The title of this post has annoyed me.
Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
61–70 of 120 posts
Re: Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
#62Ok, how can Rap Genius recover from this? They're one of the best (and least shady) lyrics sites on the net. They acted immorally, yes, but is justifiable to summarily execute their company? Google has a domineering position in the market, and it's a bit ironic that people were quick to call for Microsoft to be split into multiple companies about a decade ago, yet nobody bats an eye when Google exercises their power.…
It's less execution and more suicide isn't it?
Exactly. I know the scene here feels bad for RapGenius because they're putting themselves in their shoes and appreciating how devastating a penalty this is. But I don't feel bad for them whatsoever, and neither should anyone else.
This is a penalty that they deserve. They took a risk and they lost. They knew what they were doing and the potential destruction of their traffic, and they did it anyway.
You don't get less time in the penalty box just because you're the favorite or best player on the team. In fact, you have a greater responsibility to play by the rules and I would make the argument that your penalty should be even greater.
Besides, if the refs played favorites, the refs would have no credibility.
Re: Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
#63Luckily their revenue has remained unchanged... $0. This could have been a financial disaster if Rap Genius was a real business, but you need to have revenue for that.
Many people would kill to have a site with millions and millions of uniques. If monetization HAD to be the primary focus, they could make money. Growth and product is the top priority. Unfortunately for them one of those is suffering right now.
A site with millions of uniques doesn't = revenue. Nor does it equal success, interest from investors, etc. Source: running a ~2m unique site right now.
Re: Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
#64SEO is such a fickle beast. To everyone here who's saying they brought this upon themselves, when rules are unenforced and all your competition breaks them, you've already hamstrung yourself if you don't break them too. If everyone in the MLB is juicing and a rookie gets caught, you don't say "what an idiot", you look at either 1) enforcing the rules on everyone and broadly changing the culture or 2) question whether…
No. They broke the terms of service. They got banned. End of story.
What's it like seeing the world in black and white?
Re: Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
"This is the equivalent of censorship." How is penalizing them for engaging in shady SEO tactics considered censorship?
When I google "eminem lyrics" they don't show up in the results. Fine, whatever, seo penalty. When I google "rapgenius eminem" they don't appear in the results. That's pretty close to censorship. I'm not necessarily against it, but I don't disagree with the usage of the term.
>When I google "rapgenius eminem" they don't appear in the results. That's pretty close to censorship.
You can also go to rapgenius.com and search for eminem yourself. Or navigate a few pages in the search results until you find the link.
Think of it this way, if I want to be listed in a phonebook but I'm an obviously shady actor and the phonebook company refuses, is that censorship? You play by the rules if you want to be ranked.
Re: Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
#66They'll recover. As much as I dislike their PR attitude (whether an act or not), they have a good product. I still listen to rap music, and I still want to know the meaning of the lyrics, so I'll go directly to the site if I have to. Google made it one click easier, but whatever, I have time.
Companies have survived much worse blows. I worked for a music company that was not only being sued by every major record company, they were also taken out of all app stores. They persisted, and today I still listen to music from their site, even almost a decade later.
Re: Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
#67Not only is this bad for RapGenius, it's bad for Google, and most importantly bad for Google's users. Yes, RapGenius screwed up, and they've paid the price. But they've publicly recognized what they did and apologized. Google really should reinstate their ranking, because people searching for lyrics right now are being given the huge disservice of using the ultra-spammy lyrics sites from days of yore.
Google should wait for RapGenius to a) clean up their backlink profile b) Submit a request for review just like everyone else.
I work at an online marketing firm and I've seen dozens of companies come to us for help with the process. RapGenius shouldn't get preferential treatment.
Re: Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
>it's bad for Google, and most importantly bad for Google's users BS. What's good for Google is showing people that if you engage in bad practices your shit will get nuked from orbit , even if your site is better than the competitors. You'd better believe that companies are going to avoid blackhat SEO in the future after this, and that's absolutely in Google's interests.
More specifically, companies are going to avoid entering markets (e.g. online lyrics databases) where Google has demonstrated an unwillingness to appropriately punish established players who use the same black hat practices, since it's impossible to compete in the organic rankings against them.
>an unwillingness to appropriately punish established players
Can you find another example of the other lyrics sites pushing a quid pro quo scheme on Twitter?
The other lyrics sites might be scummy and Google doesn't care -- or they might just cover their tracks enough to avoid giving Google enough proof to hang them.
Re: Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
>it's bad for Google, and most importantly bad for Google's users BS. What's good for Google is showing people that if you engage in bad practices your shit will get nuked from orbit , even if your site is better than the competitors. You'd better believe that companies are going to avoid blackhat SEO in the future after this, and that's absolutely in Google's interests.
More specifically, companies are going to avoid entering markets (e.g. online lyrics databases) where Google has demonstrated an unwillingness to appropriately punish established players who use the same black hat practices, since it's impossible to compete in the organic rankings against them.
"it's impossible to compete in the organic rankings against them."
Isn't that precisely what rapgenius had done (affiliate linkscam notwithstanding)? They were already the top result for many lyrics queries, they just got greedy
Re: Rapgenius Uniques Fall 90%
#70SEO is such a fickle beast. To everyone here who's saying they brought this upon themselves, when rules are unenforced and all your competition breaks them, you've already hamstrung yourself if you don't break them too. If everyone in the MLB is juicing and a rookie gets caught, you don't say "what an idiot", you look at either 1) enforcing the rules on everyone and broadly changing the culture or 2) question whether…
It's not that fickle. Even if all their competitors are engaged in blackhat SEO and buying links from other blog sites (using cash, tweets, etc). RapGenius was the one who publicly boasted about it. Which caught the attention of Google. Which earned them the smackdown. That's not fickleness at work. That's... what's the opposite of genius?