Will Google ever begin penalising bad English/grammar in regards to rankings and SEO?
-
Considering Google seem to be on a great crusade with all their algorithm updates to raise the overall "quality" of content on the Internet, i'm a bit concerned with their seeming lack of action towards penalising sites that contain terrible English. I'm sure you've all noticed this when you attempt to do some proper research via Google and come across an article that "looks" to be what you're after, then you click through and realise it's obviously been either put together in a rush by someone not paying attention or putting much effort in, or been outsourced for cheap labour to another country whose workers aren't (close to being) native speakers.
It's getting really old trying to make sense of articles that have completely incorrect grammar, entirely missing words, verb tenses that don't make any sense, randomly over-extravagant adjectives thrown in just as padding, etc. etc.
No offense to all those from non-native speaking countries who are attempting to make a few bucks online, but this for me is becoming by far more of an issue in terms of "quality" of information online as opposed to some of the other search issues that are being given higher priority, and it just seems strange that Google have been so blasé about it up to this point - especially given so many of these articles and pages are nothing more than outsourced filler for cheap traffic. I understand it's probably hard to code in something so advanced, but it would go a long way towards making the web a better place in my opinion.
Anyone else feeling the same way? Thoughts?
-
I agree Michael, it's a stereotype sure but most of the stuff churned out for the sake of being churned out as "fresh content" that is written in poor English simply doesn't have a use or practical function on the Internet other than a desperate attempt to soak up whatever meagre traffic they can. It's especially glaring considering their continued mantra has been "write for the user instead of the search engines" when these pages/posts are doing exactly the opposite...
-
Yes, true. But let's not forget Google's changes do not all come from algorithm updates. For example, the company contracts a couple of companies with thousands of independent contractors who manually review search results. And generally speaking, a lot of the lower quality sites were also riddled with poor writing, as it tends to go hand in hand with other quality issues.
-
Hi Ben, I think that's a great question and something I've wondered about as well. I think that at some point, it's likely that Google will penalise bad grammar, excessive spelling errors etc. As you say, it's probably difficult to create an algorithm for this, but the Webmaster blog post on Panda would suggest that it's something they do think about.
It's hard to say if this will come in the form of a direct penalty or if they will rely on indirect methods. For instance, it could be argued that link authority already does this to some extent because people are less likely to link to poorly written content that they are to professionally written content.
-
God, I hope so. They have to be doing this already. I have no evidence of that but, it would seem to be an effective anti-spam measure.
If they aren't then we need to lobby for it. I bet the reality is that if they went on a grammer jihad (de-index me for that word) half the sites on the net would disappear overnight.
Guessing it's really hard to create a set of rules for this that doesn't drastically impact everything in the index.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Where to find good SEO job applicants?
We're located in South Dakota, and I'm having a hard time getting qualified job applicants for an advanced SEO position. The ad has been placed on local job sites as well as careerbuilder.com and indeed.com. What other places do you recommend?
Industry News | | CFSSEO0 -
Rank high for the term "Software development manager"
I would like to rank high for term like software development manager. How do I get started? I am new at this. I am going to start watching seo moz video tutorials to get some ideas. In the mean time if there are any step by step techniques that would be helpful. Thanks
Industry News | | zsyed0 -
Spanish equivalent of MOZ? need help with understanding Google.es
I try to keep up to date with everything SEO to ensure my sites rank well.. marblerenovation.com & Trailersafe.co.uk I now have a spanish site that I am having trouble ranking well for clima2000egara.es I have recently found out (by asking our lovely moz community) that googles algorithms are not rolled our world wide. SO I have no idea where I am at with Google.es. Does anyone know how I can find out at what stage google.es is at? and what the last update was? and whether there is an equilalent community like Moz for Spain? I am fluent spanish so the language won't be a problem.. Thanks in advance for all your help
Industry News | | david.smith.segarra0 -
Can not get the ranking needle to move even after a year with a US based SEO company
Hello community, I have spent the last 16 months spending lots of money on our USA Based SEO company and on content. For some reason. The powers who may be at Google are not giving us any love. I am beginning to become very dissapointed after all of our efforts. We did have a link penalty a year ago however that has long ago been removed. We have been doing everything our SEO company has asked us but the needle is not moving. Any ideas for us? http://tinyurl.com/n2yoeyn Thank you in advance. Chris
Industry News | | scamper0 -
Google Product Feeds - New Requirements
We are in the jewelry industry, and for Google product feeds, we list our products under "Apparel & Accessories > Jewelry". As of the new Google feed requirements, they are saying that we have to choose a gender and color for each product that is in the Apparel category. While this makes sense for clothes, it doesn't exactly for jewelry because many items are for both men and women, and there's not always a color associated with each product. I can enter some of these fields manually, but with 5,000+ products, it makes it difficult w/ each update. Anyone have solutions for this? Or a way around it? Can we just include those fields but leave them blank? Any other solutions?
Industry News | | applesofgold1 -
Starting an SEO Business - Stuff you need - HELP
When you started your SEO Business what software do you use to give information to your clients? How did you decide what to charge for your services? What services do you offer? Best tools to use? Any other information you think might be relevant? Thanks ahead
Industry News | | paulbaguley0 -
Anyone know how to get into Google Advisor search?
Looking for information on how to get into Google Advisor (https://www.google.com/advisor/home). Google is rolling out their own meta search engines in select categories right now - finance and hotels to start - but i cant find any documentation, help or data on how to get yourself in that feed/search. Anyone have experience in with this yet?
Industry News | | rhutchings0