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Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

news.rapgenius.com

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Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#61

Post by antr » 

    RapGenius != Lyrics site
    Lyrics site != text annotation site
    Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO != apology
If an internet user searches for "Coldplay Yellow lyrics" he/she should be provided with a lyrics website (e.g. AZLyrics) by the search engine. If I search for "Coldplay Yellow annotations" I would like to go to an annotations website like RapGenius. That's what I expect from Google.

If RapGenius wants to grow on the back of a the lyrics searches with dodgy SEO tactics, and wants to win both on the lyrics and annotations SERP they will not be providing users with what they want.

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#62

Post by seiji »

minimaxir wrote: post #58
seiji wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This site should be penalized up the wazoo. Can we get them banned on HN? NSA-level penalized? Insta-dead?

Since Rap Genius is a YC company, that is unlikely. This also isn't the first time a YC company has had ethical issues called out on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5092711

Does anybody else see the folly in letting a corporation with their own agenda run a real time news site?

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#63

Post by victorhooi »

jlebron2 wrote: post #31
gmisra wrote: post #20

This is complicated. 1. rapgenius is probably the least spammy lyrics site on the internet, and definitely so amongst those on the first page of search results. As a consumer, I would not have a problem with Google, et al giving rapgenius results a special algorithmic bump to move them up. I also know that this is an opinion - it may be a popular opinion, but it is still inherently subjective. 2. If I was in rapgeniu…

I have to agree that rapgenius has a great product but their "juvenile and occasionally offensive" demeanor tends to overshadow this. Would love to see them turn their image around but I'm not sure how likely that is. I've always wondered if that is a front they put on to relate to their user base. But then again I love rapgenius and I don't see it as being effective at all. [EDIT] grammar

I suspect it is a front.

I don't know much about them, but I did see this video from earlier this year, where they don't seem to be "in character":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpvrWdfEUHg

You compare that to some of their others, and you get the impression they're smart (if a little weird).

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#64

Post by bb0wn »

minimaxir wrote: post #58
seiji wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This site should be penalized up the wazoo. Can we get them banned on HN? NSA-level penalized? Insta-dead?

Since Rap Genius is a YC company, that is unlikely. This also isn't the first time a YC company has had ethical issues called out on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5092711

I'm pretty sure that that is a sarcastic comment...

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#65

Post by seiji »

onedev wrote: post #51

So I think there is a key takeaway for the RapGenius guys here, and it has nothing to do with Google, SEO, or their tactics. The lesson to be learned here is that if they continue to intentionally behave in a childish manner like they have been (in interviews, emails, etc), it puts off a lot of people; a lot of the tech community. I'm seeing a lot of comments here which seem to put a lot of weight into their image (w…

All publicity is not good publicity.

Nope. Companies being in the news at all for any non-person-harming event is good. It's like display advertising to reinforce name recognition.

The name of the company is "rapgenius." They have a huge ambition, but they don't see how limited they are. Example: There's a radio station in Atlanta whose tagline is "All the hits, with none of the rap." (read: "none of that black music") They aren't a general purpose site. They are a rowdy manipulative bunch who are being stochastically abrasive in the hopes of finding a large enough group of people to like them.

Call it Lean Marketing: be loud and insulting as often as possible until you find enough of an exploitable niche where you fit in. (Turns out their first exploitable niche of "annotated rap lyrics" wasn't nearly big enough. They need more rubes to exploit now.)

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#68

Post by antr »

ripberge wrote: post #46
davemel37 wrote: post #11

This site should be penalized up the wazoo. This "non-apology" apology, is the classic example of a tattletale at school...the classic excuse of its not my fault cuz everyone is doing it...more importantly, it is wrong, and demonstrates a "our sh don't stick mentality" exchanging a tweet for a link is considered exchanging services for a link, which does indeed fall under the buying links category.) Furthermore, whil…

You are very misinformed if you think these strategies do not work. They are a necessity for a startup in very high competition niches. Take a look at the source of the very reputable: www.usatoday.com/sports/ and search for "NFL Tickets". Blatant link buying by vivid seats. SeatGeek does this all over the place as well. When you have really strong competitors buying links like this and getting away with it--it's the…

Although I don't agree that "What Rapgenius is doing is very innocent", I do have to agree on the general (black) SEO tactics that startups do, and even blue chips do.

This is my first hand experience: I was contacted by an "SEO Consultant" who wanted to publish an article in one my sites for $40. I went along, exchanged a few emails, and managed to get the "article" this company wanted to publish.

Bottom line was that they wanted to place link's to Tesco's LED bulbs site:

    Text: decorative and useful living room accessory
    URL: http://www.tesco.com/direct/home-garden/lighting/cat3376614.cat

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#69

Post by minimaxir »

seiji wrote: post #62
minimaxir wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since Rap Genius is a YC company, that is unlikely. This also isn't the first time a YC company has had ethical issues called out on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5092711

Does anybody else see the folly in letting a corporation with their own agenda run a real time news site?

In fairness, the articles submitted from the domain rapgenius.com are appropriate for HN. (e.g. the Heroku incident: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5215884 )

They aren't using HN to submit content spam. (fwiw, there was another YC startup in a similar niche doing just that earlier this year. That startup appears to be dead/zombie now.)

Re: Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO

#70

Post by jrochkind1 »

> is to find blogs whose content we think our followers will enjoy and ask them to link pages on Rap Genius that are relevant to their posts.

So, this is just a lie, right? The original thing on HN [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6956658] makes it pretty clear that they were asking for random links to Justin Bieber songs on any old blog post regardless of relevance. Or is Justin Bieber relevant to jmarbach's blog for some reason I'm missing? Also that they were hardly being selective about 'blogs whose content we think our followers will enjoy'.

So they're just plain lying, right?

[I _almost_ made a rap genius account for the purpose of annotating their statement to point this out. I might still do it, but the idea that they might find it gratifying that I created an account puts me off.]

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