Useless content filling the Web

[bluedragon]

Here's something I don't understand: there are so many topics on which, if you do a google search for a specific issue, you find nothing but crap.
For example, I researched for 4 hours now hot to make a simple 3-column css layout and kept running into useless pages. I finally found one that really taught me how to do it.
I researched for 1 hour how to make the background of my header fit its div, cause I'm gonna use a fluid layout. I finally ended up figuring it out myself, cause none of the pages I found on google actually were about that.
My problem is with websites content in general.
Is there no way for someone who creates useful advice on the internet, rank higher than everybody who creates deceiving webpages just to promote god knows what? I thought Search Engines were able to detect off-page criteria. For example, if 99% of visitors who run into a website, exit 2 seconds later because they realize it isn't what they were looking for, doesn't that site's rank go down? How come pages full of crap are able to rank in top-5 google results?

[TheIronStar]

Because search engines can be gamed; note that taking such action is considered a basic business practice by many who have economic interest in a web site.

As for the relative usefulness of the various web sites out there, it could very well be that a user's personal utility function regarding any set of web sites could be Pareto-esque.

[Eric Roosevelt]

If a website has a high search engine ranking it usually just means that the webmaster is good at promoting his website. You shouldn't necessarily be clicking on the top five results. Sometimes it takes a bit of patience to find the best websites.

[Byron]

You're right! This is the result of darkworkers putting out inferior content just in order to gain traffic and money.

It's the equivalent of spam.

It's unfortunate that much of the content on the web is of low quality.


Remember back in the day, when the web was the new thing, and everything on it was by the ahead of the curve?


The web is now in the 'mass' phase, and includes the content generated by predators and snakes whose aim is to capitalize on the format.



In the future, there will definitely more categorization, in order to keep the clean content from the commercial, and the search systems will be updated to accommodate better distinction in quality of content.

[ragtag]

I googled "css 3 column layout how to" and found an okay page on 3 column css layout. Viewing the source code of other pages can also be handy, although for big pages it can get pretty complex to understand what's gonig on.

When doing web coding I tend to have a few pages I use instead of google. The w3c pages for css and html (e.g. CSS Tutorial ) and php.net for php. Some of it might not be so easy for a beginner to grasp, but all the documentation you need should be there.

Yes there is lots of useless info on the web, but it's not really that hard to wade through or simply ignore. When it comes to coding it can also be hard to find stuff that's right for your level. While a beginner might need an entire article to explain something, a more advanced user might understand it from reading just a few lines. For the advanced user the article would be a waste of time, while for the beginner a short one paragraph explanation wouldn't make sense.

[bluedragon]

I could make a page that would help both beginners and advanced - or send each one to another appropriate page But I'm not writing about css. I finally found a model I could just adapt, but others either didn't work, or pointed me to others to get the complete picture, or said they worked but only if you don't need a certain something etc I consider myself a very fast learner in terms of computer staff, and I still wasted 3 hours trying to make a 3 column template like the one currently on my site. anyway

[Eric Roosevelt]

Originally Posted by Byron

In the future, there will definitely more categorization, in order to keep the clean content from the commercial, and the search systems will be updated to accommodate better distinction in quality of content.

I sure hope so. However, we should perhaps give the search engines a bit of credit. After all, I can find some things faster on the internet than I can find things on my own hard drive. But again, I think there is some work to be done, and I agree that things will probably improve as the internet continues to grow. They have to improve.

[Brutha]

For example, if 99% of visitors who run into a website, exit 2 seconds later because they realize it isn't what they were looking for, doesn't that site's rank go down?

Google doesn't know how long people stay on a website. A lot of privacy advocates would call them evil if they tried to track things like that via Google Chrome or the Google Search toolbar.

Another aspect is that Googling is a skill that takes time to learn. Adding additional keywords and removing certain keywords can help you to filter out the right pages.

[Daffy Duck]

I did a Google search for "3 column css site" and these were my top three results:

1. CSS Templates, Free CSS Website Templates, SSI-Developer.net

2. Max Design - Sample CSS Page Layouts

3. The Perfect 3 Column Liquid Layout: No CSS hacks. SEO friendly. iPhone compatible.

All of them seem helpful to me. What terms did you try? Brutha is correct -- Googling is a skill, actually.

[bluedragon]

Not if you're trying to create a 3-column liquid layout like mine, with fixed width left and right columns and liquid header and footer.
What happened is - many seemed helpful to me too, until I learned and applied one of them and got myself a 3-column layout where all the text crossed over from one column to the other. I thought I was wrong, and the simply copied the css from the example given and made a .css file, and realized that even for them, text simply was not contained within the columns. In other words, it was useless. I finally found one that worked, and all it took to apply it was 4 minutes. That - is what I call useful. The other pages were not able, in 4 hours, to convey to me what they were about and what they served for - they looked like the real deal, but they weren't it. Try other tricky google searches, and you'll see. I encountered situations like this many times before.

Originally Posted by Brutha

Google doesn't know how long people stay on a website. A lot of privacy advocates would call them evil if they tried to track things like that via Google Chrome or the Google Search toolbar.

strange, because this is one of the key points the SBI action guide makes - that you need to have good quality content, otherwise visitors leave you site quickly, and "Google sees that!". They value content the most, because they "understand" that Off-Page Criteria (visitor behavior) is more important even than on-page criteria (SEO tweaking - the excessive kind). I'm not saying the SBI team couldn't be wrong.

[LordSappington]

Getting a 3 column liquid layout that is cross-browser is sort of the holy grail of CSS. It's really, really hard to do. It's damn near impossible to do cleanly if you want to support Internet Explorer. So you were trying to find something that probably doesn't exist. I suspect the one you found would probably break down if you tried anything fancy inside of it. I once spent hours trying to find one that worked and wasn't one giant hack. I never did. I personally blame Microsoft for their horrible CSS implementation, not the overzealous web designers who work this type of thing out. By the way: A List Apart is by far the best CSS resources there is on the web.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by bluedragon

Not if you're trying to create a 3-column liquid layout like mine, with fixed width left and right columns and liquid header and footer.

Ah, I see. Maybe it was one of those problems that is too specific. I have to do a lot of Googling with my job and I run into that issue sometimes. But sometimes we get lucky!

[RT Wolf]

Yea, maybe it's just a really hard problem.

But beyond that, you can help! Google just introduced those buttons next to each search link. I think they're only available when you're logged in with a g account. You can use those search links to X out the links that were useless and to promote the links that were helpful. There's also a link at the bottom of google search pages sayin somin like "didn't find what you were looking for? Help us do better!" or somin.

As I understand it, google also uses cross linking to figure out what's better. You could add a link to the site which finally gave you the right answer everywhere, such as in this thread or on your own site.

Stop complaining, do something about it.

[bluedragon]

Bud I didn't know HOW to do something about it. Now I know

I'm glad that I've found a holy grail? It seems to be working pretty well.

[Jeperry]

Hi,

Excellent and full with information thread.

Specially that to Daffy Duck for your links.

Links are very useful to create a Css based normal site.

Thanks
Jeperry

[Patricia]

One of the factors that affects how a page/website ranks on Google is how many other websites link to it. This is a way to measure the popularity/relevance of each website on each given topic and, supposedly, usefulness of its content, given the keyword(s) being searched.

The page rank (PR)of the website where the link originates from also plays a factor. What this means is: if a website that is already considered relevant (has a high PR) links to another, this link has more weight than a link originating from a low PR website.

Still, it is true that knowing how to run an optimal Google seach makes a lot of difference.

[MartialDev]

Originally Posted by Byron

You're right! This is the result of darkworkers putting out inferior content just in order to gain traffic and money.

Perhaps it was the result of lightworkers, who were so anxious to spread their limited knowledge and "benefit the common good", they had no time to actually create something useful?

[bluedragon]

Hey, I found the Holy Grail!
It's here... The Perfect 3 Column Liquid Layout: No CSS hacks. SEO friendly. iPhone compatible.
See, the problem with my layout was that I needed to insert the contents of my left and right columns before the center column. That messed up my SEO, at least according to SBI, because the article keyword couldn't be in the first 90 characters of the html /body.
This solves the problem now.
I take everything I said back

Perhaps it was the result of lightworkers, who were so anxious to spread their limited knowledge and "benefit the common good", they had no time to actually create something useful?

Yes, that's exactly what happened

[magi13]

Originally Posted by bluedragon

Here's something I don't understand: there are so many topics on which, if you do a google search for a specific issue, you find nothing but crap.
For example, I researched for 4 hours now hot to make a simple 3-column css layout and kept running into useless pages. I finally found one that really taught me how to do it.
I researched for 1 hour how to make the background of my header fit its div, cause I'm gonna use a fluid layout. I finally ended up figuring it out myself, cause none of the pages I found on google actually were about that.
My problem is with websites content in general.
Is there no way for someone who creates useful advice on the internet, rank higher than everybody who creates deceiving webpages just to promote god knows what? I thought Search Engines were able to detect off-page criteria. For example, if 99% of visitors who run into a website, exit 2 seconds later because they realize it isn't what they were looking for, doesn't that site's rank go down? How come pages full of crap are able to rank in top-5 google results?

^^, you just have to know the right key words to use. ^^,
You also have to understand that it is just a program with limitations.

This is a funny topic.

[Daffy Duck]

Which could take seconds, minutes, days, weeks, or even years.

[Asmoday]

Originally Posted by Byron

You're right! This is the result of darkworkers putting out inferior content just in order to gain traffic and money.

It's the equivalent of spam.

It's unfortunate that much of the content on the web is of low quality.


Remember back in the day, when the web was the new thing, and everything on it was by the ahead of the curve?


The web is now in the 'mass' phase, and includes the content generated by predators and snakes whose aim is to capitalize on the format.



In the future, there will definitely more categorization, in order to keep the clean content from the commercial, and the search systems will be updated to accommodate better distinction in quality of content.

Why is it if some jackwad decides to spam the web they MUST be a Darkworker? Could it be possible that they're just an average joe writing drivel and making sure we see it? Thanks. After all, I am not spamming the web, and I am trying to make quality content -- even if you may disagree with my view. And, its not like Lightworkers aren't loading up the web with their fair share of useless crappola. Fortunately, the website is down, but here's some quotes to provide an example, ahem:

REVIEW: planetaryascension.net

[elsasq]

Yea....
Some internet marketers write crappy articles to send traffic to their main sites. I admit, sometimes I do that kind of stuff, but I always try to provide quality contents in my own expertise But hey, doesn't it mean that everyone should learn SEO?

[magi13]

^^, conspiracy or no conspiracy, using the right keywords you'll get the right results when using any or all search engines.

>,< patience, I guess I'm the only one here who never has problems with sweet old search engines.