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# Search engine results are getting worse, research confirms
- URL: https://werd.io/search-engine-results-are-getting-worse-research-confirms/
- Published: 2024-01-18T02:47:29.000Z
- Updated: 2024-01-18T02:47:29.000Z
- Author: Ben Werdmuller
- Tags: NotableLinks, #Import 2025-06-13 09:20

"We can conclude that higher-ranked pages are on average more optimized, more monetized with affiliate marketing, and they show signs of lower text quality."

SEO as an industry has made search engines much worse to use. People are essentially spamming the web, which undermines the signals search engines are supposed to use to determine relevancy and quality. The result is junk - which, in turn, inspires more junk in order for pages to rank higher than the junk that already exists. And so and so on until you get a junky race to the junky bottom.

And generative AI will make it all even worse. [#Technology](https://werd.io/tag/Technology)

\[[Link](https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/google%5Fsearch%5Fresults%5Fspam/)\]