• thehatfox@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Unfortunately it’s never-ending cat and mouse battle. The whole point of SEO is to game the search engines systems, so the spammers will now be adjusting their tactics.

      I don’t think it’s just SEO that’s the problem with Google search either. They seem to put too much weight on e-commerce over information.

    • Fermion@mander.xyz
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      8 months ago

      There’s something else wrong besides just excessive SEO. The other day I was trying to find a battery controller for a diy battery pack. I searched “rechargeable battery controller.” Every result on the first page was rechargeable battery packs for Xbox controllers. I understand how there could be a strong correlation, but it was every result being for Xbox controllers. So my conclusion is that Google search is doing more than correlating occurrence of search terms now. I think they’re running some sort of ai to guess what you intend to search based on what you typed then showing results based on that. So their system decided I was looking for a battery for an Xbox controller and showed only results for that search rather than a search of what I actually typed.

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      Honestly, i hope they don’t.

      We don’t need google (or any tech giant) where the internet of humans is going.

  • Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The answer seems fairly obvious to me if they really want to improve search results: blanket ban any domain owned by any company known to engage in blatant SEO spam, let them appeal after 6 months. The fact that isn’t done means Google sees profit in allowing SEO spam to exist as long as it doesn’t push too many people away.

  • Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    If Google keeps listing the battle, hopefully other search engines can arise. Bigger variety would help with combating SEO, cause if you have 3 or 4 alternatives, it becomes harder to game all of them

    • huginn@feddit.it
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      8 months ago

      Only if they use substantially different ranking algos.

      Given how poor DDG and Bing search is (tons of the same SEO pages) I doubt that the other search engines will fix anything.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Overall, the update intends to improve Google’s ranking systems to downrank pages that were “created for search engines instead of for people,” the company’s announcement explains.

    That is, sites that have a poor user experience or that were seemingly designed to match a very specific search query will be impacted.

    This could impact web pages that pretend to offer answers to popular search queries, but don’t actually provide much value to the end user.

    Google tells us the ranking changes will “directly address low-quality AI-generated content that’s designed to attract clicks, but that doesn’t add much original value,” according to spokesperson Jennifer Kutz.

    The ultimate goal is reducing the presence of pages that feel unsatisfying, and lack original content,” she said.

    Google says it’s publishing its policy two months in advance of enforcement on May 5 to give site owners time to make changes.


    The original article contains 756 words, the summary contains 144 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • AceBonobo@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Google says it’s publishing its policy two months in advance of enforcement on May 5 to give site owners time to make changes.

      Seriously?