“Content is king” is already an overused phrase in SEO and Internet marketing practices. But, it still rings true up to this day. Why? Blame it all on Google’s search algorithms: the Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird. While Google PageRank still is the chief ranking system, where it measures the amount of links to and from a website, unique and original content still matters.
The Panda has become the codeword for recent changes in ranking algorithms where Google ranked sites utilizing texts and keywords embedded on individual pages. This means that a page with tons of text that incorporate keywords an end user was searching for would rank high in search results. However practical it was, it backfired.
Users would cash in on that system and stuff tons of keywords on their websites. Some website owners would cram keyword phrases hundreds of times on single pages and sometimes cheat by way of scraper sites.
By web scraping, these website owners would steal content, copy and paste it, thus creating duplicate articles. Then they would place ads on their sites, which could be built automatically by the hundreds and would deceive search engines. This results into seconding the visitor who would be clicking on the ads, providing the revenue for the scraper site.
Google swiftly adjusted Panda again and now sought for complete articles, thus ignoring the copy and pasters. However, spun content have cropped up using spinning tools. Spinning software is designed to develop articles that incorporate the keywords. Google’s search spiders are only automatons that would not know the difference between spun articles and actual, original articles.
Until recently, Google has changed its search algorithms again by studying and using human test subjects while they browsed websites and ranked them by speed, quality, trustworthiness, design, etc. Panda’s learning algorithm is now influenced by the tests people have conducted to learn and spot actual articles from spun content, high quality sites from low quality, scraper sites.
In 2012, Google has brought Penguin into the fold. Along with a Panda update, the new search algorithm has banned sites that have infringed on websmaster guidelines. Keyword stuffing, fake, duplicated articles, link schemes, scraper sites, and other black hat search engine optimization (SEO) practices are now being ignored and prohibited.
In 2013, Google has announced the Hummingbird. According to Google, Hummingbird pays particular attention to each word, which ensures that the whole sentence or context is addressed. This means that the usage of keyword synonyms have been enhanced with Hummingbird. Now, Google exhibits theme-related results rather than listing results with exact keywords or phrases.
With Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird in tow, Google only addresses legit, quality sites. So, in order to obtain good site rankings and decent traffic, websites got to have genuine subject information that it promotes. Also required are genuine articles written by real human writers. The more actual and original articles and blog posts with relevant keywords, the higher the ranking.
The new search algorithm updates have established the need for site owners to bring up-to-date their websites with tons of useful, original content. This proves beneficial to the end user who just want to input a keyword and get a decent search result.