google search quality "better than ever"

[HunkyLuke]

Well, at least according to Matt Cutts, principle engineer at Google. In this weekend's blog post on the official Google blog, Matt says:

Today, English-language spam in Google’s results is less than half what it was five years ago.....As we’ve increased both our size and freshness in recent months, we’ve naturally indexed a lot of good content and some spam as well. To respond to that challenge, we recently launched a redesigned document-level classifier that makes it harder for spammy on-page content to rank highly. The new classifier is better at detecting spam on individual web pages, e.g., repeated spammy words

He also mentions these points:
* Google absolutely takes action on sites that violate our quality guidelines regardless of whether they have ads powered by Google;
* Displaying Google ads does not help a site’s rankings in Google; and
* Buying Google ads does not increase a site’s rankings in Google’s search results.
(perhaps as a result of anti-trust cases currently going on????)

What do you think? Is Google better than ever? Or do you prefer to use another search engine for your regular searches?

[conran]

I have a love/hate relationship with Google.
It's been incredibly hard to get anywhere with BlokeToys in Google, and after over a year I am finally seeing traffic increasing.

Finding solutions has been impossible because they keep their practices so secret. Even working by their rules gives no guarantees.

I'm also holding a grudge about their suggestions for "net neutrality". Even if we trust their motivations, I am always reluctant to support an industry leader like them from interfering in what is effectively global internet policy.

However... I have to admit that, as a searcher, Google offers me better results and options than any competitor. So while I might have moral opinions about them, and be reluctant, they are the best at what they do.

And from what you've posted about their improvements, my job has just been made easier.
I write content based on the media of a post. While I change terms to meet the correct demographic I don't write with the intention of somehow tricking Google.

I have always insisted that content needs to be natural and flowing. It has to be written for the Human reader first, and it seems Google is working to support this ideal.

Ultimately, on-page SEO has been replaced with knowledge of the demographic. You have to know what your audience is searching for rather than simply writing a page packed with links, bold text, misleading keywords and so on.