CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
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Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
#2Bad. Antithetical to both Google's original ideals and the early 'netzien goals.
Google's deteriorating performance shouldn't result in deleting valuable historical viewpoints, journalistic trends and research material just to raise your newly AI-generated sh1t to the top of the trash fire.
Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
#3Funny timing, because Google said yesterday not to do this.
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-dont-delete-older-helpfu...
Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
#4I haven't visited a CNET page in years and didn't know they were even still relevant :p
The times I have visited CNET pages in the past was to find specific information. If such information happens to be in deleted articles, that would reduce my interactions with CNET in the future.
I think they should archive the old articles or even offload them to Wayback willingly, but it's possible some of the articles they're purging aren't worthwhile. If I write up an article about a cat playing on a scratching post, there's a good chance there's nothing unique or valuable about it and it doesn't need to sit around gathering bit rot :p
Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
#5I've seen a couple news sources that are altering their publish dates to show near the top of news feeds. Google will announce "3 hours old", despite being weeks old.
Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
#6I haven't visited a CNET page in years and didn't know they were even still relevant :p The times I have visited CNET pages in the past was to find specific information. If such information happens to be in deleted articles, that would reduce my interactions with CNET in the future. I think they should archive the old articles or even offload them to Wayback willingly, but it's possible some of the articles they're p…
From the article:
'Stories slated to be “deprecated” are archived using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, and authors are alerted at least 10 days in advance, according to the memo.'
Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
#7Is there any evidence this would even work?
Surely Google determines "fresh, relevant" content according to whatever has recently been published, which this doesn't change. If anything, doesn't Google consider sites with a long history of content with tons of inbound links as more authoritative and therefore higher-ranked?
This baffles me. It baffles me why this would be successful SEO -- and assuming that it actually isn't, it baffles me why CNET thinks it would be.
Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
#8I haven't visited a CNET page in years and didn't know they were even still relevant :p The times I have visited CNET pages in the past was to find specific information. If such information happens to be in deleted articles, that would reduce my interactions with CNET in the future. I think they should archive the old articles or even offload them to Wayback willingly, but it's possible some of the articles they're p…
> I haven't visited a CNET page in years and didn't know they were even still relevant :p
I had the same feeling about the Verge.
It feels like going to Britannica online to read about what Encarta encyclopaedia was and why it came in something called a CD-ROM.
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E: Awesome: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Encarta
Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
#9That's what I moved to ChatGPT4 for most of my info queries. Google is badly compromised by SEO. Plus ChatGPT4 gives answer right away within having to go through multiple results and search within each page for specific line I need.
Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
#10Funny timing, because Google said yesterday not to do this. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-dont-delete-older-helpfu...
At the same time, is there any reason to trust them over empirical evidence (if there is evidence)?
Incentives are incentivizing.