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Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

news.rapgenius.com

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Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#141

Post by davemel37 »

cardine wrote: post #135
davemel37 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. If Google would penalize their own sites for link schemes (i.e. Chrome) done by third party agencies, certainly they should for Rap Genius. This isn't about whats the best site, this is about maintaining credibility in their index. The moment Google plays favorites manually is the moment I switch to another search engine. 2. Gaming SEO is attractive to almost everybody. Google needs to make it so painful to get ca…

> 2. Gaming SEO is attractive to almost everybody. Google needs to make it so painful to get caught, that people won't bother risking it in the future. If Google makes it painful to get caught while also doing a poor job algorithmically catching people, it just incentivizes people to do "pump and dump" type sites where they use blackhat tactics to get a lyric site to the top of Google and then rinse and repeat when t…

"The most optimal way to make money with SEO right now is to rank quickly with blackhat SEO tactics and then when you get penalized you create a new site and start over again. "

I am not sure which blackhat strategies you are referring to, but I find that long term the ROI on doing legit strategies greatly outperforms blackhat strategies. (I should note that i have no idea how to cloak or hack edu sites, so I am mostly referring to buying links, and other link schemes.)

Look at a site like The Oatmeal. Look at matt inmans old dating site http://www.oneplusyou.com/q that linkbuilding strategy is amazingly effective.

More importantly, I find focusing on building referral traffic not only makes me not depend on search traffic, but it also drives up my search rankings.

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#142

Post by cardine »

davemel37 wrote: post #141
cardine wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2. Gaming SEO is attractive to almost everybody. Google needs to make it so painful to get caught, that people won't bother risking it in the future. If Google makes it painful to get caught while also doing a poor job algorithmically catching people, it just incentivizes people to do "pump and dump" type sites where they use blackhat tactics to get a lyric site to the top of Google and then rinse and repeat when t…

"The most optimal way to make money with SEO right now is to rank quickly with blackhat SEO tactics and then when you get penalized you create a new site and start over again. " I am not sure which blackhat strategies you are referring to, but I find that long term the ROI on doing legit strategies greatly outperforms blackhat strategies. (I should note that i have no idea how to cloak or hack edu sites, so I am most…

The legit strategies you are suggesting require that you have a significant value add to offer. If that is the case your best bet is to ignore search engine traffic altogether - be happy when you get it but don't care when you don't get it.

However if you are looking to make money and you don't have a value add to offer, it's very easy to quickly throw together a website, plaster some ads, do blackhat SEO, and very quickly make a lot of money while only working 10 hours/week since you don't have to actually worry about providing anyone anything of value (and it's not like doing blackhat SEO is that difficult to do).

Because of the above, if you are strictly looking at ROI and SEO is one of your main sources for traffic (which would be the case for a lyrics site) it makes a lot more sense to focus your efforts on SEO than it does to focus your efforts on creating an awesome website.

Edit: For whoever downvoted me, if you think I'm wrong I'd love to hear why.

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#144

Post by subsection1h »

mcgwiz wrote: post #132
gmisra wrote: post #20

This is complicated. 1. rapgenius is probably the least spammy lyrics site on the internet, and definitely so amongst those on the first page of search results. As a consumer, I would not have a problem with Google, et al giving rapgenius results a special algorithmic bump to move them up. I also know that this is an opinion - it may be a popular opinion, but it is still inherently subjective. 2. If I was in rapgeniu…

What do find "juvenile" or "offensive" about them? The rap subject matter they cater to? I've always found them reasonably professional, particularly their evidence-driven handling of the Heroku load distribution debacle. http://news.rapgenius.com/James-somers-herokus-ugly-secret-l...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAzQPll7Lo

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#145

Post by newnewnew »

davemel37 wrote: post #11

This site should be penalized up the wazoo. This "non-apology" apology, is the classic example of a tattletale at school...the classic excuse of its not my fault cuz everyone is doing it...more importantly, it is wrong, and demonstrates a "our sh don't stick mentality" exchanging a tweet for a link is considered exchanging services for a link, which does indeed fall under the buying links category.) Furthermore, whil…

In other words, schadenfreude > public good

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#146

Post by toddrew »

davemel37 wrote: post #124
gmisra wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The moment Google plays favorites manually is the moment I switch to another search engine. If you believe this doesn't already happen, then you and I must be using different internets. Simply by being selective in which aspects of SEO gaming they chose to address, in what order, and to what extent, they are making editorial decisions. If you're working in an industry where search results are already dominated by l…

Certainly google has a right to tweak their algorithms as they choose which leads to editorial choices but to manually override a serp to place a site in a position regardless of their behavior crosses a line.

I think Google manual overriding a serp in this case is the way to get the best possible search result. Being at the top of the page shouldn't be about how many links were bought, it should be about quality of content.

Rap Genius has the quality content. The fact that they have to rely on these link building techniques to rise above the trash shows a flaw in Google's approach to ranking.

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#148

Post by sbov »

toddrew wrote: post #146
davemel37 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly google has a right to tweak their algorithms as they choose which leads to editorial choices but to manually override a serp to place a site in a position regardless of their behavior crosses a line.

I think Google manual overriding a serp in this case is the way to get the best possible search result. Being at the top of the page shouldn't be about how many links were bought, it should be about quality of content. Rap Genius has the quality content. The fact that they have to rely on these link building techniques to rise above the trash shows a flaw in Google's approach to ranking.

Bob's lyric site is way better than Rap Genius. His should definitely be on top. He's also a pretty cool guy.

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#150

Post by mikeg8 »

nivla wrote: post #44
ErikAugust wrote: post #39

"With limited tools (Open Site Explorer), we found some suspicious backlinks to some of our competitors:" I thought snitching wasn't cool in the hip hop community?

Ya that seemed really unprofessional. It goes the way of nasty politics. Not matter how screwed up your competitors are, its a cheapshot to point it out, especially in a message trying to justify your own evil doings.

Well said
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