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On February 24, Google stated on their official blog that they made a dramatic modification to their search result relevancy algorithm. As many search engine optimizers (SEOs) and website owners are aware, Google is constantly changing their search result algorithm. But these modifications are typically very small in scope and tend to go unnoticed. This recent change impacted nearly 12 percent of all search queries. That's a very big deal.

So why is Google doing this? The search engine leader has been struggling as of late in providing truly high quality sites that searches are looking for. Instead of sites with substantial and unique content, the top results are often sites known as "content farms," which are on the Internet for the sole purpose of manipulating rankings so search traffic will end up on their domains as opposed to ones with valuable content.

In a perfect world, the search results display highly relevant sites with useful and original content. This is Google's intention, and the new changes ultimately should have a positive impact on high-value sites while downgrading content farms.

I personally manage several websites, and according to Google's own webmasters' tools, my sites saw an average impression and click-through increase of 12%. In fact, my primary business website that I also blog on saw an 18% increase.

But not everyone was so lucky. A recent CNN article I read spoke of several popular sites that saw drops in search result rankings and subsequently, huge drops in website traffic from Google. I can't say I feel bad for them, however. In many situations, these sites were using tactics that were questionable at best and Google finally got around to busting them.

So is this the end of the content farm and bad search results? No way. There's always a way to get around computer algorithms, and content farm owners will likely find a new loophole. But in the meantime, for us website owners that are providing quality content, we can sit back and enjoy the higher rankings and page views.