4 ms·

How could it rank higher tho? SO has a huge domain ranking. How an arbitrary website can compete with that? I always thought it’s the opposite and platforms li

How could it rank higher tho? SO has a huge domain ranking. How an arbitrary website can compete with that? I always thought it’s the opposite and platforms like SO and Medium incentivise posting there exactly via their crazy domain ranking.

kadoban 4y ago
> How could it rank higher tho? SO has a huge domain ranking. How an arbitrary website can compete with that? It's unclear, but they do. My guess would be that they're willing to do shadier SEO than SO will, and any that get caught just stand up more domains.
- adventured 4y ago
  It's usually temporary, until Google tags the copycat site as a spammy content farm and destroys its ability to rank. I haven't seen a site sustain high ranking / lots of traffic through copying Stackoverflow in maybe a decade at this point (since Panda etc.).
  - omnicognate 4y ago
    It doesn't matter, though. It's a hydra. Different sites over time but the result is that google results on programming topics are reliably, and increasingly, shit. I gave up on it and pay for Kagi.
  - michaelcampbell 4y ago
    It doesn't need to sustain it, it just needs to be there when you search. I generally get SO first, but I see a LOT of copycats on the first page of DDG/Google when I search.
_fat_santa 4y ago
They probably rank higher on long tail keywords. Usually for more in the weeds issues that don't get as much search volume
moralestapia 4y ago
>How could it rank higher tho? Because they sell more clicks, impressions, etc...
cruano 4y ago
Even if it doesn't, you now suddenly have the top 20+ results with the exact same info
- a_wild_dandan 4y ago
  That's why I have Firefox bookmarks where I type `s <query>` into the address bar which enters `site:stackoverflow.com <query>` into my search engine. Likewise for `r <query>` => `site:reddit.com <query>`. This annihilates the SEO spam and is useful for most of my searches. It's glorious finding recipe ingredients without wading through a blogger's life story or a search result page filled exclusively with ads above the fold.

kadoban 4y ago

> How could it rank higher tho? SO has a huge domain ranking. How an arbitrary website can compete with that? It's unclear, but they do. My guess would be that they're willing to do shadier SEO than SO will, and any that get caught just stand up more domains.

adventured 4y ago
It's usually temporary, until Google tags the copycat site as a spammy content farm and destroys its ability to rank. I haven't seen a site sustain high ranking / lots of traffic through copying Stackoverflow in maybe a decade at this point (since Panda etc.).
- omnicognate 4y ago
  It doesn't matter, though. It's a hydra. Different sites over time but the result is that google results on programming topics are reliably, and increasingly, shit. I gave up on it and pay for Kagi.
- michaelcampbell 4y ago
  It doesn't need to sustain it, it just needs to be there when you search. I generally get SO first, but I see a LOT of copycats on the first page of DDG/Google when I search.

_fat_santa 4y ago

They probably rank higher on long tail keywords. Usually for more in the weeds issues that don't get as much search volume

moralestapia 4y ago

>How could it rank higher tho? Because they sell more clicks, impressions, etc...

cruano 4y ago

Even if it doesn't, you now suddenly have the top 20+ results with the exact same info

a_wild_dandan 4y ago
That's why I have Firefox bookmarks where I type `s <query>` into the address bar which enters `site:stackoverflow.com <query>` into my search engine. Likewise for `r <query>` => `site:reddit.com <query>`. This annihilates the SEO spam and is useful for most of my searches. It's glorious finding recipe ingredients without wading through a blogger's life story or a search result page filled exclusively with ads above the fold.