The Google search engine has recently been the subject of very serious accusations which have been the subject of debate within the SEO community.
The first accusation concerns the deletion and replacement of queries initially typed with queries that monetize better.
The second concerns the lack of control and the speed of classification of obituary spam. For the moment, these are only local search engine optimization service rumors (SEO Grossips) until proven otherwise.
In this article, we will examine these allegations in more detail as well as Google's defense responses.
Google's response to accusations of deleting and replacing queries
The Wired blog previously ran an article titled " How Google Changes Search Queries to Maximize Profits." »
This now-deleted article exposed Google's practice of removing certain queries and replacing them with others that generate more advertising revenue.
Danny Sullivan, Google's search liaison, responded to this accusation on X by saying:
''An opinion piece recently came out stating that Google is "deleting queries altogether and replacing them with queries that monetize better."
We don't do it. The article contains serious inaccuracies about how Google Search works.
The organic (IE: unsponsored) results you see in search are not affected by our ad systems.
In particular, the article appears to misunderstand the connection between keyword matching and serving relevant ads in Google Search.
Advertising keyword matching is a well-known and long-standing process designed to connect people to relevant ads. Learn more here .
A separate process, which has nothing to do with ads, is used to match organic results to a query, as explained here .
It's no secret that Google Search goes beyond the specific words in a query to better understand their meaning, in order to display relevant organic results.
This is a useful process that we have written about many times:
google.com/search/howsear
blog.google/products/searc
blog.google/products/searc
blog.google/products/searc
This ensures that Google Search can better show users organic results and connect them to useful resources in book market services If you make a spelling mistake or search for a term that isn't on a page but the page has a close synonym, or if you don't even know exactly how to search for something, our meaning matching systems help. ''
Google Ad Liaison Manager Ginny Marvin then tagged Danny's post and added this :
''In Google Ads, advertisers use keyword match types to broaden or refine the searches their ads may appear on. Our ad systems do not affect organic results in search.''
The uncontrollable proliferation of obituary spam on Google
For many years, spammers have used automated methods to create fictitious obituaries.
Even Danny Goodwin mentioned this problem when Bill Slawski died a few years ago. Unfortunately, the phenomenon is becoming more widespread today and remains worrying.
Most recently, Chris Silver Smith, a respected industry veteran, faced this situation.
After the tragic death of his brother-in-law in a car accident on a Friday evening, he testified that within a few days he noticed that "various spammer websites were generating so-called obituaries in memory of his beau -brother. »
He also noted that "he has not encountered this level of predatory activity since the days when spammers automatically posted links to comments on memorial web pages." »
To support his claim, Chris shared screenshots showing search results with these fake obituaries and highlighted how some of them redirected to completely inappropriate websites.
Google responded to Chris's concern about X in two sentences:
''I'm so sorry to hear about your brother-in-law, Chris. I'm talking about it with the team.''
In summary
For the question regarding query deletion and replacement, Google defended itself well. This suggests that this allegation is due to the accuser's misunderstanding of how search results work.
On the other hand, in Google's response on the second concern, it is understood that the search engine faces challenges in handling fake obituaries, which impacts search results and user experience.
This issue raises concerns about misinformation and the need for improved algorithms to filter this type of content.
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