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Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

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Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#481

Post by jefftk »

Hitton wrote: post #477
jefftk wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any search engine is going to want to know what people click on so they can make their product better. For example, I just searched for [test] on DuckDuckGo and when clicking on the first result I see DDG sending a ping back: https://improving.duckduckgo.com/t/lc?... which contains which URL I clicked. (Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)

That's not true, for instance Startpage doesn't do that.

Startpage is an anonymizing proxy for Google Search, not a full search engine. Crucially, it doesn't determine how to rank results. If they decided to try to compete with Google, Bing, Yandex, DDG etc directly by bringing ranking in-house they would have a very hard time serving good results without being able to track which of their links were popular among users.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#482

Post by areyousure »

jefftk wrote: post #464
SahAssar wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google seems to see robots.txt as "more what you call guidelines, than actual rules". Sites that block googlebot or all bots with robots.txt still turn up in google searches, just without a description, and are obviously still indexed.

robots.txt is a tool to control crawling, not to specify how you would like your site to be displayed (or not) in search results. If you don't want search engines to include your site, set: while to block just Google do: See https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93710 If Googlebot is not respecting robots.txt, and is crawling something it's been instructed not to crawl, let me know and I can file a bug? (Discl…

But that requires that Googlebot be allowed to crawl the page in robots.txt in the first place.

How do you tell Googlebot to not crawl your site and to not index it either?

Previously, one could use the undocumented "Noindex" directive in robots.txt, but this will be disabled soon: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/07/a-note-on-unsuppor...

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#483

Post by zaat »

checktheorder wrote: post #470
zaat wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not related in any way to that scene, but what would you tell to marketing when they tell you that that while the mailing list pupup is obnoxious and annoying, it results in X users enrolling and later on Y of them actually ends being customers?

Are you asking for a hypothetical scenario where I was the web developer in question having to stand up to some marketing drone? Take a closer look at the key phrase in my post: "makes no effort". If a web developer who's trying to pay the rent makes even a single comment to the marketing drones about how email signup forms might not be a good idea, and asks if they're sure they want to do it, then that web developer…

I was asking because I have been thinking if there are any convincing arguments or incentives for avoiding such tactics, besides moral and integrity. I'm afraid that if's all depend on moral and integrity it is unlikely we are going to win this battle.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#484

Post by Illniyar »

cyrusshepard wrote: post #86

I think what folks are missing is that a lot of these "zero-click" searches happen as a result of Google scraping your website, and displaying the results as a "featured snippet." Yes, they link to you below the featured snippet. No, more people don't click, because they've taken the answer from your website and displayed it right in their search results. For example: If I'm searching for "best nail for cedar wood" G…

"• Google earns more ad revenue as users stick around on Google longer"

This one is actually reverse. Google search doesn't net google any money if people don't actually click the link, since ad revenue for google search is Per Click, not per view (per mille).

The incentives for them are actually reversed - increasing the amount of clicks into external websites, specifically advertised links, increases their revenue. (which is why there are so many advertised links on a search page)

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#485

Post by jefftk »

areyousure wrote: post #482
jefftk wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

robots.txt is a tool to control crawling, not to specify how you would like your site to be displayed (or not) in search results. If you don't want search engines to include your site, set: while to block just Google do: See https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93710 If Googlebot is not respecting robots.txt, and is crawling something it's been instructed not to crawl, let me know and I can file a bug? (Discl…

But that requires that Googlebot be allowed to crawl the page in robots.txt in the first place. How do you tell Googlebot to not crawl your site and to not index it either? Previously, one could use the undocumented "Noindex" directive in robots.txt, but this will be disabled soon: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/07/a-note-on-unsuppor...

The blog post you link has a bunch of alternatives, but I agree they're not great. If there are a lot of webmasters who want to be able to noindex through robots.txt then making the case for adding noindex to the standard would be a good next step.

(Still speaking only for myself)

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#486

Post by Illniyar »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #412
tommoor wrote: post #122

My main takeaway from this was where the hell are they getting that data? A little digging… apparently if you install Avast antivirus they're tracking all of this and selling /providing to Jumpshot - wow. > Baker said Jumpshot’s data comes from 100 million devices worldwide, whose users have downloaded free security software from partner Avast. The devices include smartphones, laptops and tablets. https://marketingla…

I'm sticking with my "don't install antivirus" policy. My exception is Malwarebytes which I don't consider a regular AV. Even my fave from 10 years ago AVG seems user hostile (try turning it off, it's not easy!). I'd hate to see what the other's are doing.

errr... sure, if your antivirus is free. There are a lot of good paid antivirus that don't have these problems.

Of course, lately, paying for an antivirus hasn't had the same value - windows defender, the much better browser sandbox and the fact that you don't really download executables anymore have contributed to reducing the risk of going without an anti-virus.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#487

Post by coldpie »

jamesmccann wrote: post #431
Ruthalas wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any tips for this sort of search tailoring? It's something I try for, but I've yet to find any particularly good keywords to leverage.

Usually I add "reddit" to the search phrase and try to find threads / user-generated and hopefully more organic content this way.

reddit is good, and so is just "forum" which will turn up specialty forums that haven't been absorbed by one of the Borgs yet.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#488

Post by tylerl »

areyousure wrote: post #482
jefftk wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

robots.txt is a tool to control crawling, not to specify how you would like your site to be displayed (or not) in search results. If you don't want search engines to include your site, set: while to block just Google do: See https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93710 If Googlebot is not respecting robots.txt, and is crawling something it's been instructed not to crawl, let me know and I can file a bug? (Discl…

But that requires that Googlebot be allowed to crawl the page in robots.txt in the first place. How do you tell Googlebot to not crawl your site and to not index it either? Previously, one could use the undocumented "Noindex" directive in robots.txt, but this will be disabled soon: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/07/a-note-on-unsuppor...

The bot doesn't need to crawl your site for it to be indexed; it crawls other sites that link to yours.

You can specify your index preferences in Webmaster Tools. Don't know if there's a domain-wide off switch in there, but there probably is.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#489

Post by ademarre »

jefftk wrote: post #485
areyousure wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that requires that Googlebot be allowed to crawl the page in robots.txt in the first place. How do you tell Googlebot to not crawl your site and to not index it either? Previously, one could use the undocumented "Noindex" directive in robots.txt, but this will be disabled soon: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/07/a-note-on-unsuppor...

The blog post you link has a bunch of alternatives, but I agree they're not great. If there are a lot of webmasters who want to be able to noindex through robots.txt then making the case for adding noindex to the standard would be a good next step. (Still speaking only for myself)

Googlebot actually used to support a noindex rule in robots.txt, but they are removing it.

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/07/a-note-on-unsuppor...

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#490

Post by tylerl »

cyrusshepard wrote: post #86

I think what folks are missing is that a lot of these "zero-click" searches happen as a result of Google scraping your website, and displaying the results as a "featured snippet." Yes, they link to you below the featured snippet. No, more people don't click, because they've taken the answer from your website and displayed it right in their search results. For example: If I'm searching for "best nail for cedar wood" G…

Hold on. Google doesn't earn even a penny when you visit their site, find your answer on the search results page, and then leave. That user behavior COSTS Google money, it doesn't earn anything.

If they were trying to monetize you they'd show you an ad that links to your answer and take a profit on the click. Directly giving the user the answer they want is great for the user, but guarantees that Google won't earn any revenue.

So why does Google do it? Simple: because their competitors do. That's the free market for you. Google didn't start that feature, another competitor did; Microsoft made it their primary differentiating feature in fact (remember the "bing and decide" ads?). Google had to adopt the same behavior or lose their customers.

So no, don't blame Google, blame capitalism. This is precisely the kind of feature that you wouldn't get if Google was able to behave as a monopoly.

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