Turning the Tables - How do we Prove to Google they're Wrong?

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   Gordon Hamiltonposted 11 years ago

   Many of us have had problems recently and historically with Google rankings and traffic. It's of course a huge issue for all online writers but especially those of us who depend upon it for a living.
   
   What happens, however, when Google's top search results are proven to be wholly inaccurate and worthless? Is there anything we can do about it? I don't know - I'm hoping someone can tell me...
   
   I've come across this many times before, where the top few results in Google give wholly inaccurate information, but tonight it has caused me to not only waste a fairly expensive cut of meat but break a tooth in the process. I was cooking a type of meat I'd never eaten or cooked before and took advice from the top results on Google. Stupidly, I knew myself that the info was poor and it was extremely unlikely to work but I went ahead anyway. (I acknowledge my own mistake! ) It was disgusting - there is no other word for it. Totally inedible. It is now 11.45pm, I am in pain, facing dental treatment and waiting for a Chinese takeaway to be delivered. Not amused...
   
   Wouldn't it be great if we could have some way of contacting Google or rating their rankings and telling them of the huge mistakes in their calculations? (I am holding myself back from commenting on those "supposed" recipe sites and blogs...) There is no way those people actually cooked those dishes. They simply made up a recipe...
   
   Any thoughts or ideas?

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      Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You can complain to Google. I think this is the link. http://www.google.com/contact/
      
      I have been finding terrible search results under some categories too. They need to straighten up their act instead of playing around trying different things.

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         Gordon Hamiltonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Barbara. I'll give it a try tomorrow when I calm down a bit. (Probably better that way...)
         
         You're so right about the quality of search results. Most of us are sensible enough to know that there is no foolproof system and that poor quality info will always get through but it seems that poor info is becoming more and more common at the top end of search results...

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      Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I get the impression, Gordon, that G may be testing those sites. If this happened to you, it's happened to others, and when they next search for a recipe they will be blocking that site from search results. G will get the message!
      
      I can sympathise Gordon, because my blog is veggie and vegan recipes. When I look at the top of serps for certain veggie recipes, there's often what I can only describe as an airbrushed (or public domain image) odd ratios for ingredients, and I often think that they havn't even cooked the dish, just made it up! They haven't cooked the dish or they wouldn't be using public domain images, they'd be using their own.
      
      I wouldn't post a recipe unless I'd made it myself. It's the only way you can be sure.

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         Gordon Hamiltonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Totally agree, Hollie and thanks. There are a great many people here on HP and far beyond who make strenuous efforts to not only devise recipes but prepare them with photographic evidence and instructions. Yet still, these "creative writers" (that's the most tactful lable I could think of) take pole position in the search results with what amounts to little more than absolute fiction. Wish Esther Rantzen was still doing That's Life! (Apologies to non-British readers with the last comment... It was our ultimate consumer affairs TV show)

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      djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes! you can! You need to use Googles chrome browser! It has a feature to basically demote a site in search results for a given search term. Also, Google has done amazing work this year to remove spam, and irrelevant search results from its organic search engine. I built a website for a piano teacher who complained that when he typed in Google search "piano lessons st louis", he got tons of results that had nothing to do with piano lessons at all. Since their major updates he's on page one, and spot number one for some keywords. Why? Because his site is related to the exact keywords "piano lessons st louis." type that in Google search and you will find "ette music" on page one! They did do their job. This is why so many sites have lost ranking, because they were either cheating by using deceptive SEO practices, or their pages content was not relevant to the search query entered. Google is better than ever, and people who create quality content and play by the rules will be rewarded! I have big time. Why? Because I don't cheat. Another problem that is causing people to lose ranking is their own ignorance. You need to understand how search engines work, what HTML and CSS is, as well as how the internet works as a whole. If you don't, you will fail, guaranteed. You can write great content, but you have to give search engines the proper information to properly index your content. Tip: Write a compelling article, then tie your web pages title, meta description, meta keywords, headings, etc, altogether! All this information must be closely related otherwise your article is worthless. Everyone is struggling, except for me? Why? Because they don't understand how web pages work! Thats why. For example, everyone is using "content management systems" to create their websites. Bad idea! CMS's use tons of scripts to point to external apps, ads, etc. What people don't understand is that, web pages are not made with scripts, they are made with HTML and CSS, and everything else is merely a supplement. Those content management systems create "code heavy" pages, that have a ton of external links to tons of scripts, causing the pages to take forever to load. A very big part of your page rank is speed at which your pages load. I just built a massive website, and when tested by Googles "make the web faster" page speed indicators, my sites pages load faster than 94 percent of all pages in the world. Again, why? Because I dont build pages with a million scripts! All of my code resides directly in the page itself. I also use a minimum of ads, usually one per page. All those cool social networking plugins, apps, and ads splashed all your web pages, causes them to load much slower than a page say on my website, or a site with a minimum of scripts. So, to put this in English so everyone can understand it, Learn about search engines, learn HTML and CSS, or don't complain. I don't see how so many people can complain about not getting results from something they do not comprehend. Its called ignorance, and its why millions of sites are falling off the cliff, and others like mine have hit page one, and some cases spot one in Google. In fact, that piano teachers website I just referred too, it now scores for over 30 sets of keywords, and had over 1,000 visitors last month, and its a localized only website. Its been set to appear in search results only in the st louis MO metro area. And as for the piano teacher, he has more students than he can handle. Like I said, your content doesn't matter if you don't have the code to back it up! No proper use of HTML and CSS, no rank! I'm not kidding. So everyone, quit whining and start learning. Complaining does nothing. Another problem, quit counting on hubpages to make you a success. You have little control if any on how your articles are embedded in webpages here, if none at all. Get your own site and learn!

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         Gordon Hamiltonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Aaaahhh... Thanks for your reply, djdaniel150...

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            djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Your welcome Gordon I think everyone needed the wakeup call. Especially hubpages, them more than anyone. Have you considered creating your own website? If you aren't tech savvy, you could try Google sites, they do have a cut and paste interface. Also, Godaddy web hosting has templates on the cheap! If you get their shared hosting plan, you get a website for just a few dollars a month, although you may have to pay a bit to get help having it setup, services which they do offer. And, if you have an adsense account, you can setup your own ads on your site, and you get 68% of all revenue, a much higher take than hubpages. This is a suggestion for everyone here.

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   paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

   Wish I could offer something constructive here. All I can say is I wished that tooth thing hadn't happened to you.

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      Gordon Hamiltonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, paradigmsearch. Maybe Google could pay my dental bill...? Yeah - right!!

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   Peggy Wposted 11 years ago

   The only one that may perhaps smile over this misfortune is your dentist...not in front of you, of course...just when checking his bank account.  Sorry that this happened to you.  Hope you complain to Google.

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      Gordon Hamiltonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You are probably right, Peggy. Thanks - I will!

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   IzzyMposted 11 years ago

   Before you make that complaint, here is something worth considering.
   
   Here, On HP, I followed to the letter a recipe hub written by a very well-respected and prominent hubber.
   
   It was revolting!! That is the nicest thing I can say about it.
   
   It looked and tasted nothing like what it should, yet this hub has been up here for 4/5 years, no doubt garnering thousands of views in that time.
   
   I suspected something was wrong with the recipe, as the ingredients didn't look right.
   
   I was right.
   
   Now if we were to ask Google to slap an embargo on every site that publishes crap recipes that the author almost certainly made up, then Hubpages will remain at the bottom of the pile.
   
   We need to sort our own house out first.

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      Gordon Hamiltonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You make a very valid point, Izzy, as always - without a doubt. The last thing I would of course want to do is name, shame or in any way condemn an individual. I can assure you I am talking in principle only and am sorry that you had that experience on HP - (wasn't me, was it...???) I think you're being a bit unfair on HP, however, if you browse the Web for recipes. I think HP standards are a lot higher than most resources.
      
      I know that you will be on my side when I talk of simple, logical and fair treatment from basically the God of the Web...
      
      If only, eh???

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         IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         No it wasn't you Gordon, and you are right, I will not name the hubber in question.
         
         HP appears to offer a higher resource, but until those recipe hubs are tried and tested, who is to say how accurate or otherwise they are?
         
         It is much the same when you buy a recipe book - you simply do not know whether a recipe they suggest will work until you try it, unless you are an experienced cook.
         
         Ratings capsules are there to be used. Not every hubber puts them in their recipe hubs. So there is no way to tell the world not to try a specific recipe. You can thumb down the hub, or post a comment that will likely be denied.
         
         I think is was Cardisa who made a similar point to you, just recently.
         
         Many sites out there are posting recipes that can never work out, because the ingredients are wrong. Maybe that is why Google have encouraged the use of ratings capsules, because how else can someone learn what recipe NOT to try?
         
         Do a search yourself on recipes you know.
         
         Its my guess that HP has many older hubs with recipes that the author made up to use the keywords, without having the faintest idea what they doing.

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            Gordon Hamiltonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Totally agree, Izzy. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as someone (no idea who) once said... Until we try it ourselves, we won't know whether it suits our tastes, is genuine or not.
            
            Anyway, at least my unexpected chicken with cashew nuts and fried rice tonight was delicious, so I'm not going to bed hungry...

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               Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               That's good news. I also meant to add that the recipes on my main account contain no original images, because I didn't have a camera at the time. (didn't want to come across as a hypocrit) Rectified now though.

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                  paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I, too, am camera challenged. I'm glad you no longer are.

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                     Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     I had also lost the lead to upload images from my phone. I sincerely hope that Santa has a little camera for PDS in his sack this year.

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      SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hope I wasn't the author!!! Every recipe I add on here I have tried and I like - the problem with a lot of recipes is that it does come down to personal taste. I add Guinness to many of my recipes - and for some the taste will be too bitter - but for me it's a great bold taste.
      
      The problem for Google is that there is no way for them to verify the taste of a recipe.
      
      BTW if it is my hub, let me know and I'll double check the ingredients!!!

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         IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         No it wasn't your hub either.
         
         The author seldom posts, except on a certain niche topic on the forums.

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            Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I know it can't be me (I hope)because non of my hubs are even two years old, let alone four or five.

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