A modest proposal to limit effectiveness of search engine spam

Create a certification program

[diamondgrl]

I posted this idea in another thread, but it was not a thread I started, so I wanted to highlight this proposal in a thread of its own. I hope that is not considered a problem by users or the moderators.

I have a money-making suggestion that I wish Google et al. would take up. Or, some entrepreneur who gets the official sanction of Google et al. could also do it.

The idea is to have some e-commerce seal of approval that would guarantee higher ranking in the SERPs. Merchants would pay to get reviewed periodically and they would have to meet certain criteria to get approved for the seal. Among those criteria would be that the merchant is actually selling real things and is not an affiliate.

The same could be done with content sites, with ratings given based on how user-oriented the site is. Sure, ads would be allowed, but they couldn't be the only apparent purpose of the page.

Obviously to be truly useful, the search engines would have to agree to participate in such an endeavor to make the web a "safer place".

Any thoughts on whether this is feasible or a good idea?

[WebGuerrilla]

It's an idea that is old as dirt. It won't ever work, but I'm sure you will see a version of it soon. Rumour has it the Google will be launching some type of SEO certification program soon.

[Rosalind]

Another version of this idea is called "paying to be in a selective directory."

Still, glad to hear your modest proposal doesn't involve cooking and eating our own babies. Or websites.

[willybfriendly]

not an affiliate...

There is nothing inherently wrong with affiliates. Why would you want to target all affiliates?

And, why would you want to commercialize organic listings? There are many valuable sites the owners of which would never pay a dime, in part because they just don't care about SERPs.

Who cares about SERPs, and who would be most likely to pay, and who would be most likely to find ways to game the system? The very people that you want to get booted.

Next idea....

WBF

[old_expat]

"Among those criteria would be that the merchant is actually selling real things and is not an affiliate."

Does a merchant(1) who sells computers purchased from Dell deserve different certification from SEs than a merchant(2) who sells Dell computers via a link through merchant(1)'s site?

If so, then wouldn't Dell, the corporate entity be the only seller the search engines should certify? After all, merchant(1) is simply a distributer/agent/affiliate of Dell.