Domain-restrict semantic search or drown in SEO content

When using a neural/semantic search API to find first-person practitioner signals, unrestricted queries on commercially valuable keywords (ROI, adoption metrics, tool comparisons) return almost pure vendor content marketing — one such query returned 18 of 20 results from competing SaaS blogs. Job-listing queries were worse: most hits were scraper mirrors on free-hosting domains (patterns like *.zya.me, *.is-great.org, *.totalh.net, *.web1337.net) republishing real postings. Re-running the identical semantic query with includeDomains pinned to canonical sources (real ATS hosts such as greenhouse/ashby/lever, the specific social platform, known trade publications) flipped precision from roughly 20% to near 100% at identical cost per query. Decide the domain allowlist before the first call, not after reviewing junk results.