Member Avatar for jkon

I don't love Reddit , in fact before Google started to slap it on my face few months ago , I had many years to been there for a simple reason· I didn't liked their format nor their way of "building" a programmers community.
Now everything I search in Google in the top 5 result there should be a Reddit post. Even if it is rather irrelevant with my search and only in the outer match of the embeddings of my query, even so ... there it is.
I understand that Google NEEDS human created content (as all the AI "lets gain some bucks now, before they get what we are doing" folks) but is it logical to invest so much users expectation in a specific site and to promote it so ruthlessly in search results , that makes those Google results look silly ?

What do you think ?

Edited by jkon
  • 5 Contributors
  • 6 Replies
  • 80 Views
  • 2 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by jkon
Member Avatar for Dani

For sure. Years ago, Google hated forums. We lost all of our traffic and membership and post activity quickly followed.

Nowadays, Google loves forums. However, our traffic has yet to return, although I've been hearing through SEO communities that some other forums have regained their traffic.

Here's an article on one of the more popular SEO sites: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-reddit-forum-threads-37176.html

And here's an article from a few months ago about how Google is now paying Reddit for a firehose of all its content: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-reddit-content-deal-36944.html

Member Avatar for Dani

Bing tends to not target a very technical audience, and/or people are not asking technical questions on Bing that would land them on DaniWeb. That's always been the case.

Duckduckgo simply doesn't have a large enough share of the market to make any impact. I think, last I understood, they had a 2% share of the overall search market? Also, although they claim it's not true, there has been pretty substantial evidence in the past that they use Google search results but simply anonymize the requests. That means that if we do poorly on Google, so goes our Duckduckgo rankings. I think we get a few hundred users a month from them, if that. The amount of traffic we get from Duckduckgo tends to increase/decrease proportionally to our Google traffic, pretty much down to the week. e.g. if Google releases a core algorithm update that affects our traffic, our Duckduckgo traffic tends to change proportionally as well. Again, Duckduckgo claims they don't use Google search results. /SMH.

Member Avatar for Admin907

t's understandable to be frustrated by Reddit posts dominating Google search results, especially if you dislike the platform's format and community style. Google prioritizes Reddit because it values user-generated content, but this can make search results feel repetitive and less relevant. Ideally, Google should diversify its top results to provide a more balanced view.

Member Avatar for Salem

Or you just learn how to use the tools.

If you want only reddit, then type this into your search:
c programming language site:reddit.com

If you want everything but reddit, then type this into your search:
c programming language -site:reddit.com

Member Avatar for jkon

Let me clarify something first: I don't "hate" Reddit , I don't have strong feelings about it at all , I just not "loving it". I have never been a user there and the reason was and still is that I find their format of discussion groups not compelling. But maybe in an alternative world if I had a reason to join , slowly I would come in peace with that , and be in Reddit as well.

The discrimination in favor of Reddit that Google is doing right now it is their own right. They are a for profit company and we all get judged by the customers after all. But of course I believe that we must state of what is happening right now. I haven't seen an increase in rank in Google search results for other forums. If I had than I would just understand that this is one new Google algorithm to promote user created content. And nobody asked me , but , I would agree with that.

Dani you mentioned that some other forums (except from Reddit) are leaking to the community that their traffic has bounced back (even a bit) after the new Google rank algorithm. Are you confident that this is true ? and if so what have they done that DaniWeb hadn't ?

Salem I agree with you , if I don't want to see reddit in my search results I could make me query state that , but of course I would have to mention reddit in each of my queries.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.