Forum Moderators: open
Anyone else noticing any major changes?
Filtering out duplicate or near-duplicate content does not equate to filtering out e-commerce pages. And such a filter can be applied equally to information pages and e-commerce pages.
Sure, but duplicate content is more likely to be a problem with e-commerce and affiliate pages, because:
1) One widget, hotel, etc. can resulting hundreds or even thousands of near-duplicate pages on e-commerce and affiliate sites; and...
2) E-commerce and affiliate pages are more likely to use SEO techniques that bring them to the top of the SERPs, causing greater clutter in the search results that most users see.
(With AdSense encouraging the development of ODP clones and sitescraper pages, duplicate content is likely to grow exponentially on the "information" side of the aisle, too, which makes it the more important for Google to become more skilled at filtering or downgrading boilerplate pages.)
Google most definitely knows what pages are guestbooks, and excludes them from the algo. That they before were able to filter them when someone used the link: command is proof of that. Although I'm curious as to why they are showing guestbooks again? An interesting theory is they may actually *want* sleazy webmasters and SEOs spamming guestbooks. Better they waste their time doing that than something that may actually get higher SERPs in Google. Obviously, people with guestbooks will not be pleased Google is encouraging spamming them. :( However, I've noticed almost all guestbook spammers do so more looking for hits from people reading the guestbook than for SEO reasons. This is obvious because if they were doing it for SEO reasons, they'd try and hide the fact they are spamming. As in dropping the URL after an idle flattery of the site, rather than "Buy the best widgets at the lowest price at the link below."
So what has it claimed itself to be or not to be?
The clutter is being created by Adsense. Millions of pages created daily with just a few links, a paragraph, and sometimes a picture to induce click-throughs. Every mother’s brother is throwing up a site now to earn Adsense revenue. Many sites owners know that if they create X amount of pages a certain percentage of people will stumble through and click a few Adsense links. The sheer size of these sites normally increases rankings. The problem is that more and more sites are lifting copyrighted materials from legitimate sites and web results to create these pages at breakneck speed. Without Adsense most of these sites would die a quick death, as they should.
Most commerce sites know they’ve got to work hard, especially on the Internet, to make money. The aura of theft which grows daily forces many to bend over backwards to establish legitimacy. Most Adsense sites created lately don’t care about legitimacy they’re aiming for the click. They could care less if anybody reads what’s written. Adsense is just a form of affiliate marketing. You find me an information site and 75% of the time it will be a boilerplate site littered with links pointing to other information. In some of my areas many even the authority sites haven’t created any original content in years. It would kill them.
I could 'monetise' my wife for example; there's certainly untapped income there. She's a fine looking woman.
If only I had a personal mantra like 'Don't be Evil' -this is an excellent philosophy if you're a buffoon. With such a mantra, I could monetarise my wife with no moral concerns whatsoever.
This is because *Not being evil* covers such a multitude of potential sins, that it is absolutely meaningless. As long as you are 'not evil', you can do pretty much as you like, according to the strict definition.
I suspect its a log scale of 'badness', with evil far out of reach at the top.
Did no-one spot this?
So what has it claimed itself to be or not to be?
That's easy: Read Google's mission statement.
The clutter is being created by Adsense. Millions of pages created daily with just a few links, a paragraph, and sometimes a picture to induce click-throughs.
The clutter started with e-commerce and affiliate pages, and it reached epidemic proportions long before AdSense came along. Fortunately, it should be easier for Google to control "AdSense spam" than e-commerce and affiliate spam, because all Google has to do is tighten up its rules and close down the offenders' accounts.
Yes, but Europeforvisitors, why are Google complaining about these low content pages - if their algos keep throwing up these results in high positions?
That should be fairly obvious: The Google Search team are playing Whack-a-Mole, just as they've been doing with affiliate and e-commerce SEOs for years.
oh - and who created AdSense
Not the Google Search team, that's for sure. :-)
When Google launched AdSense, it obviously decided that winning an overwhelming market share among publishers outweighed the inevitable problems that would result from a nearly total lack of quality control. Now it's got to clean up the mess, at the same time that it needs to deal with long-existing boilerplate clutter from e-commerce and affiliate sites.
However, I saw lots of "informational" sites with Adsense and affiliate links coming on top of serps.
Let me see should I shut down thousands of spamming cookie cutter sites that are producing me millions in revenue through Adsense or should I shut down sites spamming that produce me no revenue. That's a toughy.
Lookee here, if we push content and penalize commerce then people will only find many sites by clicking on our Adsense ads. After all we're in business to make money aren't we.
Are you telling me search engines don't manipulate results as much as the webmasters they accuse of doing it?
A "criteria" is not a "flaw".
There is nothing flawed about setting a standard that is consistent, or even 95%+ consistent.
allinurl:www.widgets.com
I have not been checking lately so maybe I missed the bus, but it seems to display all links to the site.
Let me see should I shut down thousands of spamming cookie cutter sites that are producing me millions in revenue through Adsense or should I shut down sites spamming that produce me no revenue. That's a toughy.
Google's core product is search. If it delivers lousy search results, it loses traffic, ad impressions, and revenue. IMHO, it's naive to think that Google is going to risk a proven business model by looking the other way when the fast-buck crowd spam its search results (whether with affiliate pages, e-commerce pages, or "cookie-cutter" AdSense sites).
Lookee here, if we push content and penalize commerce then people will only find many sites by clicking on our Adsense ads. After all we're in business to make money aren't we.
There's certainly a precedent for that point of view: In offline media, businesses are expected to advertise when they want to promote their goods and services. Instead of bashing Google, owners of commerce sites should thank Google for the free ride. :-)
Are you telling me search engines don't manipulate results as much as the webmasters they accuse of doing it?
Yes.
I think if you're an information site married to Adsense you should be thanking Adword commerce sites not Google.
The only way to check the abuse with Adsense is to decentralize the policing. I don’t know of many affiliate networks that don’t allow the advertisers to pick and choose their affiliates.
All media including search engines manipulate the final product.
I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for a few weeks.
After seeing almost a 50% drop in backlinks this weekend I've just noticed google reverting back to the old list of links from before the weekend update.
Anyone else seeing this reverse.
---Nevermind just check after 5 minutes and it moved back again to the updated (50% less links)list. Oh well so much for getting my hopes up.
[edited by: JMeeks at 12:03 am (utc) on July 20, 2004]
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[edited by: DaveAtIFG at 12:19 am (utc) on July 20, 2004]
[edit reason] URL removed [/edit]
All a SE DOES is manipulate results.
If the -right- kinds of pages dont show (instead..spam or someones definition of) the algo must be adjusted.
Or apply a manual penalty -site- not page. )
Search engines create algorithms. The algorithms determine the order in which results are displayed.
Webmasters and SEOs, on the other hand, often attempt to defeat the algorithms by artificial means. That's how I'd define "manipulation." If you prefer to use a different definition, that's your privilege, but it's disingenous to pretend that the design and refinement of an algorithm is in any way comparable to black-hat or even grey-hat SEO. The search engine tries to deliver the best possible results for the user; the SEO tries to deliver the results that are best for himself or his client.
Otherwise, yes we're just talking definitions here.
Instead of bashing Google, owners of commerce sites should thank Google for the free ride. :-)
I'd rather say Google should thanks Webmasters for the free ride. :P
I'd rather say Google should thanks Webmasters for the free ride. :P
It's about time someone stood up and said that. Google has been getting a free ride on our content for a LONG TIME.
We were here LONG before Google came around and we'll be around LONG after they bite the dust (mark my words, Google WILL bite it).
Google is nothing more than the worlds largest link farm with the ability to locate links by keyword. Other than that, Google has no content anyone is interested in.
Google is nothing more than the worlds largest link farm with the ability to locate links by keyword
I think Google is shooting themselves in the foot, what they should had done is actually improve the backlink function and possibly even allow seeing results beyond the first 1000 results for the link command (for a fee if this puts computing load without any direct returns).
This way their reputation is definitely going down in the webmaster community.
This is making my heart, beat at different paces as I check for backlinks at different time intervals!
Now am seeing all the backlinks that were there before this backlink mix-up.
Till when? Million dollar question :)
Mc
Million dollar question answered :)
Mc
Hope it holds-up
Mc
Good point, but when has the link command ever been consistent? I have one way inbound links from authority sites as do some of my competitors. Sometimes they show for me and not others and vice versa.
Its always been just a sampling and for whatever reason Google has changed the basis for the sample.
