Why does there seem to be a pack of Examine employees swarming this comment section? That's not a good look, guys.
As far as I can tell, it is just one employee, AhmedF. You might be confusing genuine fans (like me) with employees.
Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
121–130 of 363 posts
Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
#122Google has also made disappear "harm reduction" drug-related websites, such as Drugs-Forum.com on relevant searches; IMO, a travesty and an affront to "Don't be Evil"
Pretty sure they dropped the don't be evil moniker when they decided to go full steam ahead with evil
They changed it with "Do the right thing", which is equivalent to saying "Evil is sometimes the right thing"
Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
#123I was going to say that "examine.com is one of the best sites on the internet for information about supplements/nutrition". But it's not. It's the best site on the internet for that sort of thing. It's great that Google is attempting to fix the issue of bullshit nutrition sites ranking highly, but I sincerely hope someone at Google sees this and does something to help out Examine, which is a tremendous resource.
The problem is who is examine?
Take this random page for exmaple.
https://examine.com/nutrition/lemon-water/
It's written by some guy called "Wyatt Brown". Who is he? Is he a scientist? A doctor? A university professor.
Oh - I don't need to worry about that, because:
> Our evidence-based analysis features 42 unique references to scientific papers.
Right then. Quoting papers makes you a reliable expert and able to make claims about medicine and science and health.
No, I think I understand why Google has de-ranked this one.
This website is clearly a fraud - and looks like one too - that uses a form of sophistry to make claims as to it's own reliability, namely that by quoting "references" a non-person can make claims they ought not to be making. References help boost the credibility of an already credible publication or individual, that don't make something out of nothing.
Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think I've come across the site before, but at first glance it doesn't look reputable at all. --I realize that looks aren't everything, but I see the following that look like red flags to me: 1. They show logs for news sources such as The New York Times, BBC, etc., but they don't actually link to those sites, let alone to articles that actually mention this site. 2. I see click-bait titles like "The top 19 nu…
Let me address these: 1. No one links to them. You are welcome to google. Eg here: https://www.nytimes.com/guides/year-of-living-better/how-to-... - you'll see their entire supplement section is from our site 2. That is our one, and it's more of a play on 2019 and 19. If you read the article, you'll see it's no-nosense. 3. How exactly do I prove someone is real? A quick google search shows this guy: https://twitter.c…
1. There is no good reason not to link to them, there are only bad reasons not to link to them. You're not linking to them because they're not outright endorsements, and you know it.
2. The item below that is '4 science-based “superfoods” you should consider eating'. That's pretty much just as much click-bait as the other.
3. You link to the person providing the review, preferably to a page where they actually say that they're recommending your site. Why are you making it my - or anyone else's - job to figure out who is endorsing you and to verify that they really have?
4. Yes, you are a business, and you really make it clear on your main page. Like it or not, people don't put blind faith in companies trying to sell them stuff. That makes your job harder, sure, but that's life.
Look, at the end of the day you can ignore what I've written. I'm not claiming to be anyone or have any sort of following. I'm not a developer, I work in support, and I deal with customers, so I spend a lot of time trying to see things from their perspective.
You've lost a lot of potential business from Google de-emphasizing your site in their results. I don't claim to know why they've done this, I'm just giving my impressions when I look at things from the perspective of the average user (insomuch as there is an "average user", of course).
Looking deeper, I tried to checkout some backlinks to your site. From news sites, I see a couple of trends, some good, some not so good. The Washington Post article you link to is actually one of the better ones - it's not an actual endorsement from WaPo, but it is a 3rd party recommending your site. The article you link to from The New York Times, and another one from The Sydney Morning Herald, aren't really good links - they're quoting Kamal Patel as the director of Examine.com. The NYT at least does provide a few deep links, but still, I doubt it comes off as a real endorsement to the average reader.
I could go on, but I'm not an SEO expert, and your reply doesn't really make it seem like you're open to feedback.
Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think I've come across the site before, but at first glance it doesn't look reputable at all. --I realize that looks aren't everything, but I see the following that look like red flags to me: 1. They show logs for news sources such as The New York Times, BBC, etc., but they don't actually link to those sites, let alone to articles that actually mention this site. 2. I see click-bait titles like "The top 19 nu…
I could say the same ad infintum about reddit, which is tons popular and still be right.
To be fair, reddit is not a reputable source for much.
Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think I've come across the site before, but at first glance it doesn't look reputable at all. --I realize that looks aren't everything, but I see the following that look like red flags to me: 1. They show logs for news sources such as The New York Times, BBC, etc., but they don't actually link to those sites, let alone to articles that actually mention this site. 2. I see click-bait titles like "The top 19 nu…
Yeah you did a very cursory, cosmetic look at the site and judged it by its subject matter and web design choices. If you would've bothered to look under the hood, you would see that they reference tons of scientific sources and provide a level of transparency and knowledge-base to the sports supplement industry that is unrivaled. To be clear, There is no other site nearly as good as Examine for this subject matter.
I checked out examine.com and it's not as bad as the previous comment had me expecting. But it still looks like a boilerplate front page that I would pretty much immediately back out of and keep looking.
I'm not a fan of "don't judge a book by its cover." The purpose of the cover (other than to keep garlic mayo off the pages) is to be judged.
It's at the peril of the website to have such good content diminished by poor window dressing.
Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
But it has only impacted sites in the health niche. There's a lot of really bad advice and information being circulated in this niche. The antivax insanity didn't just spring out of nothingness. I run a site that covers musical equipment (I'm an amateur musician) and my rankings have been stable for over a year with almost zero work.
Again, the cynical response is, "for now". When they get past this stage where they're doing the most obvious thing that's probably more good than harmful, how long before they say that they're working with musical industry leaders, so they'll emphasize on what the labels say is good equipment.
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut, I've seen some things on YouTube that point in that direction. Some random new creators have suddenly amassed millions of views and over a million subscribers with as few as 5 mediocre videos.
These creators have either found some way to game the YouTube algorithm, or they have been created by YouTube (or other media giants like Disney) and promoted heavily across organic channels in an attempt to create the kind of stars (that media companies can control) you see, say, on Disney Kids.
It's becoming clear to me that as we enter the fourth decade of the internet, the open, democratic nature of the internet is under siege.
Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pretty sure they dropped the don't be evil moniker when they decided to go full steam ahead with evil
They changed it with "Do the right thing", which is equivalent to saying "Evil is sometimes the right thing"
https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/
"And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!"
Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
#129I remember reading Google's instructions for their manual page quality reviewers. It had two special sections, one on financial info, and one – you guessed it – on medical information. Within those two categories, called "Your life or your money", reviewers were asked to pay special attention to a site's trustworthiness, with a special focus on "traditional" credentials, such as association with a known, trusted inst…
Thanks for the link. I never knew they google used a manual page/site quality as in input.
I can see the effect of the site quality in the search results if I search for something like "creatine benefits". Something like mayoclinic (high reputation) is #7 on google but #13 on duckduckgo. bodybuilding.com (lower reputation) is #10 on google, but #2 on duckduckgo.
selfhacked.com is #20 on google search results, but #4 from duckduckgo
examine.com is #52 on google search results, but #26 from duckduckgo
Google also ranks high results from healthline, webmd, menshealth, gnc, mensjournal, etc.
I can see how the site quality could improve results, but the effectiveness depends on the skill and neutrality of the reviewers, which I wouldn't expect to be that good. And over time it will tend to favor big, old websites, making it difficult for new websites to gain traction, even if their content is superior.
I wish google made this "Quality Search" an option just like "Safe Search". The default can be on, but we should be able to turn this off.
Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?
#130Google has also made disappear "harm reduction" drug-related websites, such as Drugs-Forum.com on relevant searches; IMO, a travesty and an affront to "Don't be Evil"
Pretty sure they dropped the don't be evil moniker when they decided to go full steam ahead with evil
https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/
"And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!"