Last updated on August 25th, 2024 at 10:41 pm
Want to know why Google seems to favor certain sites in its search results? Dive into our analysis on the technical and strategic reasons behind this phenomenon.
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What’s Going on With Google Search Lately?
Have you found that your recent Google searches aren’t really returning the great results you used to get? Well, you’re not alone. In this article we’re going to talk about why this might be the case and what your alternatives are.
What Technical Reasons Drive Google to Push Traffic to Certain Preferred Sites?
What Google considers important is a constantly moving target. What was a strong ranking signal 10 years ago, isn’t necessarily a strong ranking signal today. So let’s talk about a few of the most important technical metrics that Google tracks and why they give the edge to large sites such as Reddit and Quora.
User-Generated Content
In the past, user-generated content wasn’t prioritized because there’s very little vetting and quality control into what gets posted. Think old message boards, forums, etc… Google seems to have changed their position on this.
Google often values fresh, unique, and engaging content. Platforms like Reddit and Quora are full of user-generated content that provides a wide range of perspectives and answers to various questions. These platforms are regularly updated with new discussions and insights, which can be appealing to Google’s algorithms.
The main problem is that anyone can post anything on these platforms. Even if it’s completely incorrect. If you’ve noticed a ton of search results now pointing to Reddit and Quora, it’s not just your imagination.
E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
Officially, Google’s algorithms prioritize content that demonstrates E-A-T. Large community-based platforms like Reddit and Quora have established authority and trust because of the collective knowledge and active moderation, which may be perceived as more reliable than some independent blogs that might not have the same level of credibility.
In practice, it’s unlikely that Google has any real way of automatically determining E-A-T with any accuracy beyond the typical backlink-based SEO that many companies resort to in an attempt increase their organic reach.
Dwell Time & User Engagement
Google considers user engagement metrics like dwell time (how long a user stays on a page & bounce rate). Discussions on Reddit and Quora tend to have high engagement rates because users spend more time reading through threads and responses, which can signal to Google that these pages are valuable.
Again, this idea isn’t necessarily true in practice because of the nature of monolithic websites such as Reddit and Quora which are designed to keep the user on them for as long as possible. Most independent bloggers write articles to answer specific questions or provide a narrow berth of information without much attempt to keep them there any longer.
Other Reasons Google Might Prefer Certain Sites
While technical and performative sets of criteria may be at the top of the list, it’s important to note that Google frequently works behind the scenes in other ways. There are plenty of other reasons why Google might push search traffic to certain preferred websites. Let’s take a look at a few.
Access to AI Training Data
In February of 2024, Google announced that it had partnered with Reddit for access to all user-generated content on the platform to train their AI models. There is also some speculation that upwards of $60 million was paid to Reddit for this access.
So it goes without saying that if it happens that Google paid a chunk of change to Reddit for their data, they’d be inclined to artificially push search traffic to the platform to aid in its growth and by proxy, the amount of data available for training their AI models.
Interestingly enough, the Reddit community were one of the first groups of people complaining about it – especially the SEO professionals and website owners who will never be above Reddit in the search results even when their content is superior.
Advertising: Revenue Maximization
Let’s face it. Google is a business focused 100% on generating revenue and profit for its shareholders. And while Google has money coming in from many directions, advertising is a significant one. Specifically, Google Ads.
Have you noticed over the past year that almost everything above the fold on a Google Search is an advertisement? I’ve been saying Google is pay to play for many years – and that’s just as true today (if not moreso). You can pay to be the top search result.
Google Search Alternatives
I’ve written a few articles over the years about the best alternative search engines to Google. These days, I’m using Brave Search and DuckDuckGo, which are both actually taking real portions of market share from the Google monopoly. Bing used to be a not-so-great search engine, but it’s come a long way and I find myself using it more and more. Some good alternatives are:
- Bing
- Brave Search
- DuckDuckGo
- Yahoo!
Depending on what you’re searching for, you may find that one search engine is better for a specific topic than another. For example, as an IT support person, if I’m searching an issue that’s related to a Microsoft product, I tend to use Bing because it’s a Microsoft product as well and it’s a good bet that it has a full index of all of Microsoft’s help articles and KBs.
Final Thoughts
If there’s one thing that’s constant, it’s that Google’s results won’t be. Google releases algorithm updates almost daily, so its search engine landscape is constantly changing. This is a hassle for SEO professionals as well as those black-hat SEO folks who constantly try to game the system. The unfortunate part of this is that small-time bloggers and website owners tend to get dropped in the mix.
As Google pushes more and more traffic to large monolithic sites like Reddit & Quora, the lifeblood of traffic that keeps the rest of the internet alive wanes and those small independent sites are basically invisible. Personally, I miss the old days of the internet when you could find yourself on dozens of different websites every day. Today, the internet consists of essentially a few large sites that get all the traffic and that’s about it. For a 90’s kid, it’s very dystopian.
Sharif Jameel is a business owner, IT professional, runner, & musician. His professional certifications include CASP, Sec+, Net+, MCSA, & ITIL and others. He’s also the guitar player for the Baltimore-based cover bands, Liquifaction and Minority Report.
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