GOOGLE

Big Sites and Website Authority

Published

3 years ago

October 15, 2021

Google’s John Mueller in an Office-hours hangout answered a question about whether a big a site with thousands of indexed pages influences Google’s perception of site quality. John Mueller answered no, it’s not a sign of quality and then provided more information.

SEO Perception of a Big Site Advantage

There is an old idea in the SEO community that big sites have an advantage over smaller sites.

When a smaller site can’t get top rankings some will shrug and write it off that the big site has an advantage because of how big they are.

An article published on Moz in 2012 offers an example of the belief that big brands have an advantage:

“There’s been a lot of debate about how Google, both manually and algorithmically, may favor big brands…

Since the beginning of the internet, the eventual advantage of big brands was only a matter of time.

This post is about why I think that advantage was inevitable, why it’s not going away, and what you can do to compete.”

It was a bleak outlook in 2012 and it is still a defeatist approach to marketing today, peddling the idea that ranking algorithms are rigged against smaller sites.

Despite new algorithms like BERT and MUM, many continue to believe that big sites have an inherent advantage.

Remove Low Performing Pages?

The person asking the question explained that they wanted to remove old pages that are poorly performing.

But they received pushback from the site developers who asserted that making the site smaller would reduce it’s perceived advantage from being a big site.

This is the question:

“So you’ve recommended several times in the past that large sites, that they focus on a smaller set of pages, I guess.

…The site I’m working on right now, we have a lot of pages that… a lot of pages… like a thousand pages, that don’t get any traffic, that are old, so I’ve been recommending to remove those.

But there’s a question that our dev team
has that they were under the impression that the more pages that Google has indexed of your site, the higher the authority it ascribes to the site…”

The person asking the question goes on to relate that the dev team is reluctant to remove pages because they’re afraid that it will impact the authority of the site.

He then asked John Mueller to “shed some light” on this idea of Google seeing a big site as more authoritative.

Google’s John Mueller Discussing Big Sites and Authority

Screenshot of Google's John Mueller discussing website authority of big sites

Big Sites Are Not Inherently Better

John Mueller popped the bubble on the idea that big sites, by being big, have an advantage over smaller sites.

John Mueller’s answer about a link between authority and how big a site is unambiguous:

“So it’s definitely not the case that if you have more pages indexed that we think your website is better.

So I think that, at least, is absolutely not the case.

Sometimes it makes sense to have a lot of pages indexed.

Sometimes they’re kind of useful pages to have indexed like that.

But it’s not a sign of quality with regards to how many pages that are indexed.

And especially if you’re talking about something on the order of …1,000, 2,000, 5000 pages, that’s a pretty low number for our systems in general.

And it’s not that we would say, oh, 5,000 pages is better than 1,000 pages.

For us, it’s all kind of like, well, it’s a small website, and we make do with what we can pull out there.

And of course, like, small website is relative. It’s not like saying it’s an irrelevant website.

It might be small but it might still be very useful.

But it’s certainly not the case that just having more pages indexed is a sign of quality.”

Big is Not an Advantage

A lot of this doesn’t take much thinking to pop a hole in the idea that big sites have an advantage.

I and many of my ecommerce clients regularly outrank big brands retailers.

Some might say that brands are able to leverage their popularity to push their web pages higher. But if those sites have a over a million pages, how much “push” do they really have to leverage?

We are deep into the new era of natural language processing where AI, machine learning and algorithms like BERT, Neural Matching, RankBrain, MUM all work together to use website words and images themselves to rank websites, lessening the influence of less reliable signals like links.

So it makes sense that Mueller discourages the idea that having more pages indexed is an advantage in the current phase of search technology.

Citation

More Web Pages Indexed Means Higher Authority in Google?

Watch at the 3:45 Minute Mark

Searchenginejournal.com

GOOGLE

Google Warns About Misuse of Its Indexing API

Published

8 hours ago

September 12, 2024

Max

Google Warns About Misuse of Its Indexing API

Google has updated its Indexing API documentation with a clear warning about spam detection and the possible consequences of misuse.

Warning Against API Misuse The new message in the guide says:

“All submissions through the Indexing API are checked for spam. Any misuse, like using multiple accounts or going over the usage limits, could lead to access being taken away.”

This warning is aimed at people trying to abuse the system by exceeding the API’s limits or breaking Google’s rules.

What Is the Indexing API? The Indexing API allows websites to tell Google when job posting or livestream video pages are added or removed. It helps websites with fast-changing content get their pages crawled and indexed quickly.

But it seems some users have been trying to abuse this by using multiple accounts to get more access.

Impact of the Update Google is now closely watching how people use the Indexing API. If someone breaks the rules, they might lose access to the tool, which could make it harder for them to keep their search results updated for time-sensitive content.

How To Stay Compliant To use the Indexing API properly, follow these rules:

Don’t go over the usage limits, and if you need more, ask Google instead of using multiple accounts.
Use the API only for job postings or livestream videos, and make sure your data is correct.
Follow all of Google’s API guidelines and spam policies.
Use sitemaps along with the API, not as a replacement.

Remember, the Indexing API isn’t a shortcut to faster indexing. Follow the rules to keep your access.

GOOGLE

This Week in Search News: Simple and Easy-to-Read Update

Published

2 months ago

June 30, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

This Week in Search News: Simple and Easy-to-Read Update

Here’s what happened in the world of Google and search engines this week:

1. Google’s June 2024 Spam Update

Google finished rolling out its June 2024 spam update over a period of seven days. This update aims to reduce spammy content in search results.

2. Changes to Google Search Interface

Google has removed the continuous scroll feature for search results. Instead, it’s back to the old system of pages.

3. New Features and Tests

Link Cards: Google is testing link cards at the top of AI-generated overviews.
Health Overviews: There are more AI-generated health overviews showing up in search results.
Local Panels: Google is testing AI overviews in local information panels.

4. Search Rankings and Quality

Improving Rankings: Google said it can improve its search ranking system but will only do so on a large scale.
Measuring Quality: Google’s Elizabeth Tucker shared how they measure search quality.

5. Advice for Content Creators

Brand Names in Reviews: Google advises not to avoid mentioning brand names in review content.
Fixing 404 Pages: Google explained when it’s important to fix 404 error pages.

6. New Search Features in Google Chrome

Google Chrome for mobile devices has added several new search features to enhance user experience.

7. New Tests and Features in Google Search

Credit Card Widget: Google is testing a new widget for credit card information in search results.
Sliding Search Results: When making a new search query, the results might slide to the right.

8. Bing’s New Feature

Bing is now using AI to write “People Also Ask” questions in search results.

9. Local Search Ranking Factors

Menu items and popular times might be factors that influence local search rankings on Google.

10. Google Ads Updates

Query Matching and Brand Controls: Google Ads updated its query matching and brand controls, and advertisers are happy with these changes.
Lead Credits: Google will automate lead credits for Local Service Ads. Google says this is a good change, but some advertisers are worried.
tROAS Insights Box: Google Ads is testing a new insights box for tROAS (Target Return on Ad Spend) in Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns.
WordPress Tag Code: There is a new conversion code for Google Ads on WordPress sites.

These updates highlight how Google and other search engines are continuously evolving to improve user experience and provide better advertising tools.

AI

Exploring the Evolution of Language Translation: A Comparative Analysis of AI Chatbots and Google Translate

Published

7 months ago

February 26, 2024

Max

A Comparative Analysis of AI Chatbots and Google Translate

According to an article on PCMag, while Google Translate makes translating sentences into over 100 languages easy, regular users acknowledge that there’s still room for improvement.

In theory, large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT are expected to bring about a new era in language translation. These models consume vast amounts of text-based training data and real-time feedback from users worldwide, enabling them to quickly learn to generate coherent, human-like sentences in a wide range of languages.

However, despite the anticipation that ChatGPT would revolutionize translation, previous experiences have shown that such expectations are often inaccurate, posing challenges for translation accuracy. To put these claims to the test, PCMag conducted a blind test, asking fluent speakers of eight non-English languages to evaluate the translation results from various AI services.

The test compared ChatGPT (both the free and paid versions) to Google Translate, as well as to other competing chatbots such as Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. The evaluation involved comparing the translation quality for two test paragraphs across different languages, including Polish, French, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, and Amharic.

In the first test conducted in June 2023, participants consistently favored AI chatbots over Google Translate. ChatGPT, Google Bard (now Gemini), and Microsoft Bing outperformed Google Translate, with ChatGPT receiving the highest praise. ChatGPT demonstrated superior performance in converting colloquialisms, while Google Translate often provided literal translations that lacked cultural nuance.

For instance, ChatGPT accurately translated colloquial expressions like “blow off steam,” whereas Google Translate produced more literal translations that failed to resonate across cultures. Participants appreciated ChatGPT’s ability to maintain consistent levels of formality and its consideration of gender options in translations.

The success of AI chatbots like ChatGPT can be attributed to reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF), which allows these models to learn from human preferences and produce culturally appropriate translations, particularly for non-native speakers. However, it’s essential to note that while AI chatbots outperformed Google Translate, they still had limitations and occasional inaccuracies.

In a subsequent test, PCMag evaluated different versions of ChatGPT, including the free and paid versions, as well as language-specific AI agents from OpenAI’s GPTStore. The paid version of ChatGPT, known as ChatGPT Plus, consistently delivered the best translations across various languages. However, Google Translate also showed improvement, performing surprisingly well compared to previous tests.

Overall, while ChatGPT Plus emerged as the preferred choice for translation, Google Translate demonstrated notable improvement, challenging the notion that AI chatbots are always superior to traditional translation tools.

Source: https://www.pcmag.com/articles/google-translate-vs-chatgpt-which-is-the-best-language-translator