( Mashable ) -- Google has announced a major algorithmic change to its search engine , subtle in nature and perhaps unnoticeable to many users , but one that should dramatically improve the quality of Google 's search results . With this move , Google is targeting content farms -- a common name for low quality sites whose main goal is to attract search traffic by piling up ( mostly ) useless content , usually by either producing large amounts of low-quality text or by copying it from websites with original content . Google does not go into details of the change which should impact 11.8 percent of Google 's queries ( currently only in the U.S. , with plans to roll it out elsewhere over time ) , but it does say that it will affect the ranking of many sites on the web . `` 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 . At the same time , it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites -- sites with original content and information such as research , in-depth reports , thoughtful analysis and so on , '' explain Googlers Amit Singhal and Matt Cuttsin a blog post . While the change will surely have many website owners up in arms , complaining that their website was unfairly ranked lower than before ( we 're sure that in some cases they will be right ) , it 's a very welcome one . The popularity of Google 's search engine is still second to none , but Google has been plagued by black hat SEO practices and content farms for a while now , with thecomplaints from users slowly mounting over time . If Google manages to put an end to content farms or at least significantly reduce their influence in search results , it will be an important step in regaining the trust of its millions of users . © 2011 MASHABLE.com . All rights reserved .
Google has been plagued by black hat SEO practices and content farms for a while . Content farms are low quality sites that attract traffic with ( mostly ) useless content . They often use bots to generate links, which is why they get so many hits on google search results.