This is the second Payday Loan algorithm update within four weeks. In May, Matt Cutts announced version 2.0 of Google’s Payday Loan algorithm update.
According to Matt Cutts, version 2.0 of the update targeted spammy sites, whereas the new version 3.0 targets spammy queries. Unfortunately, Google does not explain what this means in detail.
The Payday Loan algorithm targets search queries such as “payday loans”, “casinos”, “viagra” and other keywords that are often targeted by spammers
What is the impact of Payday Loan on your website?
The term Payday Loan, originated from the niche industry that commonly accumulates spammy websites, such as finance, payday loan companies, and insurance. If your website falls under any of these categories, expect to feel the sting of the update, even if you follow all of Google’s guidelines to the letter.
If you’ve already seen a drop in your rankings, it could be that the Payday Loan update has caught up with you. Aside from finance-related sites, the algorithm also goes after queries on pornography, finance and insurance related.
Because it was rolled out on a global scale, signals from international queries are also taken into account. This caused several countries to be affected. In the United States, around 0.3% of U.S. queries have taken a hit. On the other hand, queries in Turkey that have been affected has gone up by 4%, which is a lot compared to that of the United States. This shows that Google is serious about cracking down international spam.
What does the Payday Loan algorithm mean for online users?
Anyone who has made a search regarding payday loans, financial schemes, insurance concerns and pornographic materials will see disappointing search returns. It’s either, low quality sites will appear on their query or none at all. After all, Google’s intention is to keep such sites from popping up. This makes the payday loan not much of a payday for users.
Until affected niche industry websites make changes that the Payday Loan algorithm will like, they won’t have a room in search returns and their target users won’t find them. It can be a little inconvenient on both ends of the spectrum, but, if this means better online experience, then it’s all good.
How is this different from Google Panda and Google Penguin?
The Payday Loan algorithm is unrelated to Google’s Panda or Penguin updates. The Panda algorithm targets websites with low quality content. For example, the Panda algorithm makes sure that web pages with automatically created content don’t get high rankings in Google’s search results. The same applies to websites that hire authors who write articles with very shallow content.
The Penguin algorithm targets website that get artificial links. For example, websites that are linked with paid links might be penalized by Google. Google also doesn’t like links from automated linking schemes.
How will this affect your website’s rankings?
If your website does not compete in a spam heavy industry (drugs, gambling, etc.) then it is very likely that the rankings of your website won’t be affected at all.
Google doesn’t like spam. For that reason, your website will be safe if you avoid spam methods to promote your website. If you want to get high rankings that last, use white-hat SEO methods that play by the rules.
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