Post the AI results when you google: types of xenforo threads

[Digital Doctor]

Is this what you get ?

thanks. I am trying to determine how much targeting goes into these AI entrires.

 

[Digital Doctor]

a different computer

 

[Digital Doctor]

i was researching the thread types plus addon a few months ago.
I was wondering if that is why the AI results are so Themehouse heavy.

 

[ForumDevs]

From a new Google account without history:

From my personal account (which I've used to do a lot of XenForo research):

I was wondering if that is why the AI results are so Themehouse heavy.

I think it's because they have good PageRank and backlinks. For example Macrumors.com forum is using addons from them, they have a link at the bottom which is hidden though CSS but it's actually giving value to their site even when it is nofollow (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/nofollow-crawl-indexing-update/349994):

So, if you look for this copyright link you'll get many results:

 

[CedricV]

From a new Google account without history:

View attachment 325480


From my personal account (which I've used to do a lot of XenForo research):
View attachment 325481


I think it's because they have good PageRank and backlinks. For example Macrumors.com forum is using addons from them, they have a link at the bottom which is hidden though CSS but it's actually giving value to their site even when it is nofollow (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/nofollow-crawl-indexing-update/349994):
View attachment 325482
So, if you look for this copyright link you'll get many results:
View attachment 325483

Notice: nofollow.

 

[ForumDevs]

Notice: nofollow.

That's why I linked to the article:

I think it's not a coincidence Themehouse's addons are mentioned instead of any of the top resources: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/categories/xenforo-2.42/?order=rating_weighted

 

[CedricV]

That's why I linked to the article:
View attachment 325484
I think it's not a coincidence Themehouse's addons are mentioned instead of any of the top resources: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/categories/xenforo-2.42/?order=rating_weighted

Google usually doesn’t pass ranking value through a nofollow link - but it reserves the right to do so if it considers the link useful or editorial. A hidden CSS link wouldn’t be seen as useful, so I doubt it would really matter in that case.

Plus, your assumption about TH’s resources being top-rated doesn’t quite hold up - there are eight resources listed before you even see one from TH. What’s also worth noting is that TH has been building resources since the days when MyBB was still a viable option. Maybe not under the TH name, but definitely back when it was Audentio. Which is almost 2 decades ago.

Anyway, I’m getting off track. All I’m saying is that your reasoning for using nofollow doesn’t really make much sense.

 

[ForumDevs]

Plus, your assumption about TH’s resources being top-rated doesn’t quite hold up - there are eight resources listed before you even see one from TH.

No, it appears at the beginning

What still feels odd to me is that the AI keeps recommending an add-on that isn’t even listed in the official resource page so it must be pulling signals from other sources when it decides which links to surface (that’s why I wondered whether the nofollow links at the bottom might be influencing the recommendation)