Google Crawlers, page rankings, etc

1. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   Does anyone know for sure as to what Google crawlers actually see on your page?
   Examples:  How do they know a page is poorly written, full of grammar errors, etc?
   Do they know how many products you have on your page? 
   Do they know how many words is in your content?
   HP pushes images and videos, but does Google crawlers even know what you have or how many of them are on your page?
   
   We see crappy content on page one, while good content is on page 25 of Google search.  How they rate out pages is beyond me.

   replyreport
   1. 90

      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think the crawlers can determine grammar, etc. What Google, and HP, measures is how long someone stays on a page or whether they bounce out quickly. So, the rationale is that if the post is long (which also gives bots more to read) and has other media, plus is well-written and interesting and/or is answering a question for the reader, then people won't abandon the page.

      replyreport
      1. 60

         Arco Hess Designsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         They can definitely measure grammar. If Microsoft Office can, Google bots definitely can as well.
         
         Google owns some of the most powerful databases in the entire world. They can do this and much, much more with our content, including comparing our word usages, grammar, vocabulary, etc to others who also write about the same topic.
         
         But yes, they also use bounce rates and exit rates.

         replyreport
         1. 90

            NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            That's cool, and i didn't know that. At least now I know it's accurately reading certain important things about writing.

            replyreport
   2. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Google's crawlers are driven by sophisticated software.   Just look at what Microsoft Word can do - if it can check spelling and grammar, so can the crawlers.  They also detect hyperlinks and classify them - if too many of them are "do follow" affiliate links, that's a black mark.   
      
      The crawlers also detect videos and photos - you only have to look at a Google Search result to see that.  That doesn't necessarily mean they rank a Hub higher because it contains more varied media, it just gives your Hub more chance to be found by other means. 
      
      However I agree that for all its sophistication, the software is imperfect and still returns crazy results at times.

      replyreport
      1. 90

         NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I've been struggling with trying to nofollow affiliate links on my blogs. Every plugin I've found for doing it is outdated or at least "untested" for the current version of Wordpress. Curious if you have a way of making links nofollow on your blog. Do you end up just doing it manually, putting the rel=nofollow (I think that's it) into the link? I'm just dreading having to go through all of my pages looking for those affiliate links and putting in the tags.

         replyreport
         1. 87

            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Just because a plugin is untested doesn't mean it won't work.  A good tip is to look at the Support threads for that plugin to see what people are saying about it. 
            
            I use an eBay plugin for my eBay ads, and it has the option to make the links no follow.  You can also put some code in your theme to make ALL links no follow.   I'm sure I've got it somewhere, if I can find it I'll post it.

            replyreport
            1. 90

               NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks, Marisa. I appreciate that. I had a plugin in mind, it said it was untested but it had good reviews. It will either make all links nofollow or dofollow and then you can include or exclude certain websites. It would make it easy if I used it; I'd just exclude Amazon, eBay and my Share a Sale affiliate. I can't remember the name of it right now, I think I wrote it down but can't find it at the moment.

               replyreport
               1. 86

                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  fyi   I was checking the competition for one of my articles a week ago and the article in the first place spot on Google was not even an article!  It was a table of contents with links to about 10 articles from a website!  A table of contents?  Really?  Talk about crazy rating results!  I almost threw up.

                  replyreport
                  1. 95

                     Solarasposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     TT2 - I regularly puke at the sites in first place.  Some have no content whatsoever; it's just a place card for a future article they forgot to write.  Links yes, but just blank where there should be content.

                     replyreport
               2. 87

                  Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I used one like that for a while.  Don't just look at reviews, also check the support forum for that plugin.  If you can see people posting that it's not working, then it's not working - otherwise it probably still is!

                  replyreport
                  1. 90

                     NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, I looked more into it and saw the support forums, and it wasn't looking good. Still haven't found a plugin that looked right. Might go over some of them I looked at again. Some of them just looked like they had more than what I needed. I don't want anything slowing down my sites.

                     replyreport
                     1. 87

                        Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        Have you looked at the WP External  Links plugin?

                        replyreport
                        1. 90

                           NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                           I did see that one. I was seriously considering installing it, but I saw a couple problems people had on the support forum concerning warnings and errors and so I was unsure. Now looking again, I only see a couple of those threads and maybe those problems aren't as serious as I'd thought. Not sure. That was one that I was seriously thinking about. I also considered Follow Nofollow Control and another one called Outbound Links, in addition to Ultimate Nofollow. There are more I was really thinking about, but those were the main ones.Pretty much all of them seemed very problematic when I looked at the Support Forums.

                           replyreport
                           1. 87

                              Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                              If you look at the support forums, you'll find problems reported on all of them!   You need to open a few threads, look at whether the issues were resolved etc.   The problems with External Links didn't look serious to me.

                              replyreport
                              1. 90

                                 NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                                 I think you're right about External Links. I think I'm going to use that one; and it will be a relief to get it and nofollow links. Been wanting to do it for awhile now.

                                 replyreport
   3. 82

      peachpurpleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      i don't think that google crawler can judge on the article rank but if you use PAGERANK that you can find in any websites, it could judge your post. Mine always get 3 page rank, very low.

      replyreport
   4. 94

      Maffew Jamesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If content appeals to the masses, they're more likely to link to it and to share it on social media. The more backlinks to the content, the higher it will generally rank. This can push poorer content above better content where the poor article in question draws more links. The domain also helps an article rank. If a strong domain posts a somewhat poor article, it can still often outrank better content because the domain itself strengthens its ranking.
      
      Also, Panda modifies the value of other ranking factors, according to Google's patent. This means that rather than reduce the ranking of a site, it reduces the power of the site's ranking factors like links and on page SEO. The distinction here is that a poor quality site that has been targeted by Panda can still potentially rank above other sites. Panda simply acts like a handicap that requires the site to build a lot more links and pay more attention to on page optimisation for the same ranking effect it could achieve with less.

      replyreport
      1. 87

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Good analogy of Panda working like a handicap (meaning a golfing handicap or a handicap in a race).

         replyreport
2. 52

   pateludayposted 9 years ago

   Sophisticated algorithms judge content accurately but as per the creators. There are many ranking algorithms involved hence some pages ranked very high may not seem to be deserving. Remember that ranking is always in relation to a query hence a badly written page may yet be answering accurately a rare query that others may not. I believe many pages are yet to go down and will.

   replyreport