According to Matt Cutts, principal engineer for Google, changes are to be made to GoogleBot leading to those sites that use excessive optimisation for search engines being demoted. Barry Schwartz, from Search Engine Land, stated that Matt Cutts gave the information while speaking at the South by Southwest conference held in Austin, Texas.
The reason for the changes appears to be to help sites which provide original, informative content to show in the top pages of search results, rather than those sites using heavy SEO techniques. The changes are expected to make SEO jobs much more complex in nature, though no specific details have been provided by Google regarding the changes. Search engine optimisation techniques vary, and operators of websites may not be aware of over-optimising their sites.
Cutts said that they have tried to make GoogleBot smarter and the relevance aspects more adapatable so that if companies have less SEO or none at all, the Googlebot can handle that. Cutts added that the team was looking at those who abuse it, who add too many keywords to a page, exchange inordinate amounts of links and go beyond normal expectations.
The changes may be introduced at any time within the next month, although no details about the changes have been given. Google is also making changes to its search results, aiming to provide direct answers to queries rather than provide a list of sites which may contain the relevant information.
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