There used to be a very depression realization many journalists came to one day.
The realization that they aren’t writing for readers, but writing to satisfy their editor.
But now there’s a new and even more depressing reality to hit.
You aren’t even writing for your editor anymore, you’re writing for Google’s search algorithm.
David Carr at the New York Times explores this in a piece, looking at the current trend of “keyword stuffing,” – putting names and words that people are more like to type into Google just for the sake of getting more page views.
In consultant circles, the practice is better known as “Search Engine Optimization.”
It works in many cases, but as Carr notes, we’ve lost some of the more creative ways of displaying headlines as well as the wit some of written with.
My hope is as sites like Twitter and Facebook are becoming more important distribution platforms, finding a more creative way to sum up the story will come back in fashion.
Yep. We sure are. Not to mention the keyword phrases, which are even worse.