Data Confirms Google Is Wiping Out A Whole Category Of Websites

Last month, we reported that Google may have just killed a whole category of websites – lyrics sites. New data shows that search visibility for some of these sites has indeed drastically decline...
Data Confirms Google Is Wiping Out A Whole Category Of Websites
Written by Chris Crum
  • Last month, we reported that Google may have just killed a whole category of websites – lyrics sites. New data shows that search visibility for some of these sites has indeed drastically declined. While it’s interesting enough for this particular niche, it also highlights how Google is capable of basically wiping out an entire niche by adding one type of direct answer to its search results. That, of course, is something it’s doing more and more of as time goes on, and it’s bound to hurt third-party websites as it does.

    Are you worried that Google is squeezing out too many third-party websites in favor of its own content? Let us know in the comments.

    While Google doesn’t display lyrics in search results for every song, or even for every type of lyric query, it does so for many basic queries. Last month, we used “goodbye horses lyrics” as an example. Search for that, and Google displays the following:

    As we also noted at the time, Google displays a link to Google Play at the bottom of the box, which would seem to give those complaining about any “anti-competitive” practices Google may engage in something new to complain about. Clicking the link takes you to a Google Play page that hosts the lyrics, and lets you purchase the song from Google. Some queries will even cut off the lyrics and send you to the Google Play page before you can even read them all:

    There’s no way this wasn’t going to hurt lyrics sites. Now SearchMetrics has put out lists of the top winners and losers of 2014 in terms of search visibility (hat tip to Search Engine Land). The “falling stars” list is littered with lyrics sites.

    eLyrics.net saw a 92% drop. LyricsMode and Sing365 each fell 60%. LyricsFreak dropped 59%. MetroLyrics dropped 12%. Last.fm, which links to MetroLyrics for song lyrics saw a decline of 18%.

    Take a look at the full list:

    Domain Loss in % Category
    guardian.co.uk -100 *Redirected
    mayoclinic.com -97 *Redirected
    elyrics.net -92 Enc/Dict/Lyrics
    patch.com -72 Web Portal
    lyricsmode.com -60 Enc/Dict/Lyrics
    sing365.com -60 Enc/Dict/Lyrics
    lyricsfreak.com -59 Enc/Dict/Lyrics
    tvtropes.org -59 News/Video
    discovery.com -59 News/Video
    starpulse.com -57 News/Video
    thefreedictionary.com -54 Enc/Dict/Lyrics
    topix.com -49 Social/Portal
    thesaurus.com -48 Enc/Dict/Lyrics
    nndb.com -45 Info
    netflix.com -45 News/Video
    myspace.com -40 Social/Portal
    aol.com -39 Internet/Computer/Tech
    flickr.com -39 Social/Portal
    chicagotribune.com -37 News/Video
    nbcnews.com -36 News/Video
    funnyordie.com -35 Social/Portal
    answers.com -35 Q&A/Expert
    examiner.com -35 News/Video
    alexa.com -34 Info
    simplyrecipes.com -32 Social/Portal
    tumblr.com -31 Social/Portal
    ask.com -30 Internet/Computer/Tech
    askmen.com -28 Blog
    indeed.com -27 Classif
    zap2it.com -27 News/Video
    zazzle.com -27 Retail
    expedia.com -27 Travel
    moviefone.com -26 News/Video
    blogspot.com -26 Blog
    foxnews.com -24 News/Video
    dailymotion.com -23 News/Video
    photobucket.com -23 Social/Portal
    toptenreviews.com -22 Price/Classif
    wikitravel.org -22 Travel
    food.com -21 Cooking
    msn.com -21 News/Video
    howstuffworks.com -21 Q&A/Expert
    mashable.com -21 Blog
    enchantedlearning.com -21 Q&A/Expert
    cbsnews.com -21 News/Video
    usatoday.com -20 News/Video
    latimes.com -20 News/Video
    nba.com -18 Info
    last.fm -18 Social/Portal
    rapgenius.com -17 *Redirected
    gethuman.com -16 Info
    crunchbase.com -16 Info
    nydailynews.com -15 News/Video
    nytimes.com -15 News/Video
    city-data.com -14 Adress
    cnn.com -13 News/Video
    huffingtonpost.com -13 News/Video
    nationalgeographic.com -12 News/Video
    whitepages.com -12 Adress
    metrolyrics.com -12 Enc/Dict/Lyrics
    medicalnewstoday.com -11 Med
    retailmenot.com -11 Price/Classif
    perezhilton.com -10 Blog

    RapGenius saw a decline of negative 17%, though there’s a little more to that story. As SearchMetrics notes, it now redirects to Genius, so that can account for a drop in visibility on that domain.

    At the tail end of 2013, Rap Genius was penalized by Google, but the penalty was quickly lifted early last year. The company has since expanded its business model into annotations of content beyond lyrics. In fact, they’ve already been in the news this week with ambitions of annotating the web.

    SearchMetrics shows the visibility picture for RapGenius.com and Genius.com with the re-direct occurring in mid-July.

    Genius and Rap Genius
    Lyrics are still a substantial part of the site, and it’s worth noting that Genius.com’s visibility has been shaky with a noticeable downward trend at the end of the year. SearchMetrics compares this to MayoClinic, which re-directed from a .com to a .org, and had a lot better luck:

    mayo clinic search visibility
    Suffice it to say, the picture is a bit bleak for lyrics sites. Granted, we don’t know how much of the drop-off in visibility for these sites is a direct result of Google’s showing lyrics in its search results (though I’d guess a significant amount). Lyrics sites have often appeared on loser lists from SearchMetrics in connection with various iterations of the Panda update.

    Another thing worth noting is that one lyrics site actually appears on the winners list this time. AZLyrics managed to post a gain of 24% Perhaps this is a result of declines from competitors.

    Bing shows lyrics on its search results pages too, but doesn’t appear to do so for all the same songs Google does.

    Are the search engines going too far with the amount of information they’re showing directly on results pages? Let us know what you think.

    Images via Google, SearchMetrics

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