Is Google Making Life Harder For Aggregators?
-
Theres been a bunch of updates recently which have hurt aggregators:
-
Reducing the number of search results to 7 for branded search queries
-
The DMCA update which penalises those with trademark related takedown requests against them.
-
At least 2 'domain diversity' updates, the most recent last week, which seeks to reduce the ability of sites to dominate SERPS e.g. a site which may have 2 search results on page 1 now may have 1.
Plus Its commonly believed that Google favours big brands over smaller brands e.g. Marriott over examplehotelaggregator.com.
Is this a deliberate ploy against aggregators in favour of brands i.e. does Google believe a brand site is a better search result than an aggregator?
A brand site returned above an aggregator for a branded term may be seen by Google as a better fit, a better search result that should be higher. But is that true? Consumers like to see unbiased reviews and lowest prices and that isnt always available at the brand site.
Thoughts please.
-
-
If Google tried to avoid aggregators & removed 2 domain results from serps, so what will be in the results then?
-
For something a long those lines Google mixes in shopping results to try and bring the best results. But for a hotel kind of search I would much rather get the hotel itself.
-
- Reducing the number of search results to 7 for branded search queries
If a searcher typs in a branded query then there is a higher probability that his is looking for the brand and not Joe Aggregator.
- The DMCA update which penalises those with trademark related takedown requests against them.
This is good. Yes!!
- At least 2 'domain diversity' updates, the most recent last week, which seeks to reduce the ability of sites to dominate SERPS e.g. a site which may have 2 search results on page 1 now may have 1.
Enjoy this. This is actually working against the big brand.
Plus Its commonly believed that Google favours big brands over smaller brands e.g. Marriott over examplehotelaggregator.com.
Sure... most people want something trusted. They know Marriott. I you want examplehotelaggregator.com to rank then work on your brand.
Is this a deliberate ploy against aggregators in favour of brands
Only the aggregators are thinking that it is. The brands are not thinking that way and the average searcher is not thinking that way.
does Google believe a brand site is a better search result than an aggregator?
Yes.
-
This. The aggregator's big win could be fulfilling their role in the form of a media publisher and community hub, serving as a nexus for honest and objective opinions. Aggregators are a form of retailer except that the customer purchase is information exchange. When they abandon this opportunity and instead supply subjective info that doesn't put the consumer first, well, this is what makes the organic results such a polluted mess.
-
"When you do a search would you rather get the official companies or a site with a news feed or aggregation ran by a 3rd party source?"
- As I say in many cases the branded site isnt going to be your first port of call. E.g. Who buys their Wilson tennis racket from Wilson.com when you can get the same product may times cheaper elsewhere (random example, im not picking on Wilson!) and with honest reviews e.g. 'the strings on this racket are poor'?
-
I would say so. Google has been taking a lot of actions to bring back better quality results. When you do a search would you rather get the official companies or a site with a news feed or aggregation ran by a 3rd party source?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Tag Manager
What are some of the best resources with learning and teaching other GTM and conversion tracking?
Industry News | | WebMarkets1 -
The "Fetch As Google" limit has been decreased - what now?
Since Google decreased the "Fetch As Google" limit to ten pages per day, we've been a bit stuck. We're publishing 20-30 content pages per day, targeting a huge range of search queries. Circa 40% of our traffic comes to us through these pages. Since we're now heavily restricted on submitting these to Google, who's got other ideas to get the pages picked up quickly? I'm slightly concerned because although the pages link outwards to other areas of the website, no other areas of the site link to these pages. They're purely top-of-the-funnel. We can't be the only people with this concern. How would you address it?
Industry News | | MSGroup1 -
Did Google Search Just Get Crazy Local?
Hey All, I think it's a known fact at this point that when signed into a personal Google account while doing a search, the results are very oriented around keywords and phrases you have already searched for, as well as your account's perceived location; for instance when I wanted to check one of my own web properties in SE listings I would sign out or it would likely appear first as a false reading. Today I noticed something very interesting: even when not signed in, Google's listings were giving precedence to locality. It was to a very extreme degree, as in when searching for "web design," a firm a mile away ranked higher than one 1.5 miles away and such. It would seem that the algos having this high a level of location sensitivity and preference would actually be a boon for the little guys, which is, I assume why it was implemented. However, it brings up a couple of interesting questions for me. 1. How is this going to affect Moz (or any SE ranking platform, for that matter) reports? I assume that Google pulls locations from IP Addresses, therefore would it not simply pull the local results most relevant for the Moz server(s) IP? 2. What can one do to rise above this aggressive level of location based search? I mean, my site (which has a DA of 37 and a PA of 48) appears above sites like webdesign.org (DA of 82, PA of 85). Not that I'm complaining at the moment, but I could see this being a fairly big deal for larger firms looking to rank on a national level. What gives? I'd love to get some opinions from the community here if anyone else has noticed this...
Industry News | | G2W1 -
Google Keyword Tool Showing Conflicting Data
Google Adwords Keyword Tool is showing different data for the same keywords. Broad Match Local Search Volume is 2400 apiece logged in from my main account. Local Search Volume 3600 and 1900 logged in from a different account. Can anybody explain this? I have screenshot of both.
Industry News | | Choice0 -
Why Does OSE (Open Site Explorer) have such little backlink data on russian sites in the google.ru index?
OK this seems v strange, but google.ru are indexing far more BLs in their SERPS for a widget than OSE reports. Very little data is found in OSE for russian based sites. Is this the marketing intention? (I could send raw data if needed!) What is filtering this vast google.ru data list out? Is OSE only catered for US/UK?
Industry News | | Turkey0 -
Google Product Feeds - New Requirements
We are in the jewelry industry, and for Google product feeds, we list our products under "Apparel & Accessories > Jewelry". As of the new Google feed requirements, they are saying that we have to choose a gender and color for each product that is in the Apparel category. While this makes sense for clothes, it doesn't exactly for jewelry because many items are for both men and women, and there's not always a color associated with each product. I can enter some of these fields manually, but with 5,000+ products, it makes it difficult w/ each update. Anyone have solutions for this? Or a way around it? Can we just include those fields but leave them blank? Any other solutions?
Industry News | | applesofgold1 -
Is it Google's new interface for search result?
Hi, While searching on Google, i came across a new search result page without underlines in the titles of search snippets. Is Google experimenting with something new or there is some problem in my browser. I checked it in Firefox but at the same time when i checked it on IE, normal page was visible. Regards photostream
Industry News | | IM_Learner0 -
Yahoo and Bing Search Factors Compared with Google
I have started my research to list all the factors Yahoo or Bing giving more importance compared with Google. This bible if successfully prepared will help everybody. Can anybody help me resources specific on the topic, that can help me?
Industry News | | WebMarketingSolutions0