Blekko has banned a number of spammy content providers from its search engine. Marketers should take this as a cue that its time to invest in quality web content.

The search portal that boasts spam-free, filtered search results is putting its money where its mouth is; TechCrunch reports that Blekko has banned a number of spammy content providers from its search engine. Marketers should take this as a cue that it's time to invest in quality web content.

According to the source, Blekko, the slashtag search engine, has blocked the top 20 sites users have marked as spam. This is bad news for these sites, but good news for users – and the move may help draw more searchers to Blekko.

As Brafton has reported, Blekko is a rapidly rising search portal. It was handling more than 1 million queries per day in its first week of operation. Plus, the site just launched mobile apps, making it available to on-the-go internet users. Marketers who want their sites to be accessible to these slashtag searchers will need to up the ante with content this year, and quality content is increasingly important for high ranking in other leading search engines, as well.

Updating algorithms to maintain quality web content is becoming the search engine norm. Brafton reported just last week that Google updated its algorithm to reduce spam in search results. With this in mind, marketers must invest in quality, custom content development.

Businesses might consider adding industry-specific custom news content to their sites to maintain fresh, frequently indexed web pages. Unique, branded journalistic content may become mainstream this year. As Brafton has reported, B2B marketers suggest hiring journalists will help overcome their content marketing challenges in 2011.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.