Local Soccer
Make the KC Soccer Journal Your Preferred Source on Google
Are you not seeing our news come up for you as often as you once did? We’ve got a solution for your Google search results.
Click Here to Make the KC Soccer Journal a Preferred Source
Recently, Google has changed the way search results show up. Lots of AI summaries and changes to their search algorithm may have altered the information showing up for you when you do a search. Perhaps you are receiving results from unexpected sources.
As Wired.com put it last year:
“Google updated its algorithm. This is nothing new—Google updates its algorithms hundreds of times per year, with anywhere from two to four major “core updates” that result in significant changes. And while it’s tricky to determine exactly what changed, publishers and websites large and small noticed significant traffic drops and lower search rankings—even for content that had previously been doing well.”
The story on Wired goes on to say:
“When you search for something and you get a neat little summary of various reporting completed by journalists, you’re less likely to visit the websites that actually did the work. And, in some instances, that summary contains incorrect AI hallucinations or reporting from websites you might not trust as much. It’s hard to say whether the next core update will make your search results show what you expect.”
What is the Fix?
It’s called “Preferred Sources.”
If you like the work that we are doing at the KC Soccer Journal and want to see our results show up on Google, simply click this link and check the box next to KCSoccerJournal.com.
It’s also easy to add other websites you trust through that same link.
A Note About AI
If you hate those Google AI overviews (I’m biased, they steal our work and don’t give us credit), you can simply add “-ai” to the end of any search query.
There are more sophisticated solutions, but it’s a quick couple characters I’m in the habit of adding to the end of my searches.
Turning the page on the worst week ever
The xG-Elo Report: Montreal Jumps While Sporting KC Hits Historic Lows
Match Preview: KC Current at Washington Spirit
State of the Club: Sporting Kansas City
Juice Boxes and Post Game Stats: Loyo Reynaga Becomes SKCII’s Youngest Goal Scorer
What is an Ideal Lineup for Sporting Kansas City?
Sporting KC dismantled in Vancouver 3-0
Sporting KC Injury Updates, Ownership Responds and World Cup Transit
Match Preview: SKC Takes on Vancouver at BC Place
I’ve gone back to yahoo like it was 1998.
quick test search: “sporting KC diego borges”
1st result: skc site
2nd: mls site
3rd: kc star
4th: kc soccer journal
5th: borges wikipedia entry
doesn’t that sound reasonable?
4th!?!? We wanna be first!
No, that’s pretty dang reasonable.
Our traffic is just way down (maybe it’s the losing).
Probably a combination. There’s just not a lot of reasons for casuals to want to read about SKC lately (there’s always a lag for good news and progress to filter through, assuming the last few weeks ARE good news and progress). Ironically, in some ways it probably doesn’t help that other media keep lowering their coverage of the league (including MLS itself) because it just takes MLS off the radar entirely.
Plus, as you noted, AI is absolutely strip-mining visitors from normal web sites. I forget where I read this recently, but visits to things like tech sites have absolutely cratered because the AIs are just scraping the same information and republishing it. It’s like aggregator sites but on steroids.
I did NOT know that “-ai” trick. Thank you! I detest the AI “revolution” with every fiber of my being.