Fact checks versus problematic content in search rankings: SEO effects and the question of Google’s content moderation

This study investigates the ranking of problematic content and fact-checks of that content in Google Web Search results, examining their competition. The analysis is based on over 825 URLs extracted from Google Search Engine results pages (SERP) using 50 thematic keywords derived from fact-checked content. It reports findings on both the rankings as well as the levels of SEO optimisation of problematic content and the fact-checks. Our investigation found that fact-checks enjoy greater visibility in Google Web Search compared to the articles they seek to correct, both in terms of frequency of appearance and their placement within the SERP rankings. Specifically, our study shows fact-checks rank higher than problematic content across five topical keywords groups, Covid-19, climate change, the war in Ukraine, U.S. liberals and U.S. elections, except in contested stories related to the war in Ukraine, where articles about U.S. bio-labs share equal prominence with their corresponding fact-checks. The findings imply Google moderation effects, as fact-checking content is more prominent given (nearly) equal levels of optimisation. It also implies that fact-checks are generally more prominent for audiences searching for problematic content, though both often appear in the same SERP. Navigational queries (e.g., searching for the name of a source and that content) reduce moderation effects.