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But shouldn't all the blogspam be so hyperoptimized for Google's algorithm that is should be straightforward to detect and ignore/downrank it?
by ginko 5y ago
But shouldn't all the blogspam be so hyperoptimized for Google's algorithm that is should be straightforward to detect and ignore/downrank it?
- elcomet 5y agoIt's not that easy, they are optimized for many metrics..
- beingflo 5y agoNo because google's algorithm is not well known publicly. Also, if it was straightforward to detect then google could downrank it as well.
- ginko 5y agoThe point is that SEO would just immediately adapt to Google's changes. If a smaller search engine filtered these out then it would likely stay under the radar.
- thefreeman 5y agoyou know that legitimate sites perform SEO as well, right?
- marginalia_nu 5y agoSEO often seems to be a compensation for the fact that a site doesn't have particularly worthwhile content. So punishing SEO surprisingly does promote higher quality of search results.
- all2 5y agoYes and no. A lot of those sites are small local businesses trying to get found. A front page listing can be the difference between surviving and going under. Much of the time the blog spam is what floats hours, contact info, and services provided to the first page.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoBe that as it may, search ranking is a zero sum game. The unfair advantage SEO gives this particular struggling business means another goes under. I'd rather punish the guy trying to game the system than the one with enough principles not to.
- pessimizer 5y agoThe difference is far more likely to be in capability or expertise than principles.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoEither way, capability for fuckery is not something I'd want to encourage.
- Nasrudith 5y agoWould you rather have a surgeon who knows how to kill you with a narrow slice to the right artery or one who doesn't even know where your kidneys appendix are located? Selecting for incompetence doesn't work well.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoEschewing SEO isn't incompetence, it's moral principle and good character. I'd much rather have a surgeon who doesn't moonlight harvesting organs OD:ing junkies.
- kbelder 5y agoI wonder if you could evaluate a page using your own algorithm, which is probably not gamed as much as Google's (because who cares about your search engine?) Then, check Google's ranking of the page. If it is much higher than it seems the page should be, assume the page is being SEO hyper-optimized and penalize the page proportionately. Basically, using the variance between Google's model and your model as an indicator of an SEO spam page.
- nickpp 5y agoI read auto-generated pages almost to the end before realizing it was SEO spam. (I am not a native English speaker though) With content copying, shuffling and AI generating, I am afraid we are on the cusp of auto content generators passing some restricted Turing test where readers really think it's an actual human that wrote it. As for me, I leant that for certain "hot topics", simply doing a generic search on Google is not a good idea anymore.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoYeah, I do this with my search engine. Works pretty well. A complementary approach that works well is to look at where blogs written by humans link. Very few spam blogs get links from humans.