Did Google's Farmer Update Positively/Negatively Affect Your Search Traffic?
-
Oddly the handful of sites that I have which should have most probably been affected negatively actually saw boosts in traffic, CTR on ads and eCPM on ads. Not huge jumps.. but yeah.. I benefited which was odd. These domains are testbeds I set up a long time ago to find the upper limit of what you can "get away with" in google so I know where to draw the line.
Other interesting facts. I rand some tests over the weekend (may not be large enough to be statistically relevant yet) but it seems the farmer update has almost no impact on indexation of poor or duplicate content given enough raw link juice (no anchor, ip diversity or any other cool factors, just a flat link from a big ol' bucket of link juice) which I find disappointing. =/ I expected a bit of a challenge after all this hoopla. Even though I rock the greyhat Im still pretty anti dupe/crap content.
-
Awesome use of the new Q&A Rand!
One of my biggest content sites actually has seen an increase in traffic since the "farmer" update. The content on it is definitely a tick above content farmed crap, but it's also not 5-star.
For what it's worth, it's monetized with AdSense ads and there's really no branded traffic to speak of naturally.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Pre-launch market/industry research
I am getting ready to start a web based marketing firm, with a strong focus on local search and b2b organic search engine optimization. However, I want to pick a specific b2b market to focus on when the site goes live. How do I go about conducting this market research when i do not have any visitors to my site yet. My goal is to spot a market/industry that has a gap where my service will be in demand? All of the popular guides and blogs focus on market research that takes place after you launch your website or after you already have an audience to analyze. Any advice or suggestions on conducting market/industry research without having a audience yet would be greatly appreciated!
Industry News | | ranch1130 -
Is this a violation of Google guidelines and current industry best practices correct? Regarding Iran Facts
I have read Moz for a good deal of time but I have never been gotten involved, until now... While watching a YouTube video in the app on my smartphone an Advertisement came on Still screen shots located on my website www.dleichtweis.com This is a video of the advertisement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCQFm7PjWb8 I have reason to believing this is a violation of numerous polices, procedures, conditions and or best practices. I value Moz as a communities opinion. Google has been contacted in regards to this https://www.en.adwords-community.com/t5/Ad-Approvals-and-Advertising/I-want-answers-to-issue-Re-3-8187000002180/m-p/278355#M14740 I value your response. D Leichtweis
Industry News | | dleichtweis0 -
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 -
Penguin 2.0 Update - Just Hit - Google Messes up again, can anyone on SEOMOZ please tell me why or how some of these websites are ranking?
I am getting a bit tired now writing all of this so please excuse grammar and spelling mistakes, I wanted to post this up quickly tonight so I could possibly get some feedback by morning. So I feel I figured out some of the new update that just hit and I am sure the update will continue to keep coming and rankings will most likely change for a while, but I do have a few questions in the mean time if they stay. Please look below, why would some of those sites be ranking? Some sites utilize no onpage SEO, some no backlinks, one of the sites is a single page site and every page is a broken link even the contact us page and it's rank 1..... I am not 100% sure that Google got this one right. I see many instances below where other sites are much higher quality and have more authority. It's as if Google took terrible sites and said here is a site for you, now deal with it and I hope it works out at the top. I do see several sites that belong on the first page, but I see others that are very questionable. This is how the following is written below. Before the url is the anchor text density % for the site. This indicates the percentage of the amount of times the anchor text was backlined versus other anchor texts they used. Issues with the sites. Most of these sites don't utilize onpage SEO and it's clearly not a factor for onpage density purposes, there is a site with 37% keyword density on it. Some sites even have broken links. Please note: I already know that there is a lot of data that is analyzed to determine rankings more than this, but PA/DA is suppose to be a major factor according to everyone that believes in SEOMOZ.org. So I am taking in account for many of those factors being calculated due to this. These are just some random keywords I picked, because I know you need to analyze other SEO firms after and update to figure out what lasted and what didn't. All of my sites lasted due to ethical tactics, but I had some rankings move down and others go up, very odd. Keyword Analyzed: CHEAP SEO Not Knowng http://searchengineland.com/the-hidden-cost-of-cheap-seo-social-labor-131585 92-DA 75-PA - A lot of content 4715 words on the page including comments. not known http://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-theres-no-such-thing-as-cheap-seo-or-link-building/45932/ 87DA 63 PA Words on page 3673 Not known www.cheap-seo-solutions.com 26 DA -- 38 PA 1112 words on page 9.52% www.cheapseocompany.com 34 DA ---- 41 PA 10 + anchor texts but 623 words on page 10.26% seocheap.net 35 DA --- 45 PA 10 + anchor text 855 words on the page I am not 100% sure why this is ranking lol, the services page isn't even working it errors out. The onpage SEO is sloppy and the writing looks forced. Why is this even ranking? The site also looks low quality. The density is higher than SEOMOZ even and it has less words. In this case DA + words carried this site up, not the anchor ratio being low. 6.17% http://www.cheapseo-services.com cheap seo Page Authority DA 28 -- PA 38 276 Words No onpage, 35 duplicate pages, free template, etc.. etc.. 10% www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-do-seo-cheap DA 94 --- PA 56 only 5 anchor texts used on this page. 8651 Words I am willing to bet if you diversified this with about 5 more anchor texts this could be number 1 easy. This only has 5 total diverse anchor text backlinks for this page. Keyword Analyzed: Affordable SEO Services Rank 1 47% www.affordableseoservicesx.com/ 24DA PA36 New site It still has broken links all over the page The Contact us page doesn't even work lol. Great going Google on ranking such a high quality 1 page website. 471 words How is this site ranking? How could Google even rank this site? Rank 2 The Term isn't mentioned at all accept in title and header not known mbseoservice.com/ da 20 pa 32 PR 0 Just has affordable seo services in title anchor Possible New Site 627 words Rank 4 12.77% affordableseoservices.net 22 DA 35 DA - Proof Exact match domains still work great with high diversity rates, low word amounts, bad DA, etc..... 348 words Rank 5 4.24% www.howardsemgroup.com DA 39 PA 49 893 words. Rank 6 2.49% www.i4.net/ 59 DA and 66 PA 588 words Rank 7 4.71% www.bluefrogseosolutions.com/ DA 31 PA 42 527 Words This site looks like it was created in 1998 and never updated. Low quality site IMO Rank 8 Not Known www.mainstreethost.com/ 76 DA 81 PA possible co occurrence added in with main domain name /url 281 Words not 1 exact anchor text match Rank 10 2.7% bestcheapseoservices.com/ 18 DA 29PA This is just a blog site, come on Google... 4379 Words
Industry News | | MarketingOfAmerica0 -
Picking a degree that will benefit SEO/IM career
I really had no idea where to place this question as there seemed to be no 'suitable' place. I do though feel that it is a viable question and would appreciate any responses that I receive. Essentially, I'm currently working full time doing digital marketing covering most general aspects as it is in-house and primarily local venturing to maybe 50-70 miles in the region of the local area. I'm doing SEO, PPC, Social Media etc. I'm certified in networking (I studied in Australia) and have my UK GCSEs along with a variety of other general certifications e.g. business. The college in the area where I work is offering a NVQ in digital marketing and social media so although I'm self taught I'm currently doing this once a month purely for the paper to recognize that I know what I'm doing. Anyway, getting to the point. I have the opportunity to pursue a degree long term with my employer. I've always had an interest in actually learning to code in a web development language (I can cope at the moment with PHP and do what I need to do) and I've also had an interest in developing iPhone apps etc. What degree would you recommend in aiding a career in SEO and Digital/Internet marketing in general?. To me it seems to boil down to either a marketing degree or a web development degree. Thank you in advance, I would love to hear your own experience and what you have a degree in. Thanks, Luke Hutchinson.
Industry News | | LukeHutchinson0 -
Is big Penguin update on its way
Just wondering, whether these updates have got anything to do with the next and the biggest Penguin update - Penguin refreshes and the launch of Disavow Option seems to be a bit correlated. It appears that Google might be testing its algo and the Disavow Link is launched so that website owners who might feel frustrated that their websites are wrongly affected can use this tool to exonerate from the penalty. Any thought?
Industry News | | Debdulal0 -
How to go about removing bad/irrelevent links?
We have been made aware of a series of irrelevant links on some rather dodgy sites. http://www.designerdogstop.com/level-static/http://www.bestfirepits.net/some-of-the-best-vacations-for-families/2010/05/05/ http://whatcigarsdoismoke.com/cigar-lighters/cigarette-cigar-2/ http://dollfuss.org/build-bear-hawaii/ Absolute rubbish im sure you will agree. These links must surely be causing our link profile some damage. They are currently wordpress sites with no means of contacting the authors. What ways and means are there of removing these negative pages and links? Cheers all, any help appreciated.
Industry News | | TimHolmes0 -
How to remove a Google algorithmic penalty
My site has a Google penalty. I seem to be stuck in the 64th position for a Google search for my sites name. All my keywords that I used to rank well for are now well above the 60th search place in Google. I have resolved the issue I recieved the penalty for and I have asked Google for reconsideration. That has been about 3 months ago. The penalty is still firmly in place. I was wondering if anyone else has had a Google algorithmic penalty removed and if so how did they accomplish this?
Industry News | | tadden0