Feeding on Content

There are lots of people out there peddling the concept of social media and search engine optimization. Before you say, 'WTF?' believe me, I don't think they're connected either. Except in one small way -- it takes fresh content to be found by, and indexed by, the search engines.

One trick to keep fresh content on your website is to grab a feed from another website (you can grab all the content from this blog by going to bissellator.conquent.com/feed for example). The problem with that is you end up with just a copy of someone else's content, so the search engine sees no value in your site.

Which leads to the next trick where you grab content from a number of sources with a query. An herein lies the problem -- it's not your content, so you don't really know what the other guy is writing about.

My long standing search string example is the client I had back in 1999 who wanted to show up on search engines under the word 'card.' Of course 'card' can refer to playing cards, computer parts, the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, greeting cards, visa/mastercard/bloomingdales charge cards…

It doesn't really matter what you're searching for, if you automate it, you're going to get some 'unanticipated results.' And as people become more sophisticated, they notice the irregularities more, and deduct points.

Remember, the point of any communication is to deliver relevant information. Throwing shit on the wall might get you a Jackson Pollock masterpiece, but only if you're Jackson Pollock. Most of the time you just get a big mess to clean up.