We’re all used to turning to Google at the drop of the hat for the slightest query, and 9 times out of 10, it’s Google that is actually completing our question for us. However, a new study by German researchers from the Center for Scalable Data Analytics, the University of Leipzig, and Bauhaus-University Weimar has found that this reliance may be unfounded.
The group found that a not-so-insignificant amount of Google searches yielded SEO product review spam as well as a perfect storm of low-quality content. The finding was the result of a study titled ‘Is Google Getting Worse?’, the product of a year-long survey of 7,392 product queries. These product queries ranged across a variety of internet browsers: Bing, Google, and DuckDuckGo.
The 7,392 search queries that were reviewed in the paper were a result of a tedious process of manually reviewing resulting queries in order to discard those that were either near-duplicates or queries with artefacts or poor wording. The search queries were gathered between the 26th of October, 2022, and the 19th of September, 2023, and focused on queries related to product reviews. The methodology used is of course the study’s limitations: the study focused its attention on search results related to product queries. The queries themselves took the form of ‘best X’: X of course, being a product category. These typically rely on affiliate marketing, which means that there are strong correlations between affiliate marketing links and search engine rankings.
The study is also limited to the experience of the English-speaking world: the study only looks at English-language responses (and queries). Criticising the Google search engine based solely on the study findings or finding the results of the research as universally applicable, therefore, is hardly justifiable. The study also looked at the responses of other search engines as a control measure. In this regard, the paper finds that despite claiming to use different sources for data, DuckDuckGo’s results bear a striking resemblance to those of Bing.
The study sheds useful light on the aspects of Google search results we should be wary of moving forward. For one, the study is not a complete denunciation of Google as a completely unviable internet browser. The researchers conducting the study found that there were clear improvements in the flaws noted during the period the data was being gathered. These improvements, however, require constant updates, both from Google’s end as well as the end-users’, and had only temporary effects. The researchers write: “Search engines do intervene and ranking updates, especially from Google, have a temporary positive effect, though search engines seem to lose the cat-and-mouse that is SEO spam.”
Google at least appears to be ahead in the updating game. The study also adds that Google has been downranking certain affiliate pages since the end of last August. Although the identity of the affiliate networks being downranked is not clear, we do know the networks the study specifically looked at: Ali Express, Amazon Associates, Awin, CJ, ClickBank, eBay, FlexOffers, Refersion, and ShareASale. We are yet to know for certain whether this is a permanent change or short-lived.
As of now, however, Google’s search engine results are more ‘spammy’ than not. Most of the search results that rank higher on the results page tend to be those that are more optimised according to SEO guidelines, monetised with affiliate marketing links, and show clear signs of lower text quality. Text quality is identified in the study by the following markers.
- Authentic review sites are identified by high-quality, comprehensive product tests and comparative reviews
- Magazines (and newspapers and other editorial webpages) feature product reviews and discussions as a “side hustle”
- Review content farms produce low-effort product ‘listicles’, buyers’ guides, and pseudo reviews in large quantities with editorial content ‘on the side’
- Review spam primarily appears to be AI-generated product listicles without any supporting editorial content
- Webshops such as amazon.com
- Social media features user-generated content
- Other websites, which include manufacturer websites and other web pages that do not fit into these categories
The overall trend in search result quality heads positively downward despite the updates. Overall, it appears as if Google’s search values are declining. As of now, there is also the omnipresent threat of AI adding to the mix. The study makes it a special point to warn of AI-generated spam further obfuscating search results. Generative AI is at present the number one threat in distinguishing between quality content and spam.
Google, however, is confident that they are keeping up with the never ending tug-o-war between good search results and spam. Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Google Search Liaison Dave Sullivan commented: “Search and content can move through cycles. You can have a rise in unhelpful content, and search systems evolve to deal with it. We’re in one of those cycles now. We went through one in 2011 (the ‘Panda’ days) and in 2003 (the ‘Florida’ days), and even before… Our systems, as always, will keep evolving to increase satisfaction with our results. We are and will continue to develop new systems and improvements to our existing ones.”
If it appears as if Google has hit rock bottom, it is safe to assume that it has. However, given the cyclical nature that Sullivan describes, it’s safe to assume that rock bottom is not somewhere it stays for long—or leaves for quite a while. Google Search is also the most prominent and most secure search engine with the best utility parameters. Google Search’s algorithmic functioning is also the single most sophisticated, commercially available product in the world. Although scientific research will prove time and time again the reality that Google is nowhere close to perfect, the fact that it will always be as close to it as is humanly—or algorithmically—possible will also always remain true.