I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Nature of the Problem: SEO vs Google

  • Some argue this is fundamentally an SEO issue: the fake .net site got high-authority backlinks and first-mover advantage, so it ranks.
  • Others insist it’s primarily a Google failure: the real GitHub repo clearly links the official site, yet Google still surfaces an impostor domain near the top.
  • Observations: Google seems to strongly weight domain age, TLD reputation (.net over .dev), vague “authority” signals, and early coverage; results can take weeks to rebalance.

Behavior of Search Engines and AIs

  • Multiple search engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Qwant, Kagi, Startpage) often rank the fake .net above the real .dev, usually below or near the GitHub repo.
  • A few independents (Mojeek, sometimes Yandex) perform better, surfacing the .dev and excluding the fake.
  • A DuckDuckGo representative in the thread claims they quickly adjusted their results once notified.
  • Several LLM-based tools tend to find and link the real site via GitHub, though some also repeat fakes or hallucinate “official” status.

Mitigation Strategies for the Project

  • Suggestions include:
    • Use Google Search Console, submit sitemaps.
    • Add structured data (Organization, SoftwareApplication, sameAs links) to help search engines understand the entity graph.
    • Contact publications and sites linking to the fake domain and request corrections to the official site.
    • Link to the website (not just GitHub) wherever the project is mentioned.
    • Consider trademarks and UDRP/abuse complaints to registrars, hosts, and CDNs.
    • Register key TLDs (.com/.net) early and create at least a minimal website from day one.

Copycats, Abuse, and Risk

  • Multiple copycat domains (including variants collecting emails or pointing to forks) are reported, with concerns about future bait-and-switch to malware or malicious repos.
  • Commenters note that cloning OSS projects and their websites is now trivial with AI tools, enabling low-cost scam or rebranding operations.

Broader Critiques: Search, SEO, and Open Source

  • Many see modern web search as degraded: dominated by spam, content farms, ad-aligned results, and “blessed” big platforms.
  • Some view SEO work here as necessary but ultimately busywork imposed by broken search economics.
  • Others frame this as a predictable cost of open source and permissive licensing, and advocate stronger licenses, trademarks, or even not open-sourcing if reputation anxiety is high.