How Google is killing independent sites like ours - HouseFresh
housefresh.com
And why you shouldn’t trust product reviews from big media publishers ranking at the top of Google.
    • SecretPancake@feddit.de
      1·
      9 months ago

      I’m a web developer and used to work for companies focused on SEO over quality. It’s a pain in the ass and takes all the fun out of the job.

    • davehtaylor@beehaw.org
      1·
      9 months ago

      In a just world, the idea of SEO shouldn’t even exist. You shouldn’t be able to game an algorithm to rise to the top. But that’s what literally our entire world has become now. Social media influencers, scammy and spammy websites and services, AI art thieves, content farm sewage. None of it would exist if the algorithms didn’t let you game them or promote certain behaviors.

  • jaden@lemmy.zip
    0·
    9 months ago

    I think this is part of the reason that Google sucks nowadays. I genuinely don’t feel like I can trust it for finding products.

    • Spaghetti_Hitchens@kbin.social
      1·
      9 months ago

      I just use it for opening the door to learn about features (not brands/models) that I didn’t know about previously. Then I do searches for those features and try to find forum results (usually Reddit unfortunately). It seems to work decently well

  • Hadouken Shoryuken@feddit.nlEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    Kind of related question - any suggestions what to use if I want to skip this problem? I was looking for some headphones earlier and as explained in the article, most sites point to the same brands. I finally got to see some different brands/models and users reviews from forum group. The problem is I found those forums from Google… so any suggestions what I can try without being stuck in this google SEO vortex?

    • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
      1·
      9 months ago

      Consumer Reports is still around and still excellent. I paid for a membership to them for quite some time and it was worth it.

      I think it’s an instance of the fundamental problem that if people generally want something (good reviews) for free, but it costs money to make, eventually it’ll get hollowed out and replaced with something empty and worthless, because there wasn’t money in continuing to provide it for free.

    • BCsven@lemmy.ca
      0·
      9 months ago

      You can sign up to kagi.com for non ad based rankings results like we had in 2010 era google searches. 100 free searches then a paid model.

      Or use this open source engine a guy built and maintains in his basement https://stract.com/