5 ms·

Blog Incorrectly Gets Labeled as a 'Content Farm' by Google

17 points by hardik988 16y ago

mgrouchy 16y ago
I'm not saying its not the case that the blog got incorrectly labeled, but 1 week of sample data is probably not enough to draw any valid conclusions.
haentz 16y ago
> To know if these recent changes have had any impact on your site’s ranking You can't know this. Other factors might be at play as well…
sagacity 16y ago
Two points to note: 1. All major Google algo changes (that I know of, at least since 2003/4) have almost always caused collateral damage. Many times, they have kind of turned back the knobs somewhat later to reduce the extent of such damage. 2. Given the size of their index, a major algo change can take up to weeks to stabilise; things might still be in a state of flux and what you're observing now just might not be permanent. I'd not give up hope just yet and give it some more time before drawing any finite conclusions. In the meanwhile, one would just have to bite the bitter bullet in terms of revenue loss. :-(
bauchidgw 16y ago
google changed its ranking algo, some sites loose, some sites win. if the site is a "content farm" or not is pretty much irrelevant.
CraigRood 16y ago
I don't see how this Blog isn't a 'Content Farm'? The site is full of low quality click driven articles - Nothing wrong with it, I'm guilty too. But its nieve to think that you can drive a product and profit off a search engine algorithm.
- paul9290 16y ago
  But hey if your running a not so well known blog and are trying to get traffic, why not write an article saying you were unfairly targeted by Google. Overall this is a current hot topic, might as well try turn this current zeitgeist into a win for your blog or website(gain more traffic & readers).
daliusd 16y ago
How much is "tons" ? If only articles that are linked then that's about 200. I don't know how many articles there are in total in this blog but it looks like there are between 1800 to 18000. Thus original content is between 1% and 10%. Of course I might be wrong and I will leave anyone to give correct information but not my rough estimates made in 1 minute. At the moment I see it as content farm with some original content.
pmorici 16y ago
I don't want to be mean, but, I just read through several articles on that site, and regardless of weather or not it is a content farm it feels a little like one. That is to say we can't know what the Google algorithm is doing for sure but it's safe to say it isn't able know what a site authors true intentions are. So while the author probably means well I won't be to heart broken that this particular site will be a little further down in the Google ranking; farm or not.
- AlexC04 16y ago
  I also thought it was very low quality content. Tutorial: "How to use Drop Box to back up your files" Instructions: Save your files to your drop box folder Tutotial: "How to host your website on amazon S3" Instructions: Save your files to S3 and point a web browser at them. I feel like "Content Farm" is putting it nicely.
  - tzs 16y ago
    If the content is of such low quality, why couldn't you find a couple of examples that could support your point without having to grossly misrepresent them?
mukyu 16y ago
It is funny how all content farms say they aren't content farms and that their content is 'high quality'.
mrlebowski 16y ago
TheFind.com gets labelled content farm. Its a product search engine, direct competitor of Google Products.

17 points by hardik988 16y ago

I'm not saying its not the case that the blog got incorrectly labeled, but 1 week of sample data is probably not enough to draw any valid conclusions.

haentz 16y ago

> To know if these recent changes have had any impact on your site’s ranking You can't know this. Other factors might be at play as well…

sagacity 16y ago

Two points to note: 1. All major Google algo changes (that I know of, at least since 2003/4) have almost always caused collateral damage. Many times, they have kind of turned back the knobs somewhat later to reduce the extent of such damage. 2. Given the size of their index, a major algo change can take up to weeks to stabilise; things might still be in a state of flux and what you're observing now just might not be permanent. I'd not give up hope just yet and give it some more time before drawing any finite conclusions. In the meanwhile, one would just have to bite the bitter bullet in terms of revenue loss. :-(

bauchidgw 16y ago

google changed its ranking algo, some sites loose, some sites win. if the site is a "content farm" or not is pretty much irrelevant.

CraigRood 16y ago

I don't see how this Blog isn't a 'Content Farm'? The site is full of low quality click driven articles - Nothing wrong with it, I'm guilty too. But its nieve to think that you can drive a product and profit off a search engine algorithm.

paul9290 16y ago
But hey if your running a not so well known blog and are trying to get traffic, why not write an article saying you were unfairly targeted by Google. Overall this is a current hot topic, might as well try turn this current zeitgeist into a win for your blog or website(gain more traffic & readers).

daliusd 16y ago

How much is "tons" ? If only articles that are linked then that's about 200. I don't know how many articles there are in total in this blog but it looks like there are between 1800 to 18000. Thus original content is between 1% and 10%. Of course I might be wrong and I will leave anyone to give correct information but not my rough estimates made in 1 minute. At the moment I see it as content farm with some original content.

pmorici 16y ago

I don't want to be mean, but, I just read through several articles on that site, and regardless of weather or not it is a content farm it feels a little like one. That is to say we can't know what the Google algorithm is doing for sure but it's safe to say it isn't able know what a site authors true intentions are. So while the author probably means well I won't be to heart broken that this particular site will be a little further down in the Google ranking; farm or not.

AlexC04 16y ago
I also thought it was very low quality content. Tutorial: "How to use Drop Box to back up your files" Instructions: Save your files to your drop box folder Tutotial: "How to host your website on amazon S3" Instructions: Save your files to S3 and point a web browser at them. I feel like "Content Farm" is putting it nicely.
- tzs 16y ago
  If the content is of such low quality, why couldn't you find a couple of examples that could support your point without having to grossly misrepresent them?

mukyu 16y ago

It is funny how all content farms say they aren't content farms and that their content is 'high quality'.

mrlebowski 16y ago

TheFind.com gets labelled content farm. Its a product search engine, direct competitor of Google Products.