The Google May Day Algorithm

Google generally has an open-door policy regarding what its search engines like, and don’t like, when searching the internet. Their latest project known as the May Day algorithm is, in the words of its architect Matt Cutts “an algorithmic change in Google, looking for higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries. It went through vigorous testing and isn’t going to be rolled back.”

This latest advancement is likely to have a heavy impact on long-tail traffic, on which many sites depend for a substantial amount of their hits. Google’s aim is to give multi-word key phrases the same level of relevancy as single word searches, ultimately producing better quality search results with a high percentage of relevancy to the users’ key search terms.

In terms of optimising a website to attract Google’s attention, this new algorithm obviously makes things harder by impacting on ‘quick fix’ traffic boosters, like automated articles and sites full of hundreds of pages of useless information, placed there almost empty of content to increase a site’s presence.

On the upside – it will mean that websites of true quality, with content-rich and original pages will have to compete less against automated websites churning out hundreds of articles a day, which is the David and Goliath battle they’ve had to fight so far. Before the May Day algorithm, small but well-written sites could not compete with keyword mills of low quality content.

So has Google levelled the playing field with these new changes?