Slop antibodies: The link between AI slop, watermarking, and commodity content
From LinkedIn’s anti-slop systems to AI watermarking, platforms are building new ways to identify low-value content. Here’s what survives.
Topic: Content Farm
Reddit uses AI to translate millions of pages and Google’s OK with it
Google also removed the section in their help docs on using the robots.txt to block all automatically translated pages.
Lookback: Google Panda algorithm update launched 13 years ago
Here's a complete history of the Google Panda Update, its impact on search results, and its lasting legacy on SEO.
Google and guest posts: What gets indexed and what doesn’t
Does Google index guest posts from reputable sites? Find out why some guest posts succeed while others fail in this study.
Perplexity Pages showing in Google AI Overviews, featured snippets
You can now find AI overviews generated by the Perplexity search engine in your Google AI Overviews and Search results.
Small review site lost 91% of its Google traffic to affiliate-focused SEO content
Google's search results are dominated by big brands. SEOs for smaller sites are complaining. It's like 2003 all over again.
Oh, Brother: The Verge games Google again for ‘best printer 2024’
The tech rag used Google Gemini to produce the majority of a satirical product review, pointing out that it shouldn't rank. Yet it does.
These 44 hilariously terrible BuzzFeed travel articles were AI-assisted
Need 44 reasons why you need to be careful about publishing AI-assisted content, even if it is easy to do? Meet As Told to Buzzy.
How The Verge gamed Google with its ‘best printer 2023’ article
The authoritative tech publication used ChatGPT to produce the majority of a satirical review, pointing out that it shouldn't rank. Yet it does.
Is AI-written content replacing cheap old content farms?
Red Ventures' use of AI to write cheap content that ranks well in search sure sounds like the old content farms Google Panda wiped out.
Here’s how Google’s helpful content update is going to make AI better
Rewarding higher quality content through search rankings will raise the bar for better use of generative AI too.
Google search results spam for ‘Bill Slawski obituary’ shows the dark side of SEO
This is not a new problem – and it goes far beyond Slawski. Some brands may even be helping fund this low-quality content.
Subdomain leasing and the giant hole in Google’s Medic update
In today's Soapbox, a warning about the hack in low-authority medical advice with content mirrors and "buying guides" slipping through Google's algorithm.
Did Google’s Fred update hit low-value content sites that focus on revenue, not users?
Google won't comment about the "Fred update," but based on our own analysis, many affected sites saw up to a 90% drop in traffic.
Are Games & Lyrics Sites Google Panda 4.1’s Biggest Losers?
Google began rolling out Panda 4.1 last week, a process that continues into this week, but we already have the winners and losers report from SearchMetrics. The biggest winners for Panda 4.1 based on this early report are sites in the news, content and download portal realm. While the biggest losers are sites in the […]
HubPages Acquires Squidoo: Content Migration To Begin Within A Few Weeks
Seth Godin, the founder and owner of Squidoo, announced the social content platform, has been acquired by HubPages. Squidoo was founded back in 2005, where users can create “lenses” of topics and content. Back in 2007, we did a Q&A with the founder and then in 2011 Panda hit, which reportedly had an impact on […]
Panda Strikes Again: Yahoo Voices & The Yahoo Contributor Network Closing Down
Yahoo has announced another round of product cuts and changes, all part of what it calls a continued effort on “furthering our focus.” The most notable cut announced today is the upcoming closure of both Yahoo Voices (voices.yahoo.com) and the Yahoo Contributor Network (contributor.yahoo.com). The former is Yahoo’s home for user-generated articles; the latter is […]
On MetaFilter Being Penalized By Google: An Explainer
MetaFilter is a news and discussion site dating back to the early years of the web. Founded in 1999, it’s attracting attention this week after coming forward about how a Google penalty has severely harmed its business, to the degree of having to let staff go. It serves as a poster child of problems with […]
Google’s Matt Cutts Regrets Not Acting Faster On Paid Links & Content Farms
In Google’s Matt Cutts latest video, he answers a question I personally asked about what he regrets, what decision he regrets making in the past related to webspam. My question specifically was: Was there a key moment in your spam fighting career where you made a mistake that you regret, related to spam? Matt answered […]
Google’s Cutts: Auto-Generated Content & Search Results In Our Index Violate Our Guidelines
In a recent video from Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, Matt discussed a pretty obvious spam tactic that Google will take action on. The question was Does Google take action on automatically generated pages that provide no added value? The answer is, yes. Of course, Google is not perfect and if you see […]
Google Panda Two Years Later: The Real Impact Beyond Rankings & SEO Visibility
(Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles looking at the aftermath of Google’s Panda algorithm update, which launched February 24, 2011. To catch up, please see the first article in the series: Google Panda Two Years Later: Losers Still Losing & One Real Recovery.) Google’s Panda algorithm update, which launched two […]
Google Panda Two Years Later: Losers Still Losing & One Real Recovery
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles looking at the aftermath of Google’s Panda algorithm update, which launched February 24, 2011.) Two years ago today, Google sent shockwaves through not only the SEO industry, but also through online publishing in general when it launched the Panda algorithm update. It was originally […]
Google Search Quality Raters Instructions Gain New “Page Quality” Guidelines
In the wake of Google’s Panda algorithm update, its cadre of human search quality raters has a new task: giving Google specific quality ratings for individual landing pages. The new “Page Quality Rating Guidelines” section adds a whopping 32 pages to the handbook that Google provides to those human raters (via contractors like Lionbridge and […]
New UK Conservative Party Co-Chair Grant Shapps Founded Google Spamming Business
The UK’s Conservative Party has a new co-chair, The Right Honourable Grant Shapps, Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield. Honorable except with Google, which considers the business he apparently founded to be pushing a tool designed to spam its search engine and fill its listings with rubbish. According to The Guardian, Shapps founded HowToCorp in […]
Google Panda Update Costs Demand Media $6.4 Million In 4th Quarter?
Demand Media posts $6.4-million loss in fourth quarter from the Los Angeles Times reports that Google’s Panda algorithm is mostly to blame for Demand Media’s $6.4 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2011. Demand Media released their earnings report last night, showing revenues up 15% year over year, but profits down from a positive […]
Google: Yes, Sponsored Post Campaign Was Ours But Not What We Signed-Up For
It’s been about a day since we covered Google’s sponsored post campaign to promote its Chrome browser, a campaign that produced posts that violate Google’s guidelines against “thin” content and potentially those against buying links. Yes, it was a Google campaign, but not what the company says it signed-up for. One agency is falling on its […]
Google & Bing Have “Won A Major Victory” Over Content Farms, Study Says
Search engines have “won a major victory” in their battle against so-called content farms. So says the current issue of New Scientist magazine, in an article that’s also available online. New Scientist asked University of Glasgow computer scientist Richard McCreadie to study 50 search queries that are “known to be a target of content farmers.” […]
Yahoo Deletes 75,000 Associated Content Articles, Moves Rest To New Yahoo Voices Site
Yahoo is cleaning up Associated Content by deleting some of the articles, moving the keepers to Yahoo’s domain and giving the site a new name, too. And next year, Yahoo will begin an online training course to help its writers create higher quality content. The company has announced plans to “retire” more than 75,000 Associated […]
Bing Bans Holiday Deals Sites, Including One By Group That Created Cyber Monday
Ironically, the trade group that created the Cyber Monday concept had its own CyberMonday.com site lost in cyberspace this week. Lost, that is, if you tried to use Bing to find it. The site, along with some Black Friday deals sites, have been deliberately dropped from Bing as being too “thin” in content. Bing’s Version […]
Demand Media: “We Will Have Fewer eHow.com Assignments For The Foreseeable Future”
Demand Media, the owner of many websites that have often been tagged with the “content farm” label, is planning to slow down its article production at eHow.com, its flagship website with three million articles. Business Insider has published an email sent from Demand Media to its stable of freelance authors. The email explains that, because […]
Proven Ways To Use Content To Attract Links
This article is really part three of our Link Building Foundational Blueprint series and will focus on using content to attract links. Here are parts one and two. There are many ways to generate links using content, you’re probably familiar with article writing, guest blogging, link bait, white papers etc. All of these content tactics […]
Panda Update: Google Lowers The Boom On eHow.com
After escaping damage in the first rollout of Google’s Farmer/Panda update, Demand Media’s eHow.com was reportedly not as fortunate in this week’s expansion. Sistrix, one of the companies that’s been tracking the impact of Google’s changes, says that eHow.com was hit hard by the latest Panda update. We already reported the Sistrix (and other) numbers […]
SMX West 2011 Slide Video: Content Farms
“Content Farms” Or The Smartest SEOs In the World? Presentations from SMX West, March 2011 You may not be familiar with the names, but companies like Demand Media, Seed.com and Associated Content are big businesses built on closely watching what people are searching for and creating content to match. Using cheap or free labor, these […]
Winners & Losers As Panda 2.0 Goes Global? eHow, Bing’s Ciao.co.uk & More
It’s only been 48 hours since Google expanded the Panda/Farmer update to all English language searches outside the US, and we’re already seeing reports about who the early winners and losers are. In some cases, the names are familiar if you followed the original reports when the algorithm change first hit in the US in […]
Panda 2.0: Google Rolls Out Panda Update Internationally & Incorporates Searcher Blocking Data
Late February, Google launched a substantial algorithm change (known as “Farmer” or “Panda”) aimed at identifying low-quality pages and sites. These are pages (often seen on so-called “content farms”) with text that is relevant for a query, but may not provide the best user experience. (Google calls it a “high quality sites algorithm”.) Today, Google has […]
Lessons Learned at SMX West: Google’s Panda Update, White Hat Cloaking & Link Building
An amazing amount of great information came out of SMX West this week. Below is a summary of some of what I found to be the most actionable and useful. Google’s Own Words About the Farmer/Panda Update Google’s Matt Cutts said that while the change isn’t 100% perfect, searcher feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. He […]
Four Sites Impacted By Google’s “Farmer Update” Speak Out
It has been a little over two weeks since “hell broke loose” with Google’s Farmer/Panda algorithm update. Some sites that had been relying heavily on organic traffic saw that traffic plummet, while others gained. The changes impacted roughly 12 percent of US search results according to Google. The Online Publishers Association estimated that the changes […]
Blekko Blocks More “Spam” Domains: 1.1 Million Of Them
Search engine Blekko has announced that it has now blocked 1.1 million web sites from its search results using a new system it calls “AdSpam,” and new pages from any web site won’t be added if they don’t pass muster. Blocking Spam Before It Gets In From the Blekko press release: “This new technology will […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 9, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Building Empathy For Googlebot With one persona, copywriters and designers will gain a better understanding of Googlebot and do a better job of creating a site that will appeal to him. […]
The Farmer/Panda Update: New Information From Google and The Latest from SMX West
Today at SMX West, the subject of the day was content farms. One session included the founder of (sometimes-called content farm) Associated Content, Luke Beatty, and focused on the good that can be learned from content farms, as well as what sites who have been hit by Google’s Farmer aka Panda update can do to regain […]