Search MarketingSocial Media & Influencer Marketing

Google Cleans Up, Spammers Move to Facebook

Every media that has come and gone has died for one of two reasons, either a failure to innovate or an incapacity to control the signal-to-noise ratio. In Google’s case, the signal is really great search results on page one and the noise is the useless search results that infiltrate and contaminate those top positions. Google would not be the leading search engine if they weren’t so careful about its signal-to-noise.

Lately, Google has been very active in banning thousands of AdWord accounts run by direct marketers and dropping the hammer on content farms, those websites that host reams of shallow, low-quality content that tell you little more than you already knew in the first place. This is great news for people who rely on Google for fast, in-depth research and this move is in step with Google’s announced plans for 2011.

Google is making the right moves to innovate and maintain the signal-to-noise relevance that has made them the dominant search engine. Large content sites that have based their business model on AdWord traffic probably had it coming to them. The quality of the content just isn’t good enough. However, many legitimate businesses also get caught in the crossfire of the war against content spam, and your site may be one of them. If your rankings have taken a sudden drop, it may be just a settling of the dust, but it might also be a signal that you need to provide more value to your readers.

With the elimination of spammy AdWord accounts, Google is forcing a shift in the social media space. The current buzz among direct marketers is that the gold rush toward Facebook is starting, and search is playing into their hands. As Google continues to innovate, it will be giving more search engine credit to public Facebook pages, which is where direct marketers will build new launchpads for product offerings and affiliate links.

If your business uses social media in your marketing mix, keep an eye on what these get-rich-quicksteps are doing and make sure your presence looks nothing like what the direct marketers are doing. Most importantly, stay vigilant on your Facebook business pages because you will see a significant upswing in other businesses posting to your page as direct marketers exploit every opportunity to be more visible in the social media space. Don’t let your own signal-to-noise be compromised. Use a monitoring program like HyperAlerts to stay on top of your page when you don’t have time to stay connected on Facebook.

For more information on Google’s recent shift, read The Wall Street Journal’s Google’s Search Cleanup Has Big Effect.

Tim Piazza

Tim Piazza is a partner with Social LIfe Marketing and the founder of ProSocialTools.com, a small business resource for reaching local customers with social media and mobile marketing. When he's not creating innovative solutions that accelerate business processes, Tim likes to play the mandolin and craft furniture.

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