CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking • Hacker News Board

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#171

Post by skissane » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:23 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #100

em-bee wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but if i have an old version of the product, then i may need those old docs.

And you're probably out of support and aren't a current paying customer so you're a lower priority than current customers that want current information. (Old information is often available on product support sites but it probably won't come up with a random search.)

When I worked at $MAJOR_VENDOR, we had an internal-only archive of product installation and documentation ISOs for old versions, discontinued products, etc. It didn't go back forever (although apparently some even older stuff was archived offline and could be retrieved on request), but it did contain product versions that had been out-of-support for over a decade. A lot of older material which had been removed from the public website was contained in it.

There was a defined process for customers to request access to it – they'd open a support ticket, tell us what they wanted, the support engineer would check the licensing system to confirm they were licensed for it, then transfer it to an externally accessible (S)FTP server for the customer to download, and provide them with the download link. There was a cron job which automatically deleted all files older than 30 days from the externally-accessible server.

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#172

Post by itisit » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:23 AM UTC

It's been quite a while, but CNET has never been the same since CBS acquired them in 2008. They drove the site to become SEO fodder, almost like a ZergNet for tech. And their most recent acquirer is diluting whatever integrity remains by pushing out a slew of "lifestyle" content.

It's a shame because CNET, surprisingly, has retained some really great editors that are as knowledgeable as they come in their respective domains. David Katzmaier and Brian Cooley come to mind.

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#173

Post by reaperducer » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:23 AM UTC

meragrin_ wrote: post #133

farnarkle wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only says that Google discourages such actions, not that such actions are not beneficial to SEO ranking (which is equal to the aforementioned economic incentive in this case).

> That only says that Google discourages such actions Nope. It says that Google does not ding you for old content. "Are you deleting content from your site because you somehow believe Google doesn't like "old" content? That's not a thing!"

"Are you deleting content from your site because you somehow believe Google doesn't like "old" content? That's not a thing!"

I guess that Googler never uses Google.

It's very hard to find anything on Google older than or more relevant than Taylor Swift's latest breakup.

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#174

Post by reaperducer » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:26 AM UTC

zx8080 wrote: post #90

demizer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is destroying the internet is a good way to put it. AD dollars are their only priority. I hope Google dies because of it.

What a fantasy. It does not show any sign of profit decrease. How would a company die with $279.8B revenue, steadily increasing yearly?

What a fantasy. It does not show any sign of profit decrease. How would a company die with $279.8B revenue, steadily increasing yearly?

At one time both buggy whips and Philco radios had hockey stick growth charts, too.

You must not bet old enough to remember when people thought MySpace would always drive the internet.

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#175

Post by npunt » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:27 AM UTC

pseudalopex wrote: post #152

amatecha wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah wait, what? I hope that's incorrect. Updating robots.txt to disallow should only omit content from that point onward... It shouldn't be retroactive. What if there's a new owner of a respective domain, for example?

It was correct. And archive.org used this self inflicted problem to justify disregarding robots.txt. https://blog.archive.org/2017/04/17/robots-txt-meant-for-sea...

Oh thank you for the update, that's great news! Agree with their position 100%.

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#176

Post by reaperducer » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:29 AM UTC

slater wrote: post #40

kenjackson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness to them. If one of their top ways of getting traffic is being marked as less relevant because of older articles, what do you want them to do? Just continue to lose money because Google can't rank them appropriately?

Or mayhap Google et al could realize and understand that having old articles in archive shouldn't penalize your ranking.

Or mayhap Google et al could realize and understand that having old articles in archive shouldn't penalize your ranking.

I will not be surprised if in my lifetime it is not possible to Google anything by William Shakespeare.

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#177

Post by mathstuf » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:30 AM UTC

demizer wrote: post #75

pessimizer wrote: post #68

So google's shitty search now economically incentivizes sites to destroy information. Can there be any doubt that Google destroyed the old internet by becoming a bad search engine? Could their exclusion of most of the web be considered punishment for being sites being so old and stable that they don't rely on Google for ad revenue?

Google is destroying the internet is a good way to put it. AD dollars are their only priority. I hope Google dies because of it.

I'm reminded of the 00's era joke that Microsoft could burn billions of dollars, pivot to becoming a vacuum cleaner manufacturer, and finally make something that doesn't suck.

I don't think Google dying would be good (lots of things would have to migrate infra suddenly), but the adtech being split off into something else would certainly be a welcome turn of events, IMO. I'm tired of seeing promising ideas killed because they only made 7-figure numbers in a spreadsheet where it'd have been viable on its own somewhere it wasn't a rounding error.

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#178

Post by technion » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:31 AM UTC

bagacrap wrote: post #98

pessimizer wrote: post #68

So google's shitty search now economically incentivizes sites to destroy information. Can there be any doubt that Google destroyed the old internet by becoming a bad search engine? Could their exclusion of most of the web be considered punishment for being sites being so old and stable that they don't rely on Google for ad revenue?

I'll just assume you neglected to read TFA, because if you had, you would have discovered that it links to an official Google source that states CNET shouldn't be doing this.[1] [1] https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/1689018769782476800

There's an awful lot of SEO people on Twitter that claim to be connected to Google, and the article he links on the Google domain as a reference doesn't say anything on the topic that I can find. I'm reluctant to call that an official source.

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#179

Post by Dalewyn » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:32 AM UTC

meragrin_ wrote: post #133

farnarkle wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only says that Google discourages such actions, not that such actions are not beneficial to SEO ranking (which is equal to the aforementioned economic incentive in this case).

> That only says that Google discourages such actions Nope. It says that Google does not ding you for old content. "Are you deleting content from your site because you somehow believe Google doesn't like "old" content? That's not a thing!"

Just because someone says water isn't wet doesn't mean water isn't wet.

Re: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking

#180

Post by mdwalters » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:34 AM UTC

So, CNET decides to delete lots of useful information, just for better SEO. None of the other old tech news websites are trying to destroy thier information for the SEO, they still get good rankings. This should be a good lesson to anyone else who are thinking of going this route.