When all this search engine 'things' came about websites were indexed organically.
Then websites started to optimize for what Google actually parsed. Meta tags, no things behind JavaScript, semantic markup etc. And that worked really well. Stuff was easy to find.
Those were the best days. There was some luring, but at least if you were looking for something technical you found it (provided it existed and was indexed).
This is no longer the case. Give you an example:
Any search term for Windows+Error+KB<number> is a nuclear wasteland of companies having copy-paste pages only to sell you their services at the end. Lately the same has been popping up on YouTube.
Any search for an issue with formatting a harddrive lists 20 pages which sell formatting tools.
A search for checking whether a certain animal is dangerous yields wildly inaccurate results just to sell me pest control. Spoiler: it was a Jerusalem Bug. You don't get a fever at all. The thing just has huge mouthparts, and that can physically hurt.
When you put "(recommended)" in your title because you know it's then displayed verbatim in Google is nasty.
All driven by these websites which 'recommend' things to you.
Then websites started to optimize for what Google actually parsed. Meta tags, no things behind JavaScript, semantic markup etc. And that worked really well. Stuff was easy to find.
Those were the best days. There was some luring, but at least if you were looking for something technical you found it (provided it existed and was indexed).
This is no longer the case. Give you an example:
Any search term for Windows+Error+KB<number> is a nuclear wasteland of companies having copy-paste pages only to sell you their services at the end. Lately the same has been popping up on YouTube.
Any search for an issue with formatting a harddrive lists 20 pages which sell formatting tools.
A search for checking whether a certain animal is dangerous yields wildly inaccurate results just to sell me pest control. Spoiler: it was a Jerusalem Bug. You don't get a fever at all. The thing just has huge mouthparts, and that can physically hurt.
When you put "(recommended)" in your title because you know it's then displayed verbatim in Google is nasty.
All driven by these websites which 'recommend' things to you.