Google Doesn't Love Me Anymore
BlogLab ::: eXperiment FAIL
What?
Search engines like google are powered by algorithms that have been refined to a point of near pseudo-self-awareness.
Earlier this year the title I gave to a particular post atracted search engines (and visitors) like flies: "Paris Hilton Sex Arab Britney Nude Charlie Sheen Photo Video Shakira Hot Free Hareega Bush Libya Man Men Girl Teen Obama Osama Sexxx XXX Nokia TV Bin" - it was done intentionally, experimentally, after I'd seen a similar headline on another blog. I tethered it to a post about traffic and my dear internet friends Windy and Lainy.
And it worked like a charm. I got 7X the usual daily traffic for nearly 4 days in a row before it trickled off.
Fast forward to THIS WEEK. I chanced upon an article all about tinkering with searches, search engines, social networks and SEO. Before proceeding, read "Experiments on Google+ and Twitter Influencing Search Rankings"
A very interesting article, yes?
Inspired by that article, I constructed a new post, entitled "Assist a Mom Euclidean Taeniasis of Galapagos Portly Domesticus Connochaetes mta Elizabeth Smart Shuttle Launch Rupert Murdoch Euclidean Perry Euxlis".
Now, based on what you've seen so far, you'd think my new post would be an SEO "Slam dunk". It was not. It attacted ZERO search engine-directed traffic!Here's my analysis:
New algorithms recently put into service are pouring through topics, headlines and keywoprds faster than mice through a sack of grain. By the time I published MY experimental post, the terms seomoz used in its experiment had decayed in importance and relevance to such degree as they no longer mattered.
The "curve of deterioration" was short for my first post, and my second, experimental post could best be compared to a horse race: there was a race on Tuesday, I entered my horse, but me and my horse didn't show up athe track until Thursday. We ran in record time! We beat everybody. But we missed the actual race, so "nothing counts."
MORAL: You're going to have to get up awfully early (or be extremely lucky) to impress the search engines!
Good Luck, and BLOG ON!
ANOTHER HEAD-SCRATCHER ::: I've seen a lot of 'contest posts' where blogs encourage bloggers (and others) to win a cash prize by essentially making the visitors jump thru hoops in competition for the prize. So, I decided to offer my own unique contest. I decided to give USD $100 away to one lucky player. But there's been no 'buzz' and ZERO search-engine traffic. And although the URL is high-ranked on one of the stat-widgets appearing in the right-hand column on this humble weblog, I haven't seen one single instance of anyone arriving on the blog from another URL to that particular post. Frankly, I'm PUZZLED!
