The Internet Google Left Behind

[Brett_Tabke]

I know Google search is dying because Google responded to a user complaint about how their search doesn’t work by arguing that it’s the users who are wrong.

If you have to tell users they’re using your product wrong then you’ve lost.

[newsletters.theatlantic.com...]

[tangor]

Heh! The "monopoly" reveals its true colors!

(Of course, we always knew this was coming.)

[Kendo]

I used to think that Google search was the most self-interested and monopolised service on the planet. Back in that day they made bones about their algorithm being top secret to protect it from exploit. However I saw that as a smoke screen and my tests proved it because what they were advocating had nothing to do with their practice.

I set up 10 different websites with similar content but varying in what was recommended as good SEO, went through the process of registering them for search with sitemaps, etc, and checked search results over a period of time.

That was more than 10 years ago (actually forget when exactly and it may have been much longer) but not much has changed. While it does serve as a good search tool for stuff that one can find on Stack Overflow (and their other preferred sites), I still find it lacking. For example search for anything related to "Classic ASP" mostly returns "ASP.Net" which of course is useless to me.

Then when I do searches on my keywords for a 22 year old website which was the innovator of those keywords, I get mixed results...my 20 year old keywords are coming in at 80-100+ and some more recent keywords coming in at #1-3.

They do claim however that domain age does have a lot to do with ranking, but seemingly not after they apply all of the other nonsense which may include "what is the potential of converting this site to a paying Adwords client?"

I still use their search, but only because I like the layout of their results.

[MrSavage]

I use Google search still. Exclusively. However I will say this. The day a F search tool provides me results that are void of the actual terms I wrote into the search box? You better believe that is broken. It's insulting to the end user. Comical in a way. Been going on for years. Years, meaning it's working as designed. Perfect, according to some super smart person who is smarter and frankly better than any end user out there. A game of darts where meerly hitting the wall is the objective. The perfect throw. It stuck in the wall!

[martinibuster]

Saw a normal Google user on Facebook complaining how Google's SERPs are full of garbage results. He was searching for foods that dogs shouldn't eat and complained about sites with poor content written by non-experts.

[engine]

I've been reporting for a while how it's becoming harder to find something on Google organic. Put aside the ads, i'm only talking about organic. In part, it's because the index is now not including key parts of a page, and i'm having to dig deeper and chase the results.
Google is happy delivering its usual selections (videos, etc.) but if that's not what i'm looking for, i'm having to chase the results. Perhaps most people are happy (read not bothered) with the content?

He was searching for foods that dogs shouldn't eat and complained about sites with poor content written by non-experts.

That's another angle: Some users know more than some of the content on sites. I often see bad content returning in the SERPs, and it's almost as if MFA is back and ranking.

Adding all the ads and promo, the SERPs are very crowded. It's google's job to make money for the shareholders. It could all go badly for Google very quickly as soon as a credible alternative surfaces, or the alternatives are given half a chance without having to fight off the far reaching tentacles of Google's ecosystem, imho.

[RedBar]

I hope this is on-topic.

The major issue I find especially with the US Google SERPs in my widget sector is that the algo seems to favour a specific template layout thus generating extremely similar results. It's almost as if many US companies have asked which site is ranking #1, let's do what they do and the resulting SERPs is a clone of the, in my case, the largest US importer / wholesaler, a $Billion+ company.

This desired algo template is then transferred to other English language Google SERPs with the same US company being ranked #1 even though they are usually importing from that specific country!

I know precisely the desired algo template, I made one over the weekend, therefore as an experiment I may construct a small UK site to see if my thoughts are correct however the tardiness of G in updating at the moment may make this a long test!

Without doubt there are some fantastic websites in all widget sectors that are never seen in the top 50 results let alone have any chance of ranking #1. SEO is what many of us here purport to do but even we cannot be 100% positive about our efforts at a national or international level these days, hence G makes a fortune out of these superb websites having to pay to be seen.

I've said it before, most of my global industry stopped updating their sites in 2015/16 because the algo was skewed / biased and could not / would not recognise quality, unique and authoritative sites.

[saladtosser]

"Classic ASP" mostly returns "ASP.Net" which of course is useless to me.!"

Same, always brings up .net! Some classic but mostly .net! Its googles way of telling us we should get out of the dark ages!

[MrSavage]

That mention of not working on sites since 2016 or so? Truth is I haven't posted here in over 2 years. I haven't updated a page on a website in longer than that. One reason really. People talking about it already. They tore the soul out of me. My passion compromised. Too popular, too dominant. Unless you are spewing out daily content that is. Wish I could get a sniff again, believe me.

[tangor]

It's eyeballs for me, and perhaps share with thee---

Money Machine Economics Based on Freebie Data.

However, things have changed a bit with answer box and such (freebie already converted into the machine) and keeping eyes on "me" instead of "thee".

Tough market!

So --- why do we do this? Hope springs eternal --- and we are still smarter in content generation than ---

Since 1996, I'm not going away---and can STILL be found when the lookers keep looking.

[javelin]

Unless you are spewing out daily content that is. Wish I could get a sniff again, believe me.

I have always wondered about this concept. Once a site has enough volume (pages and overall word volume) and adding more begins to allow for questionable quality, is more actually better?

I have never tested it but often algorithms depend upon stability. Redbar might could give more insight into this. I have never tested it, but sometimes I wonder if more in depth editing and updating would be better than new content.

[RedBar]

is more actually better?

Good question !

At the present time in my sector and especially so in the USA, cloned mediocrity prevails. Mostly this is not the fault of the website owner but the site constructor. Invariably business sites are built with the instruction "make what the top sites do" and when there are hundreds / thousands of businesses in just one specific sector there are only so many way to present the same information. It is also important to note that probably 99% of site builders have zero knowledge of the subject too and, in general, probably very little interest.

And herein lies the conundrum for the algo, how can / does it differentiate between popular cloning and excellent accuracy?

Personally, since my first site in 1993, I have gone down the accuracy route and this has mostly been extremely successful BUT I see these days a change in the public's attitude. My sister's regional family widget site traffic has seen reduced traffic yet realworld business has increased and the most notable aspect of her website is that the second most popular page after the home page is her contact page and hardly ever is the contact form ever used, it's always real phone calls.

As usual there are no definitive answers other than constant experimentation:-)

[Kendo]

Same, always brings up .net! Some classic but mostly .net! Its googles way of telling us we should get out of the dark ages!

I think that it might be ASP.Net that is dead because it is too cumbersome and requires licensing for server and development software.

But contrary to what they claim on Slack Overflow, Classic ASP is not dead and won't be for a long time to come. I work in ASP and PHP and but work much faster in ASP and it is easier to debug on localhost. In fact I have written software apps in Classic ASP that run on all Windows desktops. Now you cannot do that with PHP.

About a month ago I created an Event Calendar plug for my sporting association. Started with the best WordPress plugin (open source) and customised to suit a state association that supports and promotes the events of their affiliated clubs. After paying out $800 in freelancer fees plus my own time for month, I was not satisfied and thought it could be a lot better. So I created a new one from scratch in Classic ASP.

It is no longer a WordPress plugin but it is so more sophisticated. It doesn't need to be a plugin any more because as service it can serve all web sites, any pages that can use an iFrame, and if not, a link from Facebook will work just as well. Searchable by sporting type, association, country and state... and in 24 languages.

If you have a club or sporting association that can use an Event Calendar with full back-end management, let me know.

[Beachboy]

Somebody needs to start working on a better search tool.

[buckworks]

Once a site has enough volume ... is more actually better?

After the site has covered the important concepts and information for its niche, work on promotion rather than spinning weak or repetitive content.

A page of quality content that credible sites link to is worth more than a mountain of fluff.