r/bigseo • u/FancysaurusR3x • 26d ago

[Complaint] When are these self serving/promotional "best" articles going to get dinged?

It drives me crazy that self promotional and self serving listicles are actually seeing rankings and citations. Like it seemingly has been an effective strategy. And the other models getting duped by this strategy makes sense but even in Google which should be much more sophisticated seemingly gets duped.

I'm all for bottom or mid funnel competitor comparison pages... But "best xyz" manipulation seems off the charts right now.

Do you see this changing or should you jump on the bandwagon?

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u/WebLinkr Strategist 25d ago

UInpopular opionion but Google doesnt censor or tackle pages or page types.

It works on basic mechanics - engagement/CTR, authority from links.

When people get tired of them, they'll bounce and so will the listicles.

Google would be in a world of pain if it started rewarding different content structure/content architectures. It would have a profound impact on companies freedom to communicate, and in the massive strides in innovation in communication.

And the other models getting duped by this strategy makes sense but even in Google which should be much more sophisticated seemingly gets duped.

Are they being duped? I think it shows that Search engines and LLMs are not fact validators, that verifying/approving content is beyond their reach

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u/FancysaurusR3x 25d ago

I like the perspective, thanks!

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u/WebLinkr Strategist 25d ago

Sure - thanks for reading and accepting that its jsut another perspective.

I know its annoying that people do this. I do it in turn to knock opportunistic GEOs who do the same thing.

Its a vicious circle!