How do you even measure GEO, sometimes I try searching for my app and sometimes claude recommends my competitor that has 10x less reviews and is objectively worse saying is the most popular.
Because Google search isn't a hypertext document, it's a web app that presents dynamic ephemeral content to the user. There's no need for stable hyperlinks, since either you will click them within a few seconds, or they will disappear forever, and it shouldn't be a problem to indirect via Google when clicking them, since you just made a request to Google to get the link in the first place.
We do GEO now and it's not to make the robot link to us, it's to manipulate what the robot thinks.
How do you even measure GEO, sometimes I try searching for my app and sometimes claude recommends my competitor that has 10x less reviews and is objectively worse saying is the most popular.
To measure it, you could ask it 100 times and see how many times it returns each answer.
Wait, so what about the keywords in my meta tags?
but you can click the link and reveal the information. what is being hidden? from who?
Like the OP says, it's being hidden form scrapers. Like you I don't see a reason for normal users to be concerned.
Unless I want to see what the link is before clicking. Or copy the link.
Or navigate to the link without waiting for however long it takes for Google's redirect endpoint to respond.
Google seems to be swimming in hypocrisy, as they develop and use scrapers.
PS: I do not understand why people keep using Google search, the results turned biased and mediocre.
Why are you defending the ruination of one of the basic principles of hypertext?
Why are Google apologists flagging my other comments?
Because Google search isn't a hypertext document, it's a web app that presents dynamic ephemeral content to the user. There's no need for stable hyperlinks, since either you will click them within a few seconds, or they will disappear forever, and it shouldn't be a problem to indirect via Google when clicking them, since you just made a request to Google to get the link in the first place.
Ask the grifters and bots. If you don’t adapt get ready to get bulldozed.