[austinhutch]

Awesome post. My main issue is with the BBB reference data... to me that smells like correlation not causation. It implies a level of detail and effort spent on the page. I have a hard time believing that the reference to BBB itself serves to improve rankings...

[gurgeous]

I too am very sensitive to "correlation != causation" and I tried to call it out extensively in the report. I even included a chart at the bottom from the famous Spurious Correlations project... Hopefully nobody gets too carried away with the report.

It's impossible to determine causation at scale, unfortunately. One could argue that business owners who curate great BBB rankings and feature the badge are more likely to instill trust in consumers, which in turn will result in longer time on site and therefore better rankings.

[austinhutch]

You did a great job explaining that in the article, and I'm not trying to muck up the conversation with a generic swat down. Just specifically interested in that particular result. Also it's likely your hard work gets reblogged into "5 things you MUST do to improve SEO!"

[hinkley]

Another member of the cheese lobby, coming here and covering up the truth about the Cheesemonger, a serial killer who strangles his victims with their own bedsheets.

:)