Google Anti-Webspam Algorithm Now Live

A week ago, Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer at Google, wrote a blog post about the “webspam” that frequently appears in Google’s search results and the measures the company was taking to reduce them.  Today, Cutts confirmed suspicions that the new technology is now live and working in Google’s search results.

Webspam essentially refers to websites that find ways to raise their rankings in search results by using off-topic keywords and other tricks.  As the name implies, it is spam for the web.  In some cases, these sites are even harmful or involved in illegal activities.

The changes in the algorithm, launched earlier this week, are designed to drive down spam levels and also change the way Google ranks sites that copy content from others or have low levels of original content.  Google searchers will now see sites with original content before they see sites with copied material.

Cutts’ original blog post was in response to several articles that recently surfaced, questioning the quality of Google’s search system, with some even going so far as to say it “sucks”.  In reality, Cutts explained, the search quality is “better than ever” according to their evaluation metrics. Much of this is due to the improved methods of organizing relevant content, rather than simply displaying search results according to a site’s quantity and strength of search engine optimization.

How will these changes affect your site?  If you are a webspammer, the message Google is sending is clear.  They will attempt to effectively erase your site from the web.  If you own  duplicate content on multiple sites, the ultimate impact is unclear, since we have no way of knowing how Google determines “original” content or how much of a hit a site takes for copying it.  Some legitimate site owners have already started complaining, but only time will tell if those complaints are warranted or simply paranoia.