Comments for Cartoon: Search Engine Pessimized

Cartoon: Search Engine Pessimized

2009-07-05T05:04:31Z

It's happening to more and more of the blogs I read: the personality, quirkiness and unique voice that once made them so appealing to me are fading. In their place, an SEO-driven uniformity that puts keyword placement ahead of pretty much everything.

That approach has been afflicting newspapers for some time, as clever headlines give way to the kind of blandness that only a machine could love (which is no coincidence, because machines are the target audience). And many pro bloggers who rely on AdSense for their revenue have been doing it for years.

]]> But now I'm starting to see it trickle into the blogging of friends and loved ones. I understand the desire to rank more highly in search engines, but as SEO goes mainstream, I can't help but feel we're losing something.

Maybe that's just me, great cartoon funny social media. What do you think?

More Noise to Signal

Comment from day-beds-and-cradies on 2009-08-09

2009-08-09T15:14:58Z

What's most intriguing is that often bloggers are using "preferred keywords" at the expense of more organic words that would actually better place a post.

Comment from Buvanesh on 2009-08-02

2009-08-03T06:06:25Z

The Cartoon is really good and the subject it holds is true...Very Funny!!!

Comment from Hiphop on 2009-07-26

2009-07-26T15:16:24Z

I think it makes sense to take some care with the title of your post, URL, and to add a few relevant keywords. Keywords can assist in site navigation... When they are relevant. I hate to see the sort of thing people have been doing with hashtags using Trending Topics on Twitter just to boost the ranking of their unrelated tweets. That sort of obfuscation should be condemned falan filan aynen

Comment from AzizBey on 2009-07-26

2009-07-26T15:15:02Z

Comment from buy gold in darkfall on 2009-07-22

2009-07-22T07:38:58Z

Funny but actually true.. if you know how to play around then you'll be fine.

Comment from Increase Website Traffic on 2009-07-13

2009-07-13T11:31:25Z

Nice Post!

The Internet provides great opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses, but doing business online presents unique challenges and requires new skills. Per my experience search engine optimization would be the best practice to improve your online business.

Comment from David Eaves on 2009-07-06

2009-07-06T20:00:50Z

Great piece Rob. I fear that as a friend who blogs, I now am curled up in a fetal position in front of my laptop, worried that I'm one of the people you are talking about.
Of course, I don't really understand SEO and so don't create blog titles with it in mind... but maybe I'm getting bland and boring anyways... (worst of both worlds!) :)

Comment from shopping cart quotes on 2009-07-06

2009-07-06T11:36:11Z

SEO is very impotant, but you need to balance it with attractive design and usability. too many websites go way OTT on text and keywords and forget about what their website looks like.

Comment from friendlinzh on 2009-07-06

2009-07-06T08:41:21Z

yea, seo is not the only thing

we need do content first

Comment from Ricky on 2009-07-05

2009-07-06T05:14:42Z

The cartoon sums it up beautifully and very funny..
It is good..

Comment from Taylor on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T19:48:14Z

This has been going on for a while. What's most intriguing is that often bloggers are using "preferred keywords" at the expense of more organic words that would actually better place a post.

Comment from fjpoblam on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T19:40:22Z

Happens in Twitter, too [as you no doubt well know] with hash-tag-itis

Comment from Chris on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T19:11:43Z

Serach engines are great tools. Personally i hope that there will be more competition in the future. And the right keywords in real live are sometimes really important, especially when talking with womans.

Comment from Ani Lopez on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T17:50:28Z

funny but as any other thing in life, basically there are two ways to make use of something: the right and the wrong one. SEO is not an exception.

what is the point to gain organic traffic (good SEO) if your bounce rate is high (bad content)? None, people is no stupid

Comment from Ray Gulick on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T16:00:37Z

There's a saying about how to live a quality life: "you gotta dance like nobody's watching." I think in order to have great posts, "you gotta blog like nobody's searching." Unfortunately, if your blog is going to be read, you need to use keywords intelligently. To be, or not to be...

Comment from Brent on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T15:13:55Z

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2009-07-05T14:38:44Z

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Comment from ITrush on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T13:40:47Z

Funny but actually true.. if you know how to play around then you'll be fine.

Comment from Adam Green on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T13:04:50Z

We live in Google's mind. We think like Google. Praise Google!

Comment from Sparxoo on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T13:02:37Z

As bloggers and news outlets have a more difficult time driving traffic to their sites, they increasingly look to keywords as the answer. Unfortunately, keywords have knocked the creativity out of headlines and content, but it is all in an effort to stay competitive. These are the days where search is king and everything else comes second. Maybe there will be a day when search will interpret creativity and keywords will be a secondary concern...

-Ethan

Comment from andytonywoo on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T12:34:04Z

A funny picture, could I used in my blog? I will write the author.

Comment from Susan C on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T11:52:15Z

At last, the voice of reason!

I've decided to go back to the printed page, rather than spend any more time masking my creativity behind key word optimisation. I can write quite naturally with a 2 - 4% density of sensible keywords, but when someone asks for interesting articles on a range of holiday destinations, with a 15% insertion of the phrases "Cheap Flights To ..." and "... Cheap Flights" One of the destinations was Rio de Janeiro - which had to be typed out in full each time. I mean, sheesh!

Not surprisingly, the articles were turned down by the editor. Not surprisingly, I turned down the opportunity to do a rewrite, suggesting they get a robot to do the "I'm SEO - Fly Me" project instead.

Comment from choubb on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T10:18:07Z

good cartoon. SEO is good , but not the only thing.

Comment from ChikaBebe on 2009-07-05

2009-07-05T08:15:52Z

The cartoon looks nice and your idea too..

Comment from Michael Gall on 2009-07-04

2009-07-05T05:41:32Z

Where do you draw the line? I regularly write SEO optimised titles and headings for my blog posts, but don't worry about them at all in the copy. I like to think this doesn't affect my personal style too much.

Comment from Brandon Mendelson on 2009-07-04

2009-07-05T05:28:42Z

The cartoon sums it up beautifully. Nice find. Sadly, as long as people are out to make money, there are going to be those giving them bad advice and profiting off of it. This will fade, the audience will catch on to the same BS we have with SEO, but not fast enough.