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The problem as I see it is the Google algorithm. It force content creators to write it in a certain way that in many cases might be way too long and not ’to th

The problem as I see it is the Google algorithm. It force content creators to write it in a certain way that in many cases might be way too long and not ’to the point’. I dont remember the last time I searched for something on Google and it showed me a high quality opinion article in a random blog. nowadays everything is around SEO and blogs, as much as I understand why google does that, I think it's the main reason for why blogs are not that popular anymore

rement 6y ago
I would argue Google also focuses on large corporations. I have a post on my blog that ranks really high (currently spot 3 for its keyword) in the bing/yahoo/ddg world but ranks after stack overflow, medium, reddit, youtube, etc. on google for the same keyword. (I did nothing to on this post for SEO it just organically showed up high on bing/yahoo/ddg) I should also mention I have no ads of any kind on my blog.
learc83 6y ago
>It force content creators to write it in a certain way that in many cases might be way too long and not ’to the point’. This is a huge problem and google definitely makes it worse, but this has always been a problem. From magazine writers who are paid by the word to technical books that are padded out to be 400 pages when they could have been 50.
GordonS 6y ago
Food blogs are the perfect example of this. Instead of an introduction and a recipe, you get a massive wall of text, such that you have to scroll for what seems like an eternity until you get to the actual recipe. Drives me nuts!
- volkk 6y ago
  everything honestly has become elongated garbage. youtube videos are the same. 20+ minutes of rambling for 2 minutes of quality because thats the only way youtubers actually make any money. the internet is still a much more efficient tool than reading a textbook to find some information, but its getting to the point that it might be more interesting to sift through a textbook to find the info I want because at least im sifting through useful/more or less accurate info, instead of just pure filler nonsense that exists on the web today
- tayo42 6y ago
  Recipes aren't good either. I noticed good sites like serious eats almost never come up. The same sites always come up, nytimes, all recipes, food.com. I guess search engines aren't the best place to get recipes, you need someone to vet and review them. Actually.. that might be an interesting thing to do heh
- XCSme 6y ago
  You might like this top post from yesterday then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23142220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23142220
passthejoe 6y ago
For a long, long time, I have blogged without worrying about SEO or Google or even traffic. I write what I want. I don't look at analytics, and for my self-hosted sites, I don't have any analytics to look at. Writing for SEO and trying to game Google is not interesting to me. There comes a point where the only think that keeps you going is the desire/compulsion to write.
mikevin 6y ago
I miss the days where Google would give me a relevant result with a minimal query, these days it's not helping me find what I'm looking for, it's 90% businesses trying to tell me something and low on content, high on SEO results. I guess this is how they do monetization but I often feel I'm unable to find content that must be out there.

rement 6y ago

I would argue Google also focuses on large corporations. I have a post on my blog that ranks really high (currently spot 3 for its keyword) in the bing/yahoo/ddg world but ranks after stack overflow, medium, reddit, youtube, etc. on google for the same keyword. (I did nothing to on this post for SEO it just organically showed up high on bing/yahoo/ddg) I should also mention I have no ads of any kind on my blog.

learc83 6y ago

>It force content creators to write it in a certain way that in many cases might be way too long and not ’to the point’. This is a huge problem and google definitely makes it worse, but this has always been a problem. From magazine writers who are paid by the word to technical books that are padded out to be 400 pages when they could have been 50.

GordonS 6y ago

Food blogs are the perfect example of this. Instead of an introduction and a recipe, you get a massive wall of text, such that you have to scroll for what seems like an eternity until you get to the actual recipe. Drives me nuts!

volkk 6y ago
everything honestly has become elongated garbage. youtube videos are the same. 20+ minutes of rambling for 2 minutes of quality because thats the only way youtubers actually make any money. the internet is still a much more efficient tool than reading a textbook to find some information, but its getting to the point that it might be more interesting to sift through a textbook to find the info I want because at least im sifting through useful/more or less accurate info, instead of just pure filler nonsense that exists on the web today
tayo42 6y ago
Recipes aren't good either. I noticed good sites like serious eats almost never come up. The same sites always come up, nytimes, all recipes, food.com. I guess search engines aren't the best place to get recipes, you need someone to vet and review them. Actually.. that might be an interesting thing to do heh
XCSme 6y ago
You might like this top post from yesterday then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23142220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23142220

passthejoe 6y ago

For a long, long time, I have blogged without worrying about SEO or Google or even traffic. I write what I want. I don't look at analytics, and for my self-hosted sites, I don't have any analytics to look at. Writing for SEO and trying to game Google is not interesting to me. There comes a point where the only think that keeps you going is the desire/compulsion to write.

mikevin 6y ago

I miss the days where Google would give me a relevant result with a minimal query, these days it's not helping me find what I'm looking for, it's 90% businesses trying to tell me something and low on content, high on SEO results. I guess this is how they do monetization but I often feel I'm unable to find content that must be out there.