Google has had yet another update for their organic search listing rankings, and calling it the “Farmers Update”.
So what exactly is the update all about?
This is an update that will effect about 12% of their queries and in Google’s own words they say, ” …this update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful”
You can read about it here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html
This has just made the free traffic game a bit harder, especially if you are an affiliate marketer. I have no doubt that this will have an impact on auto-blogging.
So, did I got effected?
I must admit that some of my sites were effected, but most were not. What I have noticed is that the ones that got slapped are the sites that had too many incoming links just from one source or area (not diversified) and also didn’t have 100% unique content, and were honestly scraped and spun content.
On one of the sites that I have, that got hit by this Farmers Update I did a test, first I made all the content on the site 100% original, then I used some WP plugins that helped me manipulate the no-follow and no-index of any pages or posts, then I spread my incoming links wider and more diversified.
The test is ongoing but so far the site has been rising. 
Final thoughts…
Google is a lot like life in my opinion, it is going to throw you a lot of curve balls, and could slap you down! It is up to you to keep moving forward and not to give up when life or Google throws you a curve ball.
Wallace – AliveMax Leader