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Amid complaints that its search results have declined in quality, Google is tweaking<\/a> its algorithms to do a better job of weeding out spammy or automated content. The company says the ranking updates, arriving in May, will \u201ckeep the lowest-quality content out of search.\u201d Of particular note, Google says its engine will be better at eradicating today\u2019s automated (read: AI-generated) content that\u2019s harder to spot.<\/p>\n Google says it\u2019s taking what it learned from a 2022 algorithmic tuneup<\/a> to \u201creduce unhelpful, unoriginal content\u201d and applying it to the new update. The company says the changes will send more traffic to \u201chelpful and high-quality sites.\u201d When combined with the updates from two years ago, Google estimates the revision will reduce spammy, unoriginal search results by 40 percent.<\/p>\n \u201cThis update involves refining some of our core ranking systems to help us better understand if webpages are unhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people,\u201d Google product management director Elizabeth Tucker wrote. \u201cThis could include sites created primarily to match very specific search queries.\u201d<\/p>\n Google sounds like it\u2019s targeting AI-generated SEO spam<\/a> with its notes about scaled content abuse. The company says it\u2019s strengthening its approach to the growing problem of sites that generate garbage automated articles (as well as zeroing in on old-fashioned human-created spam).<\/p>\n \u201cToday, scaled content creation methods are more sophisticated, and whether content is created purely through automation isn\u2019t always as clear,\u201d Tucker said. Google says the changes \u201cwill allow us to take action on more types of content with little to no value created at scale, like pages that pretend to have answers to popular searches but fail to deliver helpful content.\u201d<\/p>\n AI-generated content farms shotgun-blasting content to game the system are an increasing problem, so Google\u2019s changes \u2014\u00a0if they\u2019re as effective as promised \u2014\u00a0will be welcome. Although sites spamming that content exclusively may be easier to spot, it will be interesting to see if scenarios where once-reputable outlets experimenting with AI-generated spam (CNET<\/em><\/a> and Sports Illustrated<\/em><\/a> are recent examples) will be affected.<\/p>\n Another change to the algorithm will tackle the practice of otherwise reputable sites hosting low-quality content from third parties designed to leech off the site\u2019s good name. Google provides the example of an educational site hosting a third-party payday loan review. \u201cWe\u2019ll now consider very low-value, third-party content produced primarily for ranking purposes and without close oversight of a website owner to be spam,\u201d Tucker wrote.<\/p>\n Finally, Google\u2019s updates will allegedly do better at rooting out expired domains bought by someone else and transformed into click mills. The search engine will begin treating those websites as spam.<\/p>\n You won\u2019t see the improvements immediately as Google is giving site owners a two-month notice to adapt accordingly. The search engine changes will take effect on May 5.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n