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Changes To Google Search Algorithm A Positive Move For Web Users

28th February 2011

News that Google has updated its algorithm to combat ‘content farms’ where low quality or irrelevant content that appears high on the search ranking appears to users has caused quite some buzz in the web world over the past week. Commenting on the move, Google said 'Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.'

Populis welcomes this improvement to Google’s algorithm, which noticeably impacts on a sizable 11.8% of queries. The update will reduce rankings for low-quality sites that are not useful to users and at the same time increase rankings for high quality sites that have original content such as 'research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis'.

With a network of 600 websites and content production at over 35,000 items per month, Populis has fast become leader in multilingual content on demand. 24.8 million unique monthly users enjoy content from its media brands including Excite Europe, Better Deals, Nanopublishing, Blogo and Blogosfere produced by experts in their fields, guided, edited and quality checked the internal Populis editorial team.

The term content farm has been used to describe many kinds of content production companies without distinguishing between editorial models, media properties and objective. The Populis goal in fact is to become a new Hearst – a media group with vertical properties that are key reference sites for their sector. Rather than producing ‘How To’ guides or the user generated content that Google is seeking to reduce in its rankings, Populis uses a new disruptive business model to create and distribute fresh, original content that users enjoy and find highly useful.

We start from the analysis of the media consumption: 25% is media that we receive via known channels (ie users type in the site they know they want to view), 60% of people are searching for something (the content on demand market) and 15% are sharing their content (for example on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube). With this in mind, between 20 and 30% of the media produced on Populis today is by top editorial bloggers that are writing expertly about their specialist subject in their vertical. The remainder is content on demand which helps people find what they are looking for online. Populis is creating for the online market, what Hearst or Hachette created for the offline market.

Populis is an innovative media company that responds to content behaviour, investing more than ever in content consumption like social and mobile apps.

A fast increasing user base and high profile media brands with cult followings are testimony to the success of the Populis model and Google’s decision to clean up its search results and eliminate the poor quality content farmed ‘en mass’ is a highly positive move which will increase visibility of content that is relevant, useful and of value to its audience.