A post in the r/SEO subreddit by Google’s Danny Sullivan that was meant to dispel a misinformed observation was apparently removed by a moderator with zero explanation and then it returned. This isn’t an isolated incident, posts by John Mueller have also been removed without explanation, giving a perception that the r/SEO moderation is biased against Google to the point of actual hostility.
This isn’t the first time that a Googler’s posts have been removed. It’s happened to John Mueller, too.
It was bad enough that the original post misrepresented what SearchLiaison had said but it was even worse that a moderator would remove a post by a Google representative that corrected the misinformation.
The question has to be asked, what value does the r/SEO subreddit have if it doesn’t allow Google representatives to respond to misinformation and to offer help?
Redditor Misinterprets Google
The original post was about one statement that was taken out of context of a much larger tweet by SearchLiaison.
The context that went over the Redditor’s head was that SearchLiaison was recommending that if publishers do things that they do it for their readers and not because they read somewhere that it’s good for ranking.
Here’s the context:
” You want to do things that make sense for your visitors, because what “shows Google” you have a great site is to be… a great site for your visitors not to add things you assume are just for Google.
Doing things you think are just for Google is falling behind what our ranking systems are trying to reward rather than being in front of them.”