Parasite SEO • Hacker News Board

Re: Parasite SEO

#41

Post by rchaud » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 4:11 PM UTC

linuxhansl wrote: post #36

I have a personal blog and about 80-90% of all comments to my posts are these. In the beginning I just deleted them when I saw them, but then I had to turn on moderation.

People often point to social media as to why personal blogs died off, but I'd wager comment spam had just as much of an impact. Blogs were huge just 10 years ago, but eventually the sheer volume of spam comments with links to "Air Jordan, Gucci, Givenchy, work from home", really took out the communal feel of the comments section.

Wordpress and Disqus didn't act fast enough to auto-detect this spam and prevent them from being published, and it wasn't long before conversations started moving to FB, Twitter and Medium.

Re: Parasite SEO

#42

Post by josefresco » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

SEO Expert: Those techniques don't work anymore! Google is smarter than that.

Google: Correct! We don't use those signals anymore! We're soo smart.

Me: But my competitors are blatantly using those techniques and they outrank me.

SEO Expert: Ummm, yeah but one day it will stop working!

Google: Pretend like we don't exist, focus on your users!

Me: But I need to make a living now and I don't have any users.

crickets

Re: Parasite SEO

#43

Post by kinnth » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 5:26 PM UTC

This shit is what now fills up over half of my google searches with listicals and generally fake sites touting deals on any of my search terms.

What annoys me now is that copy catting a decent article and just filling it full of ad shit, ranks so well. :( gone are the days where googling for something felt good, it's now a web of sales tactics and copied texts.

Re: Parasite SEO

#44

Post by jdbernard » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 5:33 PM UTC

As with any SEO tactic that is viewed as shady or potentially underhanded within the community, those who ignore critics and “play to win” by aggressively chasing the opportunity see the best financial outcome.

Even if Google deindexes these subdomains tomorrow, tens of millions of dollars have been made in a 1 year time period from this tactic alone.

People say things like this and then wonder why SEO has a bad reputation.

Re: Parasite SEO

#45

Post by kadoban » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #40

kadoban wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think they're perfectly allowed to favor certain sites over others, especially with good reasons for doing so. What I would expect to be illegal would be overly favoring their own sites/services over those of competitors, since they are so big and that would be abusing their search marketshare to spread into other markets.

> What I would expect to be illegal would be overly favoring their own sites/services over those of competitors They've been doing this for years in search results, progressively so.

Didn't the EU get on them for that and they had to pay a large fine? Can't recall the details of what was the offending behavior.

Re: Parasite SEO

#46

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

kadoban wrote: post #45

ceejayoz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I would expect to be illegal would be overly favoring their own sites/services over those of competitors They've been doing this for years in search results, progressively so.

Didn't the EU get on them for that and they had to pay a large fine? Can't recall the details of what was the offending behavior.

Yes, but specifically for their shopping product.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/27/534524024...

The practice continues (and continues to worsen), at least in their US version. I can't speak for their European sites.

Re: Parasite SEO

#47

Post by rcarrigan87 » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 6:34 PM UTC

luckylion wrote: post #34

flyGuyOnTheSly wrote: post #32

Is it really "parasite SEO" if CNN decides to use their domain name clout with Google to make a (substantial) profit promoting coupons? Seems like more of a savvy business move on behalf of CNN instead of scummy/greyhat/parasite-seo type stuff, no? It's right up their alley, too. They sell advertisements. Coupons are advertisements.

> Is it really "parasite SEO" if CNN decides to use their domain name clout with Google to make a (substantial) profit promoting coupons? CNN doesn't. Somebody else "rents" the subdomain from CNN, and they are the parasite that is feeding off of CNN's brand.

It's usually a 50-50 rev share

Re: Parasite SEO

#48

Post by jordan801 » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 6:53 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #42

SEO Expert: Those techniques don't work anymore! Google is smarter than that. Google: Correct! We don't use those signals anymore! We're soo smart. Me: But my competitors are blatantly using those techniques and they outrank me. SEO Expert: Ummm, yeah but one day it will stop working! Google: Pretend like we don't exist, focus on your users! Me: But I need to make a living now and I don't have any users. crickets

I work as a software developer in the SEO game, and this is exactly how it is. Except theres a client in the middle, reading blogs and telling us how to do it right. Moving from an SEO analyst to Software was the best decision I have ever made.

Re: Parasite SEO

#49

Post by paulpauper » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

hayksaakian wrote: post #38

paulpauper wrote: post #25

This article is wrong on many levels. no wonder so many ppl try this and make no money. >You find a high DA site that allows user generated content to be added and indexed. (the host) >Common parasites include Medium, Amazon s3, Github, Linkedin, Quora, Youtube, ect. Google rank does not apply to subdomains. The subdomain does not inherit any of the rank of the parent. That is why blogspot and s3 will never work in t…

Anyone who spends 30 seconds checking a search result can see that you're being a bit misleading here. The #3 and #4 results for me for "HostGator coupon" are Amazon s3 and a Google sites page Obviously it still works. Clearly there's ways to do it wrong that won't work, just like anything else. The biggest benefit to doing this strategy is 0 risk for spammy and abusive SEO practices. Since you're not connecting them…

it has to do with banklink quantity and quality. the fact it is hosted on s3 or google contributes next to nothing. these sites accumulate tons of backlinks.

Re: Parasite SEO

#50

Post by paulpauper » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:04 PM UTC

cstill wrote: post #37

paulpauper wrote: post #25

This article is wrong on many levels. no wonder so many ppl try this and make no money. >You find a high DA site that allows user generated content to be added and indexed. (the host) >Common parasites include Medium, Amazon s3, Github, Linkedin, Quora, Youtube, ect. Google rank does not apply to subdomains. The subdomain does not inherit any of the rank of the parent. That is why blogspot and s3 will never work in t…

Did you look at the examples in the article? "Google rank does not apply to subdomains. The subdomain does not inherit any of the rank of the parent." Enter coupons.businessinsider.com, coupons.cnn.com, or discountcode.dailymail.co.uk into Ahrefs and you will see this is not true. "That is why blogspot and s3 will never work in this regard" The article has multiple examples of s3 parasites ranking for competitive aff…

yeah that is because those examples get link juice from the parent. cnn probably links to coupons.cnn.com on all its pages and probably also buys links for it too.