A HIVE post only makes money in its first seven days. As I recall, the re-indexing cycle for the googlebot is longer than seven days.
Since HIVE authors do not directly benefit from Google searches, I see no reason for HIVE authors to get bent out of shape over the SEO issue.
Web designers have been trained to consider SEO as they construct site. Google assigns every web page a miniscule amount of PR. The googlebot analyzes the links on billions of pages and then uses those pages to determine the position of a file in the search engines.
NOTE Hive adds the directive rel="nofollow noopener". This directive tells the search engine that the link might be spam and to ignore the link in page rank calculations. The noopener directive is a security measure to prevent cross-site scripting attacks.
HIVE adds a canonical directive in the header of each page. The canonical directive tells Google which interface to set as the primary interface for a post. I will be using #proofofbrain for this post. If you view the source of this page, you should see a tag with the attribute cannonical=proofofbrain.io
That canonical link tells googlebot where to direct an SEO benefit of the post.
Now lets get to the meat of this post. An author only receives a reward in the first seven days of a post. In most cases, HIVE authors have little concern about the traffic the post receives outside this time frame.
Now, lets imagine a person is creating content that the author wants to market beyond the confines of HIVE. In such cases, the the author will be deeply concerned with the SEO of the post.
It would make sense to publish the piece on HIVE; However, the author would be wise to republish the content on another web site. The author could put links from the HIVE post to the site designated to be the official destination for the site.
Imagine writing a book on Hive. The author could upload each chapter with a link to the official book site. The author would re-upload the chapter to the official site when the payout period is through.
Unfortunately, since HIVE marks the HIVE post as canonical and puts the "nofollow" directive on all outbound links; Google will perceive the official site for the book as spam.
I often take pictures for posts. I would prefer to establish my photoserver as the canonical source for the images I take.
For example, I started taking the photo set below of Westminster Campus in Salt Lake City. I discovered a sign saying the campus was closed and left. It is not a great photo set, but I would like to establish my set as the official source for this second rate content.
I put a link from each photo to my site. HIVE marks the HIVE post its photo servers as the canonical source. It marks my site as a potential spam site. My site claims to be canonical as well. Since the photo on my site has a higher resolution, Googlebot will probably rule in my favor.
Web sites battle over who is perceived as canonical.
Republishing a Post
As I understand, the authors of posts on HIVE retain their copyright. There is nothing wrong with republishing old HIVE and SteemIt.
In the current set up, I think that the best way to republish a post would be to replace the current HIVE post with a link to the new location.
The creators of HIVE actively encouraged users to replace their old SteemIt posts with liks to HIVE.
Replacing the old post with a link to the new post will resolve any canonical issues.
I don't like doing this because the HIVE blockchain is a trusted archival source.
I think a better way to handle the canonical issue would be for HIVE to give users full control over the canonical link. If an author decided to republish a piece of content, the author could set the canonical link to the new content. Allowing a content creator to set the canonical link to their site does not really hurt HIVE.
HIVE authors tend to have many links back to HIVE. Improving the PR of the author's web site improves the PR of HIVE.
HIVE's SEO Challenge
I probably should have said this at the start of the post. HIVE's biggest SEO challenge is that the site has a huge number of posts marked as canonical and not many links going to these posts. The way to improve the SEO of HIVE would be to reduce the number of pages marked as canonical.
Many posts are simple updates and don't have much PR value in and of themselves. I often write posts which I don't think have long term value. For example, I might write a post to recount my steps for the week.
Since the page simply has an update, I might prefer to set the canonical link to my root account.
A better way to explain this might be to look at an example. @arcange publishes daily statistics. The current post has the canonical URL: https://hive.blog/hive-133987/@arcange/hive-statistics-20210503-en .
This page will be of little interest in a week when the new report has better data.
HIVE would benefit if the canonical url for @arcange's statistics pointed to his account page: https://hive.blog/@arcange . Possibly the canonical URL could point to the Hive Statistics .
As it stands right now, Googlebot would read @arcange's statistic reports as repeated content.
Giving us better control over the canonical link would allow users to concentrate PR on the better parts of the platform.
Now for the Pictures
On Sunday I decided to take an evening walk through Westminster University in Salt Lake City. I snapped a few photos before coming across a sign that said the campus was closed due to COVID19. I then skiddaddleed. My short walk a simple circle around Converse Hall. This was the first building on campus. It was constructed in 1906. It was named after the inventor of the sneaker. There might have been another Converse.
This is the sign that made me flee. I apologize to any student who died because I broke the hermetic seal around the campus.
This is Converse Hall built in 1906:
This is the student union building viewed from Converse Hall:
This is the front of Converse Hall:
You have laid down some wonderful suggestions which I feel is really very important....@yintercept
Thanks for the compliment. I felt that the post was rambling. I'll try a quick summary.
The seven day voting window means that Hive content creators do not benefit directly from SEO.
If the users aren't directly benefiting from standard SEO models, then how should HIVE approach to SEO?
Instead of creating an SEO model that directs PR to dead posts. Perhaps HIVE should create a dynamic model that allows users to direct PR to the destination of their choice.
The current system has a problem. If user creates a new post that updates information on an old post, they currently need to remove the content from the old post and replace it with a link to the new post.
A better solution would be to allow the user to add link that directs readers to the new post.
It was a sign, not a cop.
If you are ok with surrendering your freedom that easily, I hope you don't intend to take me along.
I've pushed back the whole time.
At one time they taught us how wrong all this is, now, not so much.
I guess it is a bit much to ask one's homicidal ruling class to give their victims the info they need to escape the dystopia.
I can point you to it, but I can't read it for you.
I can't help with the google optimizations, neither, I use ddg, and startpage.
Westminster is a private school; So, I was on private property.
I might be old school, but I have a deep respect for property rights. If a private property owner has a sign restricting access; then I will usually obey the restriction.
It is their property.
Anyway this school pays its bills by selling education to students. It is likely that they felt that this restriction was necessary to protect their business. I have no problem with business owners who do what they think they have to do to protect their business.
I would've agreed with you up to the point I read this book.
After not so much.
I think they might have a hard time enforcing it in court.
Trespass laws would be used.
Which is a long convoluted other conversation.
You, have to do what you do, of course.
To summarize. One could say that the purpose of rel="canonical" is to concentrate Page Rank on to certain pages. Instead of trying to set up each page as a canonical source, the system might let users set their own canonical source.
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