5 ms·

Because Google and Bing (therefore Duck) are increasingly answer engines, keeping you on their page, supporting the SEO ecosystem and most importantly their ad

Because Google and Bing (therefore Duck) are increasingly answer engines, keeping you on their page, supporting the SEO ecosystem and most importantly their ad revenues and network customers. We and the other few independent search engines have not made enough dent on the market to suffer SEO spam. We'll have a way to deal with it (watch this space). Right now you'll certainly get results "off the beaten path" and with one click you can try out 8 other search options [0]. [0] https://blog.mojeek.com/2022/02/search-choices-enable-freedom-to-seek.html https://blog.mojeek.com/2022/02/search-choices-enable-freedo...

mdasen 5y ago
Not only are they becoming answer engines, in Google's case there's a decent chance that they're making money off the spammy pages. If the top results are "SEO stuffed spam websites", they're probably also loaded with ads. If they're loaded with ads, there's a good chance that they're using Google's ads. If the top results are "SEO stuffed spam websites", there's a good chance they're chock-full of affiliate links. If a search for "best baby formula" is going to end up costing Amazon an affiliate fee via an "SEO stuffed spam website", Amazon might as well just buy a Google ad for that keyword and cut out the "SEO stuffed spam website". If the results go to pages that are just going to cost a seller money anyway, it gives the seller more incentive to buy ads since they aren't getting free traffic from the search engine anyway. While being an answer engine keeps you on their page longer, feeding you SEO spam also keeps you coming back to their page; feeding you SEO spam signals to potential advertisers that they won't be getting free traffic from the search engine so they might as well pay for the traffic via ads. I'm not suggesting that it's a conspiracy to send you bad results, but it does seem likely that as long as they aren't losing traffic to competitors, it might not be something that becomes a priority.
- ColinHayhurst 5y ago
  > If the top results are "SEO stuffed spam websites", they're probably also loaded with ads. If they're loaded with ads, there's a good chance that they're using Google's ads. Bingo. If you can't get clicks on AdWords get them on AdSense.
csmeder 5y ago
My go-to test search term is: "grass-fed beef restaurant in sf" You do much better than Google (Google will always include "Top 10 Best Grass Fed Organic Steak in San Francisco, CA" from Yelp and then link to places that don't have Grass-fed beef options.) However, currently, your first ranking option is Pinterest spam FYI: https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=grass+fed+beef+restaurant+in+sf https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=grass+fed+beef+restaurant+in... → https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=grass+fed+beef+restaurant+in+sf#:~:text=29%20Sf%20restaurants%20ideas%20%7C%20sf%20restaurants%2C%20san https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=grass+fed+beef+restaurant+in... Your second option is the correct kind of result (a blog from a local that actually answers the question): https://www.grassfedgirl.com/paleo-friendly-restaurants-in-san-francisco-part-3/ https://www.grassfedgirl.com/paleo-friendly-restaurants-in-s... Where most of the results on Google are not correct. They are mostly articles about Steaks (and a few actual restaurants that serve grass-fed beef, so that is good). Actually, FYI your results don't include these restaurants. eg. It would be nice if this Google result showed up in your results: "SF / SOMA - Belcampo We source grass-fed and finished, pasture-raised meats directly from our own climate positive CA farms and seasonal vegetables from local farms."
- ColinHayhurst 5y ago
  Thanks. useful feedback. As you point out #1 organic link on G is Yelp. They currently block all but G, Bing and Yahoo! - we'll get in touch with them again. https://www.yelp.com/robots.txt https://www.yelp.com/robots.txt Organic link #3 on G is Belcampo; we have some of that indexed so we'll take a look: https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=food+site%3Abelcampo.com https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=food+site%3Abelcampo.com
  - stonemetal12 5y ago
    >we'll get in touch with them again. Feel free not to. Follow the link, it isn't a quality result.
    - ColinHayhurst 5y ago
      Fair point. Some other big sites we are blocked from - we don't sweat. It keeps down the noise-to-signal ratio!

mdasen 5y ago

Not only are they becoming answer engines, in Google's case there's a decent chance that they're making money off the spammy pages. If the top results are "SEO stuffed spam websites", they're probably also loaded with ads. If they're loaded with ads, there's a good chance that they're using Google's ads. If the top results are "SEO stuffed spam websites", there's a good chance they're chock-full of affiliate links. If a search for "best baby formula" is going to end up costing Amazon an affiliate fee via an "SEO stuffed spam website", Amazon might as well just buy a Google ad for that keyword and cut out the "SEO stuffed spam website". If the results go to pages that are just going to cost a seller money anyway, it gives the seller more incentive to buy ads since they aren't getting free traffic from the search engine anyway. While being an answer engine keeps you on their page longer, feeding you SEO spam also keeps you coming back to their page; feeding you SEO spam signals to potential advertisers that they won't be getting free traffic from the search engine so they might as well pay for the traffic via ads. I'm not suggesting that it's a conspiracy to send you bad results, but it does seem likely that as long as they aren't losing traffic to competitors, it might not be something that becomes a priority.

ColinHayhurst 5y ago
> If the top results are "SEO stuffed spam websites", they're probably also loaded with ads. If they're loaded with ads, there's a good chance that they're using Google's ads. Bingo. If you can't get clicks on AdWords get them on AdSense.

csmeder 5y ago

My go-to test search term is: "grass-fed beef restaurant in sf" You do much better than Google (Google will always include "Top 10 Best Grass Fed Organic Steak in San Francisco, CA" from Yelp and then link to places that don't have Grass-fed beef options.) However, currently, your first ranking option is Pinterest spam FYI: https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=grass+fed+beef+restaurant+in+sf https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=grass+fed+beef+restaurant+in... → https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=grass+fed+beef+restaurant+in+sf#:~:text=29%20Sf%20restaurants%20ideas%20%7C%20sf%20restaurants%2C%20san https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=grass+fed+beef+restaurant+in... Your second option is the correct kind of result (a blog from a local that actually answers the question): https://www.grassfedgirl.com/paleo-friendly-restaurants-in-san-francisco-part-3/ https://www.grassfedgirl.com/paleo-friendly-restaurants-in-s... Where most of the results on Google are not correct. They are mostly articles about Steaks (and a few actual restaurants that serve grass-fed beef, so that is good). Actually, FYI your results don't include these restaurants. eg. It would be nice if this Google result showed up in your results: "SF / SOMA - Belcampo We source grass-fed and finished, pasture-raised meats directly from our own climate positive CA farms and seasonal vegetables from local farms."

ColinHayhurst 5y ago
Thanks. useful feedback. As you point out #1 organic link on G is Yelp. They currently block all but G, Bing and Yahoo! - we'll get in touch with them again. https://www.yelp.com/robots.txt https://www.yelp.com/robots.txt Organic link #3 on G is Belcampo; we have some of that indexed so we'll take a look: https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=food+site%3Abelcampo.com https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=food+site%3Abelcampo.com
- stonemetal12 5y ago
  >we'll get in touch with them again. Feel free not to. Follow the link, it isn't a quality result.
  - ColinHayhurst 5y ago
    Fair point. Some other big sites we are blocked from - we don't sweat. It keeps down the noise-to-signal ratio!