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Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?

examine.com

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Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?

#41

Post by root_axis »

thorwasdfasdf wrote: post #30
ve55 wrote: post #18

>Let’s be clear: Google owes us nothing. They are a private organization, they can do whatever they want. This is a surprising thing to hear. I think given Google's influence, they owe them at least some fairness.

And, as an entity more powerful than any living thing on this planet (with the power to kill or support nearly any online business), they owe the world quite a bit of fairness: Otherwise, they can watch as their search business drops to nothing overnight. Facebook and Amazon and most B2Bs have quite a bit of lock in. But google, if they piss everyone off, we'll we're just one tab away from using something else: and o…

> with the power to kill or support nearly any online business

Absolutely untrue. Almost every startup I've worked for considered search traffic to be negligible. I've also worked at a place where google traffic accounted for 70% of sales and they actually went out of businesses a few months after we dropped off the front-page, but there is no inherent reason why our company deserved the top spot any more than those that replaced us on the front-page.

Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?

#42

Post by puranjay »

Endy wrote: post #21

There's a very cynical part of me that is considering whether this might be a planned action by Google to cycle the FP, and try to get the "disappeared" sites to pay Google for pay-per-click advertising. I wish that was completely unbelievable, but Google has proven to be entirely focused on profit when it comes to monetizing search; and of course intentionally starving sites from getting hits/leads/conversions seems…

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.

Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?

#43

Post by swtrs »

sambroner wrote: post #29
darawk wrote: post #20

I 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.

Do you buy their guides or use it to individually research compounds? It doesn't appear to be much different than other health websites, except they sell guides, which may change the incentive structure away from marketing and towards research.

Its a bit like wikipedia, it doesnt look like much initially but going in with purpose shows you just how much more in depth they are. Examine also updates their research regularly, that alone puts them above "any old health site"

Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?

#44

Post by sharedfrog »

DidISayTooMuch wrote: post #17

My website has a number of articles that talk about anxiety health issues. I was getting steady traffic of at least 100-150 users per day. Now I get about 10/day. The traffic didn't gradually slow down. It dropped by almost > 50% on two separate days and continued that trend. No idea what is going on. My DR has also dropped on ahrefs. I am nowhere near examine.com, but my articles are honest and of good quality I bel…

Can we get a link to your website?

Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?

#45

Post by maxander »

I wonder if the issue is liability- people suffering from various ailments are liable to Google their symptoms in hopes of finding an at-home cure instead of going to a doctor[0], and if this turns out badly they could conceivably turn around and try to sue Google for providing harmful medical advice[1]. De-ranking sites that provide medical advice, which aren't whitelisted well-known sites like Mayo Clinic or WebMD, might prevent this- or at least provide a better defensive position in the courtroom.

[0] Especially likely in countries with badly-structured healthcare systems, such as the U.S.

[1] Especially likely in countries with badly-structured legal incentives, such as the U.S.

Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?

#46

Post by abugheratwork »

zentiggr wrote: post #33
thorwasdfasdf wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like we need a new search engine, a better search engine. One that returns the things you're actually searching for.

Duckduckgo?

Isn't that just a wrapper for the same search engines?

Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?

#47

Post by scottlocklin »

Scoundreller wrote: post #13
cyrusshepard wrote: post #6

For additional context, Google has "disappeared" 100s of alt-health sites - some bad, but some very good. The site Self Hacked was one, and detailed it here: https://selfhacked.com/blog/google-censorship-of-health-webs... Some, like Mercola, peddle highly-controversial, near anti-vax content. But on the other end of the spectrum, Examine.com should be the gold standard. Quality Raters should use it as an example of a…

I’m very happy to hear about mercola being disappearing. It always rank so highly for so many terms, with complete nutjob advice.

When I google for astaxanthin, the suggestion in the original post, Mercola ranks higher than Examine. Which is bloody tragic, as examine gives legit information.

Someone at Google doesn't like them.

Re: Why has examine.com disappeared from search results?

#49

Post by tallanvor »

darawk wrote: post #20

I 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.

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 nutrition myths of 2019".

3. Reviews by "professionals" that I can't easily verify. "Mike Hart, MD" is an example. Who is he? How do I know he's a real person? If he is a real person and a real doctor, how do I know he actually recommended this site?

4. The attempts to get me to spend money feels slimy. --This is pretty subjective, I know, but that's how it comes off to me.

So I can understand how this site wouldn't rank high in a search engine. I would need to do a lot of research to decide whether or not to trust it, let alone whether or not they have information that's actually worth spending money on.

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