4 ms·

I wouldn't be doing headline tweaks or SEO stuff; that stuff is trash. I'd be doing the stuff that matters end-to-end: the writing, the research (getting on the

I wouldn't be doing headline tweaks or SEO stuff; that stuff is trash. I'd be doing the stuff that matters end-to-end: the writing, the research (getting on the phone with the company and diving into what is "HN-worthy"), even creating the page/website if they don't have one (easier for me to do everything myself). If the quality is poor, it won't get to the first page of HN. Thankfully, I (or anyone) can't "game" the system with SEO/headline tricks. The name of the game is helping people/companies unearth valuable content/knowledge to share and letting the people upvote/downvote. My value-add would be having an eye for what is more likely to be valuable (and upvoted) vs. not, and how to share that value through writing/copywriting.

PaulHoule 3y ago
What you are talking about is the high end of SEO or SMO. I’d say the companies that play this game the best are the ones that blog consistently about a technical topic, I’d say Pinecone is a good example. You can’t say that one post is going to get consistent results but if you are posting 50 blog posts that’s something different. At that point it is not just getting on HN you are going to be happy to get hits on other platforms too.
- for_i_in_range 3y ago
  > What you are talking about is the high end of SEO or SMO. I’d say the companies that play this game the best are the ones that blog consistently about a technical topic, I’d say Pinecone is a good example. Another example is Hubspot and Zapier. You search "Best SMS service" and you get a Zapier article: "The 7 best SMS apps for small businesses in 2023." These rank high, yes. But they're shyt content. I don't trust those articles, and it doesn't change my opinion of Zapier being insanely over-priced. > At that point it is not just getting on HN you are going to be happy to get hits on other platforms too. One of the secondary benefits of ranking high on HN is that Google directly factors that into their SERP rankings. Skyfi is now the #2 result on Google for "buy satellite photos"

PaulHoule 3y ago

What you are talking about is the high end of SEO or SMO. I’d say the companies that play this game the best are the ones that blog consistently about a technical topic, I’d say Pinecone is a good example. You can’t say that one post is going to get consistent results but if you are posting 50 blog posts that’s something different. At that point it is not just getting on HN you are going to be happy to get hits on other platforms too.

for_i_in_range 3y ago
> What you are talking about is the high end of SEO or SMO. I’d say the companies that play this game the best are the ones that blog consistently about a technical topic, I’d say Pinecone is a good example. Another example is Hubspot and Zapier. You search "Best SMS service" and you get a Zapier article: "The 7 best SMS apps for small businesses in 2023." These rank high, yes. But they're shyt content. I don't trust those articles, and it doesn't change my opinion of Zapier being insanely over-priced. > At that point it is not just getting on HN you are going to be happy to get hits on other platforms too. One of the secondary benefits of ranking high on HN is that Google directly factors that into their SERP rankings. Skyfi is now the #2 result on Google for "buy satellite photos"