Were Your Sites Affected by Google Phantom?

Recently Google rolled out the latest of their search engine algorithm updates, this one mysteriously known as Phantom. A lot of people still have no idea this occurred, and for good reason. It literally flew very low under the radar. Many search algorithm updates create quite a splash when they arrive. Ask anyone who was negatively affected by Penguin or panda, and their subsequent iterations. Some entire businesses were lost, and certainly fortunes were deviated.

The good news is that most search algorithm updates aren't that dramatic. Google says they perform between 500-600 updates yearly, and most are very insignificant, and go largely unnoticed.

Let's have a look at what the Phantom has brought to a search engine results page near you.

What is the Google Phantom update?

It looks like Phantom was focused on poor quality pages. Pages that had an obsession with "clickbait" headlines, thin content, tons of poor user-generated content and old, out of touch and non-relevant comments were the first to feel this wrath of Phantom.

Some of the more well-known sites suffered with this update as well. Sites like HubPages, WikiHow, Answers.com and a few others took a significant hit.

Other items that got the attention of Phantom were thin content accompanied by related articles listings, tons of stacked videos, large amounts of curated content added as-is, and far too many ads.

Some strategies you can use if you were affected

If you think that you may have fallen prey to the Phantom update, the first thing you'll want to do is to perform a sitewide content audit. Once you've got the data showing you which of your pages were negatively affected, fix or delete this content. Often times in the case of old stale content, it's safer to lose it entirely than to try to apply a band-aid.

The solution here is to make sure your content reflects the best information you can offer to your audience, and that it is not overcrowded with advertising and extraneous material. Do this and you'll no longer be bothered by Phantoms!