2010 Marks the Beginning of the End for Quality Content

Blog Tips Blogging SEO Social Media Writing

The BIG NEWS for 2010 is Google is dumbing-down it’s algorithms to accomodate the idle chit-chat of Social Media. Google is ringing in the New Year with a PageRank shakeup that will be earth-shaking. A new trend is unfolding that will give Social Network accounts like Twitter and Facebook a better Page Rank than Blogs! 

Last evening I wrote on Twitter:

With Google’s new PageRank shakeup it is shifting focus away from the Blogs to Social Network Accounts … Shifting the focus from Blogs to Social Networks will mean Google is giving better PR to a corporate website instead of our own domain … If Google gives more PageRank cred to Social Networks than to blogs, does that mark the beginning of the end for good content and ownership? .. Source

It came to my attention last evening that Twitter accounts are now getting better PR than their Blog counterparts. Sure enough I checked around and every Twitter account that I found had a better PageRank than it’s blog.

Holy Crap! They gotta be kidding. This is amazing news especially considering that some of these blogs have been around for a very long time. A lot longer than Twitter for sure.

As someone pointed out Google is giving away more PR for frequently updated content, hence 140 character messages are now edging out serious blog writing which admittedly has been on the decline.

But in so doing Google will be giving more street cred to idle chit-chat than to serious content writing on the Blogs … and in this blogger’s opinion that is just plain WRONG.

Another component that Google apparently gives weight to is the so-called influence factor. What disturbs me about this approach is we’ve all seen how easy it is to cheat and game the system with thousands of fake Twitter followers just like the blogs did bolstering their alleged newsfeed subscribership.

Or how they successfully plagiarize other people’s work without linking and somehow get away with it. Just ask the marketers who are very adept at playing this game.

More than ever now the Internet Is Rigged.

What could happen is this .. you could write a blog post and then tweet the title, and the tweet would theoretically get a better page rank than your blog post.

Huh!

The bottom line is if this trend continues Google will be giving better PageRank to so-called “content” only because it is frequently updated, or how it arbitrarily interprets “influence” regardless of the quality, originality or effort put into it.

Why is that?

Because Google knows it can make lots of revenue regurgitating LIVE crap than policing originality or quality articles. Apparently there is more money enabling cheaters with a BS celebrity system than there is with ethics.

Google knows what keeps people coming back is fresh content, and you can’t get more fresher than a constant stream of 140 character messages LIVE .. can you.

The Google Business Model:

Fresh content + ads + a constant flow of readers = $$$

So what does it mean for all of us? No longer will owning our own blog with our own URL and quality content be an advantage. Intelligently written articles will now play second fiddle to short 140 character messages.

Just chat away on a social network website. Yak, yak, yak. The only problem is THEY own the content and are getting the real PR. You are just an account holder … a little blip on the radar.

Google is lowering the bar by following the Social Networking trend instead of preserving a higher standard for quality content .. and that in my opinion is shameful.

Once renowned for its intuitive search for quality content, Google seems to be taking a turn for the worse dumbing-down its algorithms to give more street cred to the idle chit-chat of the masses.

Like, um ..  so what’s the point in spending hours on a blog post when I can just, um .. well, you know ..

I sincerely hope this isn’t a permanent trend because it will be a sad day for us content lovers and serious bloggers. Is it any wonder I haven’t blogged lately. Google can just pull the plug whenever it wants and all of our hard work disappear into the ethosphere.

Thanks GOOG. So now you know.

Even if this is just a glitch the handwriting is on the wall don’t you think? Here’s another sobering thought .. maybe I just wasted my time writing this post.

Happy New Year!

P.s.: If you think I sound a little pissed … you’re probably right. But enough of me talking, I want to know what you think…