Google just announced an update to its primary search algorithm meant to curb the growing influence of content farms in search results.  The change will impact almost 12% of search queries on Google, attempting to remove low-quality sites will little original content from top search rankings.

What are content farms?

Content farms typically have the following common elements:

• Look for hot topics on the web
• Generate low quality content specifically designed around these hot searches
• Have shallow sites that provide little value to users

The goal of most of these sites is simply to drive traffic and page views in order to generate ad revenue.  Great for the website owner, but adds little value to the user who searched for that term, hence why Google is going after these sites.

What does it mean?

Bottom line: original, thoughtful content is still king online, and is now more important than ever.

If you are taking the time to write a thoughtful blog post, create a compelling infographic, or simply describe your business services in your own words you have nothing to fear about this new algorithm change.  In fact, you are only going to be helped because your content is now more likely to be seen instead of stories from content farms.

We look forward to seeing how search results change in the coming weeks as the algorithm starts to ripple across the web.

Have you noticed any search changes yet?