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I've long believed that SEO is a scam... Also, wasn't google supposed to start punishing over-SEOed websites because of people google bombing "miserable failur

I've long believed that SEO is a scam... Also, wasn't google supposed to start punishing over-SEOed websites because of people google bombing "miserable failure"?

themoonisachees 3y ago
SEO works; you can verify it easily by searching for how to do any action on linux. Unless you include "stack", all the results will be SEO spam sites that copied their content from stackoverflow. Google does punish SEO, but it has failed in adressing the recent trend of blogspam. I think ultimately unless they're whitelisting sites (like SO) there is no way to algorithmically differentiate between blogspam and genuinely useful tech blogs, because the difference lies in natural language and not features of the page. Also, since these blogspam sites use very detailed language, they rank higher despite the language being just disguised keywords. Ultimately it is up to google to do better if they want to stay relevant. The recent influx of custom search providers is i think a sign that the giant is faltering. People are looking at smaller players and are deciding "google isn't that good to begin with, surely these guys can do better?".
- BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
  > I think ultimately unless they're whitelisting sites (like SO) there is no way to algorithmically differentiate between blogspam and genuinely useful tech blogs It has always been utterly mindblowing that apparently not a single person with power in the entire chain of command at Google has ever recognized that websites showing exact replicas of content from the very small list of extremely famous moderated content generators like Stack Overflow should just be blackholed. The number of legitimate Stack Overflows (the genre of legitimate content producers, not the specific domain) is very small. The list could be successfully curated manually by a troglodyte. Like, FFS, give google engineers a button they can click to mark a site as crap. They use the internet too and there are literally tens of thousands of them googling to find things on stack overflow all day every day. All they need is a "this site is an SEO scam" button. Not doing this speaks directly to either malice or incompetence (personally I think both), because it's not a super obscure problem that nobody inside google has ever encountered before.
libertine 3y ago
Why should Google punish the websites that go through the effort of applying their guidelines and best practices? I can give you an example, while doing technical SEO I coordinated a project to implement structured metadata to the pages (for example if the page had FAQs we would use the structured data for that). We went through that effort for Google to change their mind a few months ago. They decided to cut down on displaying featured snippets on search results, and with that we got a hit on our traffic. After following Google's own guidelines, and recommendations. Dealing with this crap isn't enough punishment?
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > Dealing with this crap isn't enough punishment? Nope, that's not even close to enough punishment.
- jfengel 3y ago
  Google inevitably has to change their guidelines. Black-hat SEO attends every conference you did, and work it to their advantage. Google keeps trying to get ahead of them, but they always slip behind. Your problem isn't with Google. Your problem is with your black-hat compatriots. That sucks, because you probably can't fight them on your own. Google has to, and you are the inevitable casualty of that fight.

I've long believed that SEO is a scam... Also, wasn't google supposed to start punishing over-SEOed websites because of people google bombing "miserable failure"?

themoonisachees 3y ago

SEO works; you can verify it easily by searching for how to do any action on linux. Unless you include "stack", all the results will be SEO spam sites that copied their content from stackoverflow. Google does punish SEO, but it has failed in adressing the recent trend of blogspam. I think ultimately unless they're whitelisting sites (like SO) there is no way to algorithmically differentiate between blogspam and genuinely useful tech blogs, because the difference lies in natural language and not features of the page. Also, since these blogspam sites use very detailed language, they rank higher despite the language being just disguised keywords. Ultimately it is up to google to do better if they want to stay relevant. The recent influx of custom search providers is i think a sign that the giant is faltering. People are looking at smaller players and are deciding "google isn't that good to begin with, surely these guys can do better?".

BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
> I think ultimately unless they're whitelisting sites (like SO) there is no way to algorithmically differentiate between blogspam and genuinely useful tech blogs It has always been utterly mindblowing that apparently not a single person with power in the entire chain of command at Google has ever recognized that websites showing exact replicas of content from the very small list of extremely famous moderated content generators like Stack Overflow should just be blackholed. The number of legitimate Stack Overflows (the genre of legitimate content producers, not the specific domain) is very small. The list could be successfully curated manually by a troglodyte. Like, FFS, give google engineers a button they can click to mark a site as crap. They use the internet too and there are literally tens of thousands of them googling to find things on stack overflow all day every day. All they need is a "this site is an SEO scam" button. Not doing this speaks directly to either malice or incompetence (personally I think both), because it's not a super obscure problem that nobody inside google has ever encountered before.

libertine 3y ago

Why should Google punish the websites that go through the effort of applying their guidelines and best practices? I can give you an example, while doing technical SEO I coordinated a project to implement structured metadata to the pages (for example if the page had FAQs we would use the structured data for that). We went through that effort for Google to change their mind a few months ago. They decided to cut down on displaying featured snippets on search results, and with that we got a hit on our traffic. After following Google's own guidelines, and recommendations. Dealing with this crap isn't enough punishment?

JohnFen 3y ago
> Dealing with this crap isn't enough punishment? Nope, that's not even close to enough punishment.
jfengel 3y ago
Google inevitably has to change their guidelines. Black-hat SEO attends every conference you did, and work it to their advantage. Google keeps trying to get ahead of them, but they always slip behind. Your problem isn't with Google. Your problem is with your black-hat compatriots. That sucks, because you probably can't fight them on your own. Google has to, and you are the inevitable casualty of that fight.