results.

The target?

“low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful”

While some say this is aimed at so-called “content farms”, here are the warning signs that this change is aimed at your web site(s):

– You created your web site with the click of a button (or a few buttons)

– You didn’t create any original content for your web site

– Your web site asks questions but doesn’t provide answers — and is waiting for a “user” to generate the answer for you (ahem)

– When users do answer those questions, the answers suck (ahem)

– You developed a hundred sites in a weekend

– Although your web site presents existing information in a “unique” way, hundreds of other web sites have also tried to present that same information in a “unique” way

– Your web site is a splog

– Your content is similar to that found on other web sites; you just re-write it in a different way

– Your only plan for traffic generation is search traffic