Collateral damage from Google’s search algorithm changes to SERPs

Almost all of the announced changes to Google’s algorithm cause a lot of sweat and worry for site owners, webmasters and web producers. This time around some of the agitation is justified as a number of sites have been swept lower on the search engine results page due to their association with content farm sites and content aggregators.

 

 

A number of published keyword studies have shown that original content sites have taken a hit, in many cases without merit. The working theory is that many of the algorithm changes punish sites for off-site, as well as on-site factors. It’s great that content scrapers and cloners are being addressed by Google, but what about original content that has been reproduced on other distribution channels? Is Google penalizing the original sites for republished content? There is some data suggesting that this has happened.

 

 

The solution?

 

 

Use page-by-page, browser-by-browser, keyword-by-keyword analysis of the before-and-after ranking factors. Compile the data and place them in a spreadsheet. Fine tune the content on the pages that have dropped on the SERPs and check any republication of content that could be an adverse ranking factor.

 

 

If your content is republished in any form (intentionally or unintentionally), consider the butterfly effect of being associated with the wrong sites (content farms). Even popular press release sites and content submission sites should be looked at carefully for possible adverse effects.

 

 

Finally, don’t worry too much. What goes down, can go back up again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond Google Adsense with In-Text Advertising

Is there life beyond Google Adsense for a small business website looking for advertising revenue? The answer is maybe. After a rocky start, in-text advertising is slowly gaining acceptance as more major sites adopt the “inside the content” form of advertising. Of course, the original thought with in-text advertising was that it could potentially annoy and mislead visitors to a site, as visitors were redirected to advertising links instead of more on-site content. This may be the case for many sites – and it is almost surely an initial consequence of converting to in-text advertising – however, some pretty impressive sites including sites of major newspapers, magazines, blogs and commercial sites have adopted in-text links with good results. Perhaps, it is the pervasiveness of Google Adsense and the standard placement of the 728×90 or 125×125 sized-ads that make in-text advertising a fresh approach to advertising revenue.

In-line text is certainly not for all sites. For one thing the click payouts are rather low compared to most Google Adsense placements. Particularly for hotly contested verticals like real estate, financial services or insurance. But if your site’s advertising revenue is flat and the look-and-feel of the site could stand an upgrade, give half-a-thought to in-text advertising. You can start with the below sites:

Adbrite.com

Infolinks.com

Kontera.com