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I have a feeling it's not SEO, but that Google themselves are favoring more domains over another based on a hidden factor. If you search for recipes you get the
by 22c 6y ago
I have a feeling it's not SEO, but that Google themselves are favoring more domains over another based on a hidden factor. If you search for recipes you get the same thing, a bunch of results from big media organizations but very few (or none at all) results from smaller forums, self-run sites etc.
If I were to put my cynical tinfoil hat on, I would say Google has optimized a lot of search results to be favored towards sites which heavily advertise/track their users. Google results are no longer "search term" being matched to "content" but there are additional layers which do more magic, like "is this publisher considered favorable or trustworthy to Google" and "will this result generate a positive ROI for Google".
- dannyw 6y agoGoogle has a team of human evaluators called Raters that use a criteria. https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterh... You can read about what the criteria is, but in short, it directly asks raters to boost established sites and downrank things like forums, personal blogs, and niche websites.
- boardwaalk 6y agoI... did not know this. It's good to know that Google is also responsible for killing the non-corporate web alongside Facebook and Twitter. And perhaps more insidiously.
- ajsnigrutin 6y agoThis is (i think) also happening with youtube. There were a bunch of funny political videos a couple of years ago (eg. "Trump insult compilaton" etc., from different independent individuals), and searching for those terms now just shows videos from CNN, BBC, ABC, CNBC, and other corporate media houses.
- IX-103 6y agoThat's a very cynical take away from a document saying expertise, authority, and trustworthiness are the most important measures of page quality. I can see how forums would take a hit because users are anonymous, but personal blogs and niche websites should be rated high. Assuming the blog owner has some expertise to back their work, then just listing a relevant Ph.D. or other professional affiliations on the site about page would be more than good enough to fit these guidelines. This would seem to go more so for niche websites as demonstrated expertise should be more apparent. Note that site reputation was listed as the very least important metric. I doubt anyone else read all 168 pages, but can you direct me to the page that supports your claim? I didn't find anything that I would qualify as "directly asks raters to boost established sites and downrank things like forums, personal blogs, and niche websites."
- tripzilch 6y ago> Assuming the blog owner has some expertise to back their work, then just listing a relevant Ph.D. or other professional affiliations on the site about page would be more than good enough to fit these guidelines. That is pretty exclusive, IMO.
- eitland 6y agoObviously I haven't read this whole thing during my lunch break but if what you say is true then it explains a lot about why search quality has suffered the last ten years. Forums, personal blogs and niche websites are often exactly what I want.
- dd36 6y agoGoogle for sure favors sites with its analytics code.
- dudus 6y agoI know for a fact that isn't true. But I'm curious what gives you that impression?
- antsar 6y agoThe incentives are aligned for Google to do this. I'd like to believe that they don't. Can you point to anything that might convince skeptical non-Googlers that Google does not do this?
- dd36 6y agoBecause to optimize the analytics, you optimize the site for analytics and inherently give Google more detailed data. There’s no way Google isn’t using that data.
- dannyw 6y agoDo you have a source for this?