Google’s Ranking Strategy: Prioritize Quality Content
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102064122
Recently, Google released its latest page ranking algorithm Panda 4.1, which is the culmination of a long series of overhauls intended to improve the user experience. In particular, Google aims to give more visibility to pages that provide users with quality content instead of buzzwords or links that try to game the system.
Quality content is a very subjective term but the article provides a useful example. In the case of one article titled, “How to eliminate, kill or get rid of frogs”, the website saw a lot of traffic but a majority of users were left unsatisfied due to the lack of concrete information. Google’s new ranking algorithm punishes sites like these, which only aim to get ad revenue instead of focusing on the user experience. Later on, this article was rewritten so that a detailed 10 step process was described and links to frog-killing products were provided. Unsurprisingly, the traffic came back.
Unlike the algorithm described in class, Google’s new algorithm also works around the classic concept of Hubs and Authorities. In class, we were taught that hubs who linked to reliable authorities became stronger hubs, and authorities that were linked to by popular hubs became more reliable authorities. However, the system is becoming harder to game. Take the case of HubPages for instance. This site used to link to thousands of user generated articles all across the web. However, some of the information was declared unreliable or even “spammy”, so Hubpages actually saw a 49% loss in traffic after the Panda update.
The solution then? Hiring a bunch of writers to generate quality content. Hubpages restructured and began to focus on those few top links that seemed to generate the most interest. As one would expect, traffic bounced back 47% from the previous year. The traditional Hubs/Authorities algorithm was easily exploitable so ultimately, it’s good to know that Google is trying to prioritize user experience over all else.