Google declared a significant change in its search algorithms and formulas on Thursday that would help the search engine filter away shallow and rubbish contents. This may come as a shock to an SEO company, but users are certainly going  to get benefited from it. The step is introduced with an intention of restricting the sites with low quality content from ranking high in the search engine. Several such sites that are critically labelled as “content farms” or “content mills” have being severely hit by this move.

Introduction of changes in the search algorithm with Google is not a new thing. But often the change is too subtle to be noticed by the general user. However, the present move has come as a strong revolutionary measure in guiding the effective ranking of the sites.

The eHow site owned by Demand Media was expected to be worse hit by the change. But the result turned out otherwise and two studies found eHow actually benefitting from the change. Its visibility value has gone up to 310 from its former value of 270. The biggest “content farm” that has been listed as one of the main sufferers is Associated Content.

Sistrix has evaluated the ranking of a number of websites available online and has recorded the loss and profit percentage obtained by individual site after the introduction of the present change. Sistrix evaluated the sites through a “visibility” index that is based on lost position of keyword, particular raking position and an evaluated click through rate that is derived from these results.

As per Sistrix, the sites that suffered the maximum loss of visibility on the basis of the loss of keyword positions are wise greek, ezine articles, suite101, hub pages, your dictionary, buzzle, associated content, essortment, articles baase, how to do things, mahalo and many others. Sistrix has decided to send the complete list of 331 sites that have suffered huge loses to the people upon request.

Associated Content recorded a drop to 53,512 rankings from its former 216,419 top post after the introduction of the change. The estimated loss for the site is approximately around 75% that is a huge one undoubtedly. Similarly, ezine articles recoded a loss of 130,231 positions whereas for buzzle the loss is around 72%.

However, there are also some companies that disagree with the reports of Sistrix. Ubergizmo for example denies the charge of Sistrix that it has lost its traffic after the introduction of the change. Instead, it presents data to back up its claim of having being benefitted by the move. What could have happened is that Ubergizmo may have indeed lost rankings that Sistrix has recorded. But it might have gained traffic in some other searches where other sites recorded a significant drop.

Among the biggest losers, the names that stand out are transition broad, city town info, labnol, the daily green, web reference and other, all of which recorded for more than 80% loss.

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