How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google • Hacker News Board

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#141

Post by swombat » Sun, Dec 29, 2013, 7:21 PM UTC

effn wrote: post #140

swombat wrote: post #120

> You know all those bloggers/SEOs at MOZ giving webmasters tips and tricks on how to rank higher? Well, they never said: “Guys, you gotta do basic on-page SEO, buy quality links and you will rank higher, that’s all you need to know.” Instead they keep selling stories how their clients rank using “white hat” SEO. GrantTree is ranked pretty high against our competitors on several keywords that are important to us. Thi…

So you get other sites to publish your articles, but when other sites want to do the same to you, you call that spam?

No. People I meet on and offline ask me to write an article for them. I don't approach them.

Occasionally I have written a full blown article and suddenly realised it would be better suited for another site (eg techcrunch) and approached the editor there to ask if they would like to publish that specific article, but I don't do blanket "can I write something for you". That would be highly hypocritical!

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#142

Post by ris » Sun, Dec 29, 2013, 8:16 PM UTC

gress wrote: post #131

ris wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even if you use nothing but white-hat and above-board SEO strategies, you're at risk of your page getting penalized or delisted This rather suggests that what you're calling "white hat" is a slightly less white shade than you may think. After all, who exactly is defining what "above board" is here? You're talking as though Google has some kind of responsibility to you. They don't. You are not their customer. Their…

Google had a monopoly and exerts market power over the internet. They legally do have a responsibility to the public. I'm getting pretty tired of the attitude that they have no responsibility to anyone other than those who buy advertising from them since it's blatantly false.

> Google had a monopoly and exerts market power over the internet. They legally do have a responsibility to the public.

Not really. Certainly not a responsibility to abide by the whims of random people who want their content ranked higher.

And if we decide to burden them with "responsibilities", what about their responsibility to keep my search results free of spa^W SEOers' crap?

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#143

Post by gress » Sun, Dec 29, 2013, 9:48 PM UTC

ris wrote: post #142

gress wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google had a monopoly and exerts market power over the internet. They legally do have a responsibility to the public. I'm getting pretty tired of the attitude that they have no responsibility to anyone other than those who buy advertising from them since it's blatantly false.

> Google had a monopoly and exerts market power over the internet. They legally do have a responsibility to the public. Not really. Certainly not a responsibility to abide by the whims of random people who want their content ranked higher. And if we decide to burden them with "responsibilities", what about their responsibility to keep my search results free of spa^W SEOers' crap?

All monopolies with market power have a responsibility to the public. It's a matter of policy and law.

You're right that they don't have a responsibility to abide by the whims of random spammers, but they also don't have carte Blanche to use their power to regulate the internet as they see fit.

The 'it's their product so they can do what they like' line is simply not correct. When they take action like this they need to be scrutinized carefully and we as the public most certainly should debate the merits of their actions and their effect on the internet.

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#144

Post by wcummings » Mon, Dec 30, 2013, 1:13 AM UTC

ecopoesis wrote: post #52

aptwebapps wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't believe that until it occurred to me that they could be using the http referrer to reward the affiliates. The links themselves don't seem to contain an affiliate identifier. Is that the case?

Usually there is an iframe that drops a cookie on Expedia's (or whoever's) domain. The usual deal is the partner gets paid on any conversions within 30 days of dropping the cookie, with the newest affiliate winning, but there are also more complicated source attribution schemes out there.

Cookies should only be dropped on an action/click/whatever, dropping attribution cookies on every visitor (and hoping they convert by chance) is fraud

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#145

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 30, 2013, 3:09 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#146

Post by alixaxel » Mon, Dec 30, 2013, 3:18 AM UTC

I'm nearly halfway through and I must say this is being a very good read. Great piece of investigative journalism.

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#147

Post by MichaelTieso » Mon, Dec 30, 2013, 3:37 AM UTC

swombat wrote: post #120

> You know all those bloggers/SEOs at MOZ giving webmasters tips and tricks on how to rank higher? Well, they never said: “Guys, you gotta do basic on-page SEO, buy quality links and you will rank higher, that’s all you need to know.” Instead they keep selling stories how their clients rank using “white hat” SEO. GrantTree is ranked pretty high against our competitors on several keywords that are important to us. Thi…

Curious: Would you still write the article if the link was nofollow? And what links are you requiring in the byline? I'm very suspicious of any company asking to "guest post".

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#148

Post by alixaxel » Mon, Dec 30, 2013, 3:51 AM UTC

vini wrote: post #71

davemel37 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont see any evidence that this was a large scale effort. As another poster pointed out as well, these might be affiliate links dropped by a widget like skimlinks,etc...

you can use NerdyData to search links like those directly on the sites source code: http://d.vncs.me/T864 [short link, HN mess the full link]

Wow, NerdyData seems like it can be very useful sometimes, thanks for sharing!

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#149

Post by judk » Mon, Dec 30, 2013, 3:51 AM UTC

swombat wrote: post #120

> You know all those bloggers/SEOs at MOZ giving webmasters tips and tricks on how to rank higher? Well, they never said: “Guys, you gotta do basic on-page SEO, buy quality links and you will rank higher, that’s all you need to know.” Instead they keep selling stories how their clients rank using “white hat” SEO. GrantTree is ranked pretty high against our competitors on several keywords that are important to us. Thi…

So you want people who need grants to buy your service. Instead of convincing Google that your website is the best place for grants, you write a bunch of (good!) articles about grants and then place house ads for your paid service.

Observations: 1. As a product search experience, that is still horribly broken.

2. It is still good for the web, incentivizing you to create quality content.

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#150

Post by adidash » Mon, Dec 30, 2013, 4:58 AM UTC

How is it any different from offline world of business? Seems like big businesses with resources always go that extra mile to compete with other big businesses. The small businesses are usually the collateral damage.