SEO has been a plague in search engines for almost as long as they have existed. Unfortunately combatting it is an endless cat and mouse game, as there will always be some who will devise new ways to game the system. With how commercialised the web has become there’s enormous incentive to do so.

I’m also not convinced Google has much intention of really fixing it. They already have a monopoly on search, and as an advertising company are unlikely to want to upset the big media companies exploiting their search engine.

Lying about testing a product in order to get people to buy it so you can get your affiliate revenue sounds like fraud to me. Seems like the kind of thing that should lead to lawsuits and potentially criminal charges. Not that anyone would actually try to do something about this or most other problems facing consumers.

When you make a website and perform SEO tactics like the ones in this article, Google isn't providing a service to you, you're providing the service to Google.

Part of this is also our fault for how we allowed our browsing habits to change and adjust and make the issue worse. Like how many of us will just search random things even if we want to search in or go to a specific website as a goto?

In the old days we might search once or find the website through word of mouth or links on other affiliated websites, and then bookmark good website and search there first before turning to google. Now? Lord knows I immediately google even if I know I can go to another website. Instead of browsing websites directly we sit on social media, be it reddit twitter facebook and are spoonfed our content without actually going to the original source or if we do just to the page and never to check. g like rolling stone reviewing air purifiers.

Some of this is the result of convenient access, some of this is thanks to addictive predatory design, and for those who held out as long as possible the companies in charge of content sites would pivot to cater towards social media and search algorithms and enshitify their homepage making it harder to bother.

It's frustrating there are so many bad reviews when it's not like basic material testing is that complicated. If a few of these media conglomerates just ripped off the things Project Farm does to branch out what products are tested, that would be immensely helpful. As a bonus, much of his testing is actually interesting to watch, so you'd actually be generating double the content, the review and the test itself.

I do enjoy Project Farm is testing more household items these days. The trashbag torture tests this week were good. He tests enough catagories that with whatever item he's testing, you can see what is the best value for daily use or what to get when you really need something to work no matter what you throw at it.

Just add "Reddit" tag to everything and cross link multiple posts talking about that content. Basically do the work for me of having to filter through so many threads and answers. Yeah sucks to be this co depending but this would generate clicks and catch people who search for "product x Reddit". Of course you lose those who filter by site:reddit.com. I also hope Lemmy gets big to get rid of this Reddit codependency, because I want way less manipulated information but not from Reddit which becomes more and more astroturfed. I think it's a pipedream to get completely rid of it but at least these responses are useful most of the time and not SEO optimized.

I don’t disagree that Google is crap, but who the fuck is House Fresh?

I don't check out these sites...

I just buy the top 5 in a category. Test em. Return 4.

EZPZ

/s

Does anybody even open articles like "N best X of YYYY!", or "N things that will X your Z!"