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A glitch in the SEO matrix

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Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#231

Post by nine_k »

anon25783 wrote: post #187
nine_k wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If online ad campaigns did not bring sales, a lot of people would stop doing them. There are other advertisement media; there is organic-looking product placement, there is overt product placement and "influencers", etc. Still, people buy a lot of AdWords and similar, and occasionally I see a relevant ad I click. BTW ads within Facebook are usually of much better quality (for me as a reader), likely because they can…

You occasionally click on "relevant" ads? I'm really curious why you would do that? Personally, I'll go out of my way to make sure that I don't buy anything referred to me by an ad, on the grounds that advertising is a vile and parasitic industry.

I relatively often click on ads for new electronic musical instruments, even though I rarely buy them. These are just interesting things to see, some actually novel.

I sometimes click on ads about things related to IT and programming, if they mention something novel and important, just to be aware of the landscape, and what potential competition are pushing.

I see ads relatively rarely though, because I run uBlock Origin. So the ads I see are usually placed in context with some care, not just randomly tucked on to an unrelated webpage. Most of the ads are really poor, as I can see if I use an unprotected browser.

Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#232

Post by npx13 »

samwillis wrote: post #50
codegeek wrote: post #4

You either play the Organic SEO game or you Pay to Play (Ads). Google as a search engine is now useless when it comes to searching for a tool/software etc because everyone has gamed the "Best software for xyz" etc. But what's the alternative ? None. There are these "review" websites like Capterra/Software Advice/G2 and again you have to pay to play. You can technically get a review from a customer and get listed BUT…

From the point of view of someone who spent 10 years running an e-commerce store, and all its advertising, until a couple of years ago. Both SEO and search result ads on Google are dead. The hay day of being able to play the game and make a tidy profit is long gone. Google are playing every trick in the book to extract every possible cent from advertisers, spying on their business and sales to maximise their own prof…

Similar background. Agree completely with your second paragraph.

Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#233

Post by Given_47 »

carlosjobim wrote: post #127
Given_47 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been heavily considering the 1k Kagi but the limit thing has been giving me pause. I’ve yet to try to trial tho so that should help give context how quickly I burn thru 100

I've noticed that there's a huge misunderstanding among people interested in Kagi: You're not banned from searching after passing the limit in your plan, instead subsequent searches will cost 1.5 cents each. So nothing to sweat.

Oh I’m aware, but thanks. It’s more so the mental burden of second guessing if a search is “worth it” that would arise. Like I said tho I’ll use the trial to best figure out my process.

And also yea three cents for every two searches over the 1k monthly limit is pretty trivial lol. So nvm that shouldn’t b something to give me pause

Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#234

Post by eproxus »

tomcam wrote: post #168
js2 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're in the 14th spot on Duck Duck Go as I write this comment. https://start.duckduckgo.com/?q=%22a+comprehensive+ecosystem... Edit: DDG's results are not stable for me. I get different results every time I reload. Sometimes it comes up second: https://imgur.com/a/YyqI2Z4

Position 11 in Google if I use a private tab.

Position 1 on Kagi (after a link to Apache Hadoop, and a box with a “discussion” link which happens to be SEO spam).

Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#235

Post by dmvdoug »

mikecoles wrote: post #226
dmvdoug wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without deciding whether your particular mention of webrings was a joke or not, the nostalgia for them that has been cropping up lately is a little bit puzzling to me as someone who remembers well those days. Because webrings themselves were often full of just pure junk, not to mention broken links, or websites that hadn’t been updated in years but we’re still “under construction” (with the de rigueur gif of a hardha…

With its brokenness, those days were more enjoyable to many. The web was more interesting with the variety. Personal sites were a place for each mouth to speak. Today's sites are a place to be force fed pure junk.

Oh, no, I certainly agree that the old web was a better, more interesting place than today’s. By far. If you invoked webrings simply in order to invoke the old web, I totally agree (as opposed to invoking webrings per se). I just pushed back a little bit because even back in the day I didn’t like webrings. :)

Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#236

Post by guerrilla »

n6h6 wrote: post #227
guerrilla wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they just don't care about their end users at all. They do, a lot actually. We're just not the end users. The advertisers are. Thet don't need to care about us since they're a monopoly. Use Brave Search, DuckDyckGo or something elae to help change that. Get other people to too.

I tried using DuckDyckGo (lol) for a few weeks recently, but its results are just as bad or worse than Google's are usually. It's the same problem of endless worthless listicle noise.

Yeah, I used it for years and it used to be better but it turned pretty trashy, which is why I switch to Brave a couple of months ago and I'm pretty satisfied now. Still glad DDG exists though as an alternative protest vote.

Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#237

Post by taurath »

coffeebeqn wrote: post #205
taurath wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative is places where people congregate. Google used to be a great place to find relatively objective information, but being ad driven it’s all gone to commercial advertising. Word of mouth (IE searching with “[…] Reddit”) gives far better information.

Not really. Thinking that Reddit is not gamed by marketers or bought/sponsored influencers in 2023 is just completely wrong. Any kind of aggregated rating is gamed, whether it’s Amazon or Reddit or Google or yelp At best you’ll find one very opinionated guys recommendation which may or may not match yours

> Thinking that Reddit is not gamed by marketers or bought/sponsored influencers in 2023 is just completely wrong

I didn't claim its free of gaming, but I am claiming the quality of search results for "x" vs "x reddit" is notably higher for the latter in most cases that I personally use search for.

Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#238

Post by twelve40 »

voussoir wrote: post #161
twelve40 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's so weird that Google still hasn't created the ability to block spam domains by who??? Google itself "blocks" or downgrades spam websites all the time. If they open it up to "the people", the same SEO crowd will rush in with scrapers to decimate competition, including any legit websites. So strange to see people jumping into conspiracy theories here without thinking of the consequences for a second.

I am pretty sure OP is referring to the ability for an individual, logged in user, to maintain a list of "don't show me results from these domains" on their Google account.

ok. didn't even think about that use case because I'm never logged on while searching. More bizzarely however, with 300 million domains out there and more added every second, you are in for quite a chore! even more delusional

Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#239

Post by moneywoes »

codegeek wrote: post #4

You either play the Organic SEO game or you Pay to Play (Ads). Google as a search engine is now useless when it comes to searching for a tool/software etc because everyone has gamed the "Best software for xyz" etc. But what's the alternative ? None. There are these "review" websites like Capterra/Software Advice/G2 and again you have to pay to play. You can technically get a review from a customer and get listed BUT…

In contrast what is your top of funnel strategy for social proof?

What would a fair review site look like?

Re: A glitch in the SEO matrix

#240

Post by moneywoes »

samwillis wrote: post #50
codegeek wrote: post #4

You either play the Organic SEO game or you Pay to Play (Ads). Google as a search engine is now useless when it comes to searching for a tool/software etc because everyone has gamed the "Best software for xyz" etc. But what's the alternative ? None. There are these "review" websites like Capterra/Software Advice/G2 and again you have to pay to play. You can technically get a review from a customer and get listed BUT…

From the point of view of someone who spent 10 years running an e-commerce store, and all its advertising, until a couple of years ago. Both SEO and search result ads on Google are dead. The hay day of being able to play the game and make a tidy profit is long gone. Google are playing every trick in the book to extract every possible cent from advertisers, spying on their business and sales to maximise their own prof…

What’s the best alternative for those adspend $$ in your view?
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