Replication Data for: One-Third of Pseudoscience Traffic Comes from Search: A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Analysis

This dataset is from the article titled “One-Third of Pseudoscience Traffic Comes from Search: A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Analysis.” The data is presented in a CSV table, and the columns are described as follows: url: The URL of the pseudoscience or pro-science website. label: See “Misinformation Domain List” by Lasser (2022). source: See “Misinformation Domain List” by Lasser (2022). accuracy: See “Misinformation Domain List” by Lasser (2022). transparency: See “Misinformation Domain List” by Lasser (2022). type: See “Misinformation Domain List” by Lasser (2022). traffic: Data on web traffic derived from the online platform Semrush*. direct: Traffic to a domain via URLs entered in a browser’s search bar, saved bookmarks or links from outside a browser (such as PDFs or Microsoft Word documents); Category description provided by Semrush. referral: Traffic to a domain from a hyperlink on another domain (as long as it is not a Social Media domain); Category description provided by Semrush. organic search: Traffic to a domain directly from organic results on a SERP from a search engine such as Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.; Category description provided by Semrush. paid search: Traffic to a domain driven by text, PLA, local, or any other kind of paid advertisement on a SERP from a search engine such as Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.; Category description provided by Semrush. organic social: Traffic to a domain from links on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.; Category description provided by Semrush. paid social: Traffic to a domain from paid advertisements on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.; Category description provided by Semrush. email: Traffic to a domain via email services such as Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud or domains with corporate email addresses.; Category description provided by Semrush. display ads: Traffic driven to a domain through a display or video ad supported by an advertising platform such as GDN or doubleclick.; Category description provided by Semrush. SEO effort score: Overall SEO effort score produced by the search engine optimization (SEO) classification tool mentioned in the paper. References: Lasser, J. (2022). GitHub—JanaLasser/misinformation_domains: Collection of domains that spread misinformation from various sources [Dataset]. GitHub. https://github.com/JanaLasser/misinformation_domains * https://www.semrush.com/