Web Surfers Rely on Search Engines
Web surfers -like yourself- have been
relying more and more upon search engines to find what they need. However,
the search engines are not even doing all that great of a job; so many
times surfers spend far longing trying to find what they need than they
should have to.
Why is this?
Well, the answer is two-fold:
1. Reliance on search engines has been
increasing because the "links" sections of websites contains
junk websites or is too cluttered to find any decent sites to surf to
2. Search engines are falling down on
the job because they rely on directories like DMOZ/ODP for their listings,
and these directories are heavily abused by cheaters
So, what happened?
For awhile, the Internet saw huge strides
being made in the search engine world as Google redefined how searches
should be made. Over time, Google has evolved it's core technology for
the better. However, it's heavy reliance on a corrupt directory like
DMOZ/ODP has begun to make Google's results look like those of the late
'90s.
Although it is likely to get great results
for non-competitive 2-4 word phrases, such as "steel wire bird
cages", we have seen that competitive phrases are now loaded with
junk sites that are cheating for their ranking. In 99.9% of all cases,
these sites are against Google guidelines; but because the DMOZ/ODP
editors are in control, they continue to rank well.
This is sad for the end-user because
web surfers are now being exposed to sites they somewhat "trust"
because they were found in the search engines, and yet, many of these
sites blatantly lie and/or have little to no real or unique content.
An example would be a search for "home
equity loans" or "california auto insurance". Nearly
every single site in the top 20 (or more) are using various forms of
cheating to achieve their top ranking. That wouldn't be so bad in our
opinion, IF the site was of some value. However, every one of those
cheating sites are what we consider absolute JUNK sites.
The eventual outcome?
In the beginning, people used search
engines as a first step to find sites. That was a good and natural step.
Over time, though, people use search engines for every step of their
time online. Here's an example:
- Surfer signs online looking for good
advice on health insurance
- Surfer goes to his/her favorite search
engine
- Surfer types in "health insurance"
and goes to the first site
- After a quick look, the surfer realizes
that the site has no content, nothing to help them, and simply wants
them to click on an affiliate link to get quotes so that the site owner
can make money
- So, the surfer backs up using their
back button, and goes back to the search engine
- Surfer types in something more specific
like "health insurance quotes"
- Surfer sees a few different sites,
but they are mostly the same junk sites as before
- Frustrated from not being able to
find any truly helpful information, surfer decides to read some articles
on one of the sites. After a few paragraphs, surfer realizes that this
information is completely bogus (or else believes it to their disadvantage!)
- So, our frustrated surfer looks at
a few sites for a link section to find related sites (this used to be
something you could expect to find)
- On most sites, our surfer is not able
to find the link section because it is mostly hidden or called something
like "Exchange Links With Us" --which is not something the
surfer wants to do, so he/she leaves and goes back to the search engine
- After a long while back at the search
engine trying different phrases, surfer finally finds a site with a
legitimate article on what he needed to know (this is if the surfer
is lucky)
That happens more often than not.
So, how do we fix it?
The mindset of web surfers has to change
to visit link sections on websites to help find quality sites, but for
now, the link sections of most sites royally suck.
So, first things first.
We started linktruth.com to teach webmasters
how to link to each other in a productive way to help surfers find what
they need. This process will take a long time to get rolling, so we
need all the help we can get.
We need everyone to get involved and
support this effort.
As a web surfer, we need you to join
our forums and participate by learning and giving input.
Together, we hope to effect a change
with webmasters of quality sites and get them linking in a way that
will help YOU -the end user. Take a look at how we envision web surfing.
Please take a moment to join our link
exchange forum and participate.
Sincerely,
The LinkTruth Team
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