• Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
      4·
      7 months ago

      I think Lemmy does set the canonical URLs correctly, always linking to the origin instance as canonical so it should see it as multiple ways to get to the same content.

      Ultimately Google should figure it out if done correctly. But the problem remains that the userbase is tiny compared to Reddit, and mostly focused on the same relatively niche topics in the first place so it’s just not gonna rank very high unless you search for Linux stuff.

        • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
          4·
          7 months ago

          Lemmy has little links (like these: ) that connect every comment and post to their source in a user-friendly method. That makes a comment thread look similar to a link farm. Lemmy isn’t alone in this, other Fediverse tools do the same.

          Yeah, and that’s what the canonical tags address: “hey I’m just a copy, my original location is Y”. It’s properly attributing the source of the data and should make search engines not mark it as duplicate content as a result. There’s also tags to mark links as nofollow for indexing that should help with not looking like link farms either.

          That should also mean only local content will count as content so that brings its own set of problems where small instances will never rank along the bigger ones.

    • luxyr42@lemmy.dormedas.comEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      Does that still get registered that way if identical links/posts are cross posted instead of duplicated?

      I regularly see duplicate rather than cross post, which is a shame.

    • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
      3·
      7 months ago

      It does set the canonical URL tags however which should help Google know those are equivalent URLs and to not flag it as duplicate.

      But that also means instances have to rank on their own content, none of the fediverse mirrored ones so it’ll seriously limit how much the fediverse as a whole can compete with Reddit which have all the content at the same place.

  • survivalmachine@beehaw.org
    8·
    7 months ago

    Infiltrate a search engine and develop fediverse-aware indexing that boost fedi pages in search results based on engagement and reach.

  • Bob Smith@sopuli.xyz
    8·
    7 months ago

    Realistically? For mainstream search? In anything like the top-level results that most people bother to read?

    Nowadays, you need to pay Google more than the SEO companies do. Either that, or hope that people specifically search for lemmy posts as part of their search request.