6 ms·

seems like it would hurt your traffic

by avipars 5y ago

amelius 5y ago
Just join a web ring like in the old days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
onion2k 5y ago
That depends on where your traffic originates from. Back when I tracked people on my site, I found I got very little from search results. Most of it (> 95%) came from links from social media and Github. On a blog that's heavily about privacy I wouldn't expect much to come from Google. Also, so what if the numbers go down? If your reason from writing a blog is to see a number on a screen then what does that actually give you?
- jefftk 5y ago
  > so what if the numbers go down? If your reason from writing a blog is to see a number on a screen then what does that actually give you? Traffic numbers are not an end in themselves, but are a decent proxy for "are other people getting value out of what I write?"
lucb1e 5y ago
If that's your goal. Personally I host content that people can use or not. I'll link friends if I want them to see it. Visitors don't cost me anything, it doesn't really bring me anything (other than ego?) to have visitors either. Hence I saw fit to also block google (two years ago already apparently, I thought it was much more recent) and it didn't negatively impact my site in any way.
floatingatoll 5y ago
This assumes that the increase in traffic due to Google is beneficial, which it rarely is for personal diary sites.
freediver 5y ago
Only if there is relevant traffic from Google to begin with, which is highly unlikely for a site like this. A high percentage of results in almost every Google search comes from the closed circle of the same top 10,000 sites or so. This is the beauty of a protest like this, because this site does have valuable content, and if enough sites like this joined the protest it could actually hurt the relevancy of the Google index, that by the time Google figures out is valuable, would not be allowed to index anymore.
- jefftk 5y ago
  I don't think that's so unlikely: on my blog ~30% of visitors come from searches
  - freediver 5y ago
    Sorry my statement was both generalized and specific at the same time, and that did not turn out well. How many visits does your blog have daily? And what would it take you to remove your site from Google index?
    - jefftk 5y ago
      > How many visits does your blog have daily? ~200k sessions in the past year, so ~550/d. Breakdown: * ~30% search * ~30% no referer * ~25% HN * ~7% Twitter/FB/etc * ~8% other > what would it take you to remove your site from Google index? I don't see why I would want to exclude my site from any index? Being in indexes helps people find my writing, which I like!
      - indigochill 5y ago
        > I don't see why I would want to exclude my site from any index? Being in indexes helps people find my writing, which I like! It's essentially a form of boycott. If one believes Google is a problematic entity (too many fingers in too many aspects of our lives), it's a way to sever connections with them at some personal cost. At least, if you care about search traffic - one might argue the assumption that Google-like search is the default way to navigate the web is one worth reconsidering and encouraging alternatives to anyway.

seems like it would hurt your traffic

amelius 5y ago

Just join a web ring like in the old days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

onion2k 5y ago

That depends on where your traffic originates from. Back when I tracked people on my site, I found I got very little from search results. Most of it (> 95%) came from links from social media and Github. On a blog that's heavily about privacy I wouldn't expect much to come from Google. Also, so what if the numbers go down? If your reason from writing a blog is to see a number on a screen then what does that actually give you?

jefftk 5y ago
> so what if the numbers go down? If your reason from writing a blog is to see a number on a screen then what does that actually give you? Traffic numbers are not an end in themselves, but are a decent proxy for "are other people getting value out of what I write?"

lucb1e 5y ago

If that's your goal. Personally I host content that people can use or not. I'll link friends if I want them to see it. Visitors don't cost me anything, it doesn't really bring me anything (other than ego?) to have visitors either. Hence I saw fit to also block google (two years ago already apparently, I thought it was much more recent) and it didn't negatively impact my site in any way.

floatingatoll 5y ago

This assumes that the increase in traffic due to Google is beneficial, which it rarely is for personal diary sites.

freediver 5y ago

Only if there is relevant traffic from Google to begin with, which is highly unlikely for a site like this. A high percentage of results in almost every Google search comes from the closed circle of the same top 10,000 sites or so. This is the beauty of a protest like this, because this site does have valuable content, and if enough sites like this joined the protest it could actually hurt the relevancy of the Google index, that by the time Google figures out is valuable, would not be allowed to index anymore.

jefftk 5y ago
I don't think that's so unlikely: on my blog ~30% of visitors come from searches
- freediver 5y ago
  Sorry my statement was both generalized and specific at the same time, and that did not turn out well. How many visits does your blog have daily? And what would it take you to remove your site from Google index?
  - jefftk 5y ago
    > How many visits does your blog have daily? ~200k sessions in the past year, so ~550/d. Breakdown: * ~30% search * ~30% no referer * ~25% HN * ~7% Twitter/FB/etc * ~8% other > what would it take you to remove your site from Google index? I don't see why I would want to exclude my site from any index? Being in indexes helps people find my writing, which I like!
    - indigochill 5y ago
      > I don't see why I would want to exclude my site from any index? Being in indexes helps people find my writing, which I like! It's essentially a form of boycott. If one believes Google is a problematic entity (too many fingers in too many aspects of our lives), it's a way to sever connections with them at some personal cost. At least, if you care about search traffic - one might argue the assumption that Google-like search is the default way to navigate the web is one worth reconsidering and encouraging alternatives to anyway.