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The internet is an SEO landfill

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281–290 of 438 posts

Re: The internet is an SEO landfill

#281

I append "reddit" to any query not meant for a productive task. Except now the internet is mostly reddit for me, which kinda bums me out. Especially given the new js-heavy design. In 2019, if I want reliable search about something I know nothing about I must first search on google, then try again with "reddit" appended, then change www.reddit.com to old.reddit.com, then parse through what are often questionable answe…

"site:reddit.com" is more useful, and filters out pages that just happen to mention reddit.

Re: The internet is an SEO landfill

#282

Protagonist shames people who work in marketing, calls them bottom feeders, low skill workers and spammers. Protagonist’s product offers ‘marketing emails’ service

I noticed that too and am shocked this comment isn't at the top.

Related, I'd find an attempt to measure the amount of waste in SEO blogspam and email spam/ham very interesting. I.e. who gets the real landfill designation.

Re: The internet is an SEO landfill

#283
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately SEO ruins great, witty and brief marketing texts. SEO content marketing is basically a descendent of direct marketing -- the stuff you used to get in the mail, in two-page spreads in Reader's Digest and so forth. Direct marketers have known for a very long time that long-form copy sells better. They had the numbers to prove it long before "analytics" was a common idea -- the very term A/B testing refe…

> the very term A/B testing refers to the "A" and "B" sides of a newspaper print roller being able to print two versions of an advertisement. Really? That's interesting. But how could they tell which version converted better? Maybe distributing each version in a different area?

That was the beauty of it. As the newsprint passes through, one paper will get A, the next will get B, the next A and so on. The plates are otherwise identical for each page being printed.

This perfect 50/50 split pretty much controls for all the plausible variables. Location, time of day, you name it, the odds of a reader seeing either A or B was exactly 50%.

Re: The internet is an SEO landfill

#285

Great intro, but where’s the actual article? (Also it’s pretty harsh to say that it takes “little talent” to become an SEO expert. Like all industries, there are charlatans selling snake oil, but there are experts who have invested a lot of time in developing their skill sets, and it’s not nice to be so dismissive.)

"but where’s the actual article?"

There isn't. It is another article that will end up in the SEO landfill the author is complaining about along with other "spammy" articles that already exist in the landfill.

In essence, this is another "spammy" article to promote his product cleverly disguised as an anti-spam/anti-SEO article.

I suspect an SEO agency actually told him to write this article to generate conversation (people who resonate with the intro will share it on all social circles and cause it to go "organically" viral). As they say, all publicity is good publicity.

This is as meta as it gets!

Re: The internet is an SEO landfill

#286

Google any recipe, and there are at least 5 paragraphs (usually a lot more) of copy that no one will ever read, and isn't even meant for human consumption. Google "How to learn x", and you'll usually get copy written by people who know nothing about the subject, and maybe browsed Amazon for 30 minutes as research. Real, useful results that used to be the norm for Google are becoming more and more rare as time goes by…

bounce rates are supposed to demote this kind of content, even tho it doesn't seem to work properly imo

Re: The internet is an SEO landfill

#287

I append "reddit" to any query not meant for a productive task. Except now the internet is mostly reddit for me, which kinda bums me out. Especially given the new js-heavy design. In 2019, if I want reliable search about something I know nothing about I must first search on google, then try again with "reddit" appended, then change www.reddit.com to old.reddit.com, then parse through what are often questionable answe…

Am I the only one who thinks Reddit really sucks? It's a cesspool of kiddie memes, shock, ill informed opinion and political posturing. Besides, if I wanted to search Reddit I'd go to Reddit. It being front page for _everything_ I search for now is so annoying.

I was really late to the reddit party and only made an account a few years ago. Thought it would be a great technical resource... Every time I had a more advanced question the place seemed to fall flat. You'd go to a very specific sub thinking there should be some informative people but you come to find it's full of people in the same boat as you. They wind up guessing or throwing out whatever to get karma simply being unhelpful. One answer to a question I had about data recovery was replied to with "your approach is very amateurish" I reply with "please explain to me how it is amateurish" and get no response. It's just a big fuck you waste of time.

I tried helping in some subs but was met with hostility. Tried directing someone to the proper channels (mailing lists) to search for help with a openbsd hardware issue and I get insulted in return because they didn't like my answer. And it wasn't a rude "RTFM" reply but an honest helpful post explaining the mailing lists and how to search and ask. Fuck that noise. I got better shit to do.

The real purpose of reddit is to aggregate people around faux community to sell ads. You have nothing but circle jerks and fanboyism but no actual meat and potatoes. Even after deleting every single worthless default main sub the subs I try to watch are all "look what I did!". Actual questions are never answered. It's all about showcasing to get circle jerks going so people can live vicariously through the achievements of others. That keeps the eyeballs on the ads.

I find myself going back to IRC where the barrier of entry is much higher so you wind up with people who know a thing or two.

Re: The internet is an SEO landfill

#288
post #89
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side of this is that the cookbooks rarely have super niche recipes. Even some of the highest rated "authentic" cookbooks have the flavor level tuned way down to be more "suitable for American tastes". The best cooking tutorials are barely translated Youtube videos. Or even better, recipes going through Google Translate. (Or get a multi-lingual friend... :) ) Cook's Illustrated also does some 100% legit inter…

> The best cooking tutorials are barely translated Youtube videos. Yeah I love those. The "random grandma with a gopro" tutorials always work, modulo language barrier. The video editing is crap and you sometimes have to keep fast forwarding while stuff is cooking but the recipes are good.

Could you give us a link to a great random grandma with a gopro video?

I have been to what I thought was deep in the Internet recipe mines and never saw this.

Re: The internet is an SEO landfill

#289

The Internet needs a good non-profit search engine that has no conflicts of interest. It could be funded by a foundation like Wikipedia or by the government like PBS, but the world sorely needs this resource.

It is a well known fact that Wikipedia has bias in how articles are moderated[1]. It is a really bad example to emulate. The last thing you want is search to be controlled by a non-profit organization with bias towards the content. I rather the bias be towards money rather than towards content. The former allows for competing views while the latter doesn't. The former is also highly regulated. The latter isn't.

[1] https://evolutionnews.org/2017/12/wikipedia-co-founder-calls...

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