We all know about Wikipedia right? In similar fashion, Google has just launched Knol, basically a Knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic at knol.google.com

I was searching for migraines the other day and I noticed a knol.google link in the SERPS. Not having heard of Knol. I did some research into what it was. After that I looked closely at the SERPS and realized that not only was the very new Knol article sitting on Page 1 it was sitting above several authority migraine sites, that were PR5 and PR6.

Could it be that Google is actually biased and sway their algo to their favor? :eek

Actually, since the day after the launch of Knol, Knol articles have been mysteriously outranking other well known and established sites, and hitting page 1 of SERPS, bypassing high authority and high PR sites for respective keywords.

Today I read a post, Google Knol – Google’s Latest Attack on Copyright, by Aaron Wall, of SEOBook, who did a little test of his own where he copied an article on to Knol that he wrote on the PR5, high authority and well established article site, work.com, and lo and behold the Google algorithm chose to bypass the previously published content and Aaron’s Knol took the higher spot in the SERPS. Hmmm.

Also of interest is that Google knows the content is duplicated, because on Aaron’s Knol there is a pretty little box that’s header reads “Similar Content on the Web” and lists Work.com as the source.

All this leaves little doubt that Google favors its own interests even when the content is previously published by high authority sites.

What is scary about Knol:

Usually when someone uses content from your websites under a creative commons license, it is fine because you get the backlinks as a pay-off. But, on Knoll all out bound links are NO FOLLOW so you get absolutely no value or credit from your content being used.

Plus, the hideous fact that your content can be used against you. If your content is hijacked and published on Knol, then Knol may outrank your site, even if you have high authority.

Knol and Internet Marketing Benefits:

On the flip side, this favoritism can be used in our favor for Internet Marketing and especially for those sites that are not high ranking authority sites and need radical promotion, traffic and Internet Marketing efforts.

After all, this blog is about Internet marketing and wherever we can find an Internet marketing edge we need to use it. Right?

Research some new keywords for your sites/blogs and write some Knols. If your site is really low in SERPS, you can use the existing keywords of your site, this way you will sit high in SERPS and not have to worry about out ranking yourself.

Link to your sites/blogs as references to drive traffic and for promotion, even though the links are no-follow the readers of the Knol will get exposure to your site.

Write comprehensive articles. Have several paragraphs and subheaders, the Knol WYSIWYG allows for h2 and h3 headers. Make sure to use keywords in title and about 5% density throughout. Pretty much same techniques as I explain for Squidoo and for subpage content as explained on 6 Step Checklist for On-Site Search Engine Optimization.

Include images when applicable. Don’t spam!! Don’t write garbage, write well written content. Write as a professional and establish yourself as an authority within your subject, this will deliver more clicks to your site.

What do you guys think, is Google wrong? Is this business as usual? Can you really blame Google for favoring their own sites?