Do Google donations to Wikimedia show any bias in search results?
-
Over the weekend we learned Google co-founder Sergey Brin donated $500,000 to Wikimedia, the parent company of Wikipedia.com.
Last year I believe Google donated $2 million to Wikimedia. I now ask, is this suspicious in anyway, seeing that Wikipedia ranks so well in Google for so many terms?
There are several blog posts about it online here and there throughout the years, but what does everyone think?
-
Most of the places where I am defeated by wikipedia are places where they deserve the top rankings. A few places they don't deserve it for the PAGE but they do deserve it because of the authority of their WEBSITE.
In my opinion, donations to wikipedia are paying a HUGE bandwidth bill and the administrative expenses required to run one of the busiest sites on the web.
If wikipedia is beating you then you must earn the position above them.
-
Google values good content and contribution from Wikipedia to users. It hardly to get crappy content on Wikipedia. So ranking matter is not relevant to donation.
-
Question is more like does Google's donations to Wikimedia imply they have some kind of relationship? Perhaps preferential treatment? Google seems to be very interested in keeping Wikipedia.com live. Wondering if that same concern transfers over to the algorithm in any way.
-
I highly doubt that there's any benefit in SERPs by donating money. However, if the site were to list the websites (in a link or otherwise) that have donated money it might give you a tiny, tiny, tiny boost. Doubtful.
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
-
Meta Descriptions - Google ignores what we have
Hi I still write meta descriptions to help with CTR. I am currently looking at a page where the CTR needs improving. I check the meta on Google SERPs & it isn't pulling through the meta description we have - but other info on the page. This isn't ideal - why does this happen? Will Google just make the decision and are descriptions not worth writing?
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
QA for Sitelinks Search Box
hi all, I have added the suggested code to my homepage as follows: This was added 10 days ago. I continue to see on Google SERPs a search box sitelink, but it produces a page of results on a secondary SERP page for my site instead of bringing people directly into my site to the search result page relative to their query. Is there a time lag from the time the code was implemented to when it is functional on Google? Is there any way to QA the code to ensure it works correctly and if Google has yet to include it in their latest cache?
Algorithm Updates | | dsinger0 -
Are internal search meta keywords necessary?
One of my duties is to improve internal search results. From my reading, good site architecture and content is the way to achieve that. However, for example, are internal meta keywords necessary? I know they haven't mattered externally for a long time, but somebody in my department mentioned wanting this functionality in our CMS. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything.
Algorithm Updates | | SSFCU0 -
Best practice for cleaning up multiple Google Places listings and multiple Google accounts when logins were lost.
We are an inbound marketing agency, most of our clients are not relying on local seo. I have a pretty good understanding of it when starting fresh but not so much in joining a "movie in progress" kind of scenario. Recently we've brought on two clients who have had their websites in place for awhile, have made small attempts at marketing themselves online over the years and its resulted in multiple Google places listings, variations of the company names (one of them changed their name), worried there are yet more accounts out there they aren't aware of, etc (analytics, and others from well intentioned employees and past service providers - no internal leadership at the company level). In reading Google help forums I'm seeing some recently having their accounts suspended when they try to clean things up - in one case a person setup a new Google account thinking he would start fresh and in trying to claim listings, get rid of duplicates, etc. his account was suspended. What is the CURRENT recommended course of action in situations like these? With all the changes going on with Google, I don't know which route to take and have combed the Internet reading articles about this (including Google's resources) - would like some current real world advise.
Algorithm Updates | | rhgraves651 -
Drop in Traffic from Google, However no change in the rankings
I have seen a 20% drop in traffic from google last week (After April 29th). However when I try to analyze the rank of the keywords in the google results that send me traffic they seem to be the same. Today (6th March) Traffic has fallen further again with not much/any visible change in the rankings. Any ideas on what the reason for this could be? I have not made any changes to the website recently.
Algorithm Updates | | raghavkapur0 -
Does Search Volume Directly Effect Organic Search Result Rankings?
For example, if 20,000 people searched for "seomoz toasters," do you think a page on seomoz.org that mentioned toasters would begin to rank well for the query "toasters"?
Algorithm Updates | | tatermarketing0 -
Google places - are you still registering your companies?
Is Google plus taking over from Google Places? I have our company and website registered on Google places and Google Plus. Now we have a new website ( same company different product) Should I register a new listing on Google places? And what about Google Plus?
Algorithm Updates | | Realtor1010 -
Are you getting any action from Google +1 ?
If you have added google plus one to your website you can check on the impact by visiting your webmaster tools account. In your GWT account you will see a left menu item for "+1 Metrics". If you click on "Search Impact" you can see the CTR change attributed to +1. Anybody seeing anything there yet?
Algorithm Updates | | EGOL0