Hacker News Reader

SEO is ads Google is failing to monetize.

That said, the reason the Reddit trick works is that it uses information Google explicitly excludes when ranking content (engagement signals).

Google has a bunch of “objective standards” that it uses to paternalistically shape what the web looks like. Many of these are divorced from what users actually want for pieces of content (https, AMP, a life story in front of recipes to demonstrate authorship, etc).

View on HN

As explained in another comment [0], the real reason the Reddit trick works is that Reddit content is hand-curated by humans who are dedicated and passionate (and, I think, also work for free). It's a garden in the jungle.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30349460

I think our statements overlap. “Reddit moderators have better standards.” Is something I’d definitely agree with.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com