JC Penney's first ever store, in Kemmerer,Wyoming
Google recently enacted one of the most wide-ranging changes ever to its search algorithm, which had an immediate effect upon many websites that depend on the world’s most popular search engine for their traffic. The move intended to raise the position of quality content in rankings. There have been complaints.
Google’s change is believed to have been aimed at “content farms” producing content to meet the most frequently searched terms of the moment, but many legitimate site operators are up in arms, complaining that their ranking fell dramatically overnight.
One poster to the WebmasterWorld.com internet forum said his traffic from Google fell by 40% while those from Bing, Yahoo and elsewhere remained unchanged. One comment complained that as soon as search results stabilize and sales return, Google makes a change. Another said, “YOU’RE KILLING OUR BUSINESSES!.”
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Google recently penalized JC Penney and Overstock.com for setting up fake websites with links to theirs, which made Google rank them higher. Mahalo, AOL, and Demand Media in particular also stand accused of manipulating search results. Huffpo was described as perpetrating the worst ever example of “SEO whoring.”
Usually, algorithm changes by Google are so slight that they go largely unnoticed, but the recent changes were immediately apparent. The IP address 64.233.179.104 allegedly shows Google as it was. Several webmasters confirmed this, although Google itself did not.
Photo: Bernd00
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Sunil is our staff technology writer. Specializing in information technology in college, he brings an in-depth to technical issues, but is able to explain them in a way we can all understand.
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