Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
One site has not had any updates for over a year, has brief, one- or two-line stories that are badly written and often badly spelled and yet has a higher page rank.
Does Google have a way of screening writing for quality? This may be hard, but surely it's easy enough to see when spelling is all over the place?
Should Google be concerned about the quality of writing? A spelling mistake doesn't automatically make a page or a site bad, but repeated mistakes suggests a site isn't being put together with care.
Does Google have a way of screening writing for quality?
Yes they do, user behavior. If those SERPs are being clicked and then the back button hit within a certain time period, that is one way to measure the quality of the page. Poor spelling, grammar, etc. is surely going to cause a bit more of those back button responses. High Bounce Rates are one way to assist Google with determining the quality of the page.
Anything you can think up, the Google people have also thought up. They may or may not have implemented it. That is the best rule of thumb.
Just because its in a patent doesn't mean they are using it. Have you tested this? Are you certain this data is used currently in the algo?
Just because its in a patent doesn't mean they are using it. Have you tested this? Are you certain this data is used currently in the algo?
Hmmm, I didn't reference a patent on this one but I think I can find a few that are pertinent. ;)
Tested what? Landing Page quality? Of course I have. Google does it every second of the day, millions and millions of times.
Okay, if they are not using this data, why is it such an integral part of AdWords, AdSense, Analytics, etc.?
Marcia or tedster will probably be along shortly to include the patent references. :)
When you make a search, Google is able to recognize when a word is wrong and suggest you to search the correct form.
Unfortunately Google is not always right, expecially in the presence of not common word.
If Google has problems with single words or short senteces, situation certainly is getting worse and worse on long texts.
I think that nowdays Google cannot damage too much bad written pages.
It could make confusion among bad writted pages and pages that are well written but using not common word or using a syntax not popular but very correct.
Rather than finding obvious poorly written pages, as a sometimes professional writer, I was focused on the kind of polished copy that takes much writing and editing and re-writing and re-editing to create. I was wondering if this kind of polished copy had any semantic signs that made it stand out from casually written copy, or even auto-generated junk. And, again, the answer was "we're working on it, but it's nowhere near ready for prime time."
One of the most common grammar mistakes is the verb tense not agreeing with the noun (the dogs is crossing the street). that should be easy for google to pick up on with a threshold level that indicates this page isn't good quality.
Yikes.
I was wondering if this kind of polished copy had any semantic signs that made it stand out
With apologies to Oscar Wilde, a search engine knows the content of everything and the value of nothing.
Without human assessment, results will always be based on probability rather than understanding.
The DMOZ and Yahoo directories, however flawed, remain important for good reason.
Hang on a second. What's the difference between this and the use of proofreaders in any other kind of professional publishing?
Bookshops insisting that books are proofread isn't racist, this is about quality. Good spelling and grammar means quality.
I can't wait till the day illegible rubbish is kicked out of the search results. And it will be user driven because the public wants quality and the search engines just haven't worked out how to service that demand yet but they will.
it will be user driven because the public wants quality
Correct writing is a sign of quality, of a sort, but I don't think it's very highly correlated with people finding what they're currently searching for.
Bookshops insisting that books are proofread isn't racist, this is about quality. Good spelling and grammar means quality.
Correct writing is a sign of quality, of a sort, but I don't think it's very highly correlated with people finding what they're currently searching for.
Thay's something that Google would be in a better position to judge than we are, simply because it has so much statistical data at its disposal. But I do think it's certainly possible--even probable--that there's a statistical correlation between correct (or at least adequate) writing and user satisfaction.
...or at least adequate...
For one thing, favoring correct grammar would introduce a huge bias against forums. Almost nobody writes accurately when they're in conversational mode. That's right, I'm looking at almost everyone who has posted in this thread so far! Typographical errors, run-on sentences, missing apostrophes, etc. Sentence fragments. It's quite scandalous.
Huckleberry Finn has atrocious English. Google would make sure no one ever found it again.
But HUCKLEBERRY FINN also has links from libraries, English departments of high schools and universities, etc., and those links comprise a "signal of quality" that can easily override any concerns about on-page English usage.
If grammar were used as a ranking factor, it would be just one of many.
BTW, I haven't seen Grammar changing that often. Slang changes often, but not good grammar.
Did Robert Pirsig not write a couple of novels looking at how to define it and came to the conclusion you could not.
Does Google have a way of screening writing for quality?
we made some tests and sites featuring auto-generated BS content get banned pretty quickly.
so i believe they are on something here
But for the mainstream of websites, I doubt spelling and grammar will ever be validated algorithmically, and I doubt these kinds of errors have a noticeable impact overall.
pwned!
Seriously, will all the English teachers read this.
(and all related links)
[en.wikipedia.org...]
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The answer to the OP is:
To no degree worth worrying about.
Entire pages with no grammar at all rank well.
Personally I would think this is not currently used as per the cost of resources required. However if it is not used you can bet Google is planning for it in some way in the future.
