SEO, Twitter and the Road to Hell
June 28, 2009 by Craig Stoltz
Why didn’t I see this one coming?
The moment Twitter content became searchable, the seeds of its ruination were planted, watered and topped with Miracle Gro.
This is due to the unbending truth of the First Law of CyberDynamics: That which is searchable will be optimized for said search.
Regrettable corollary 1: Optimized content becomes visible without regard to its quality.
Regrettable corollary 2: Unworthy content becomes the lowest-hanging fruit in the InfoOrchard, unwittingly gobbled up by hundreds of millions of undiscriminating users daily.
[Note: Ungainly botanical metaphor ends here.]
Which is to say: Add to the current list of lifeforce-draining Twitter phenomena–childish follower-hoarding, strategic lurkery, tactical “messaging” and [this is now literal] prostitution–the Tweet designed to show up high on Google [and presumably other Twitter search tool] search results.
I learned this recently after I read an article on Twitter SEO on the website Mashable. I Tweeted thusly:
And so it has come to this: Writing Tweets for SEO. Mommy, make it stop. http://bit.ly/adRQO
Within moments my e-mail box showed that two SEO profiles were now following me on Twitter.
Not because I had said anything insightful about the art of search engine optimization, mind you, but just because I’d used the word. The e-mails arrived too fast for them to reflect human cognition.
And so I Tweeted again:
Hoot! My last Tweet included the term “SEO” and I was immediately autofollowed by two SEO trolls. SEO SEO SEO Come on, guys, you wanna *go*?
And of course my e-mail box was quickly beetling with several new messages telling me that other SEO trolls had emerged from their funkholes to follow me.
It should come as no surprise that SEOers are sniffing for keywords in Tweets. As Twitter becomes a firmly established marketing tool, more companies are monitoring what’s being said there about their products, people and clients. And participating so their wares and ideas will reach the public.
Disclosure: I know this because, among my many professional services is…helping people use Twitter to monitor what’s being said about their products, people and clients. And participating so their wares and ideas will reach the public. Ahem.
It is a common early adopter vanity to declare that what was once pure and authentic has been wrecked by the know-nothing vulgarian masses and their money-grubbing exploiters.
I’ve always tried resisted this facile snobbery. I remember the knuckleheads who whined that the Mosaic browser ruined everything because it made the Internet accessible to people who hadn’t paid their dues with ftp, Gopher and a soldering iron.
When I began writing this entry about 40 minutes ago, I sent out this Tweet:
I need cheap dietary supplements, online gambling and low-cost life insurance [Note: This Tweet is autofollow-bait to expose perpetrators]
[...] Continued here: SEO, Twitter and the Road to Hell | Web2.0h…Really? [...]
[...] SEO, Twitter and the Road to Hell | Web2.0h…Really? SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “SEO, Twitter and the Road to Hell | Web2.0h…Really?”, url: [...]
Finding my way on SEO…
So what? You haven’t made a point about why this is bad. So people follow you, and DB’s across the world will use twitter for their own inane marketing desires. The core use of twitter is a conversation among a self-selected community. no matter who is following you, the way you experience twitter is through the people you are following. Unless you count @ replies, but you have to seek out @ replies that aren’t from those you follow.
[...] post: SEO, Twitter and the Road to Hell | Web2.0h…Really? Comments [...]
Craig, you refer to a technique you call “human cognition.” Interesting concept. Think there’s a market in it?
Valerie–
My fear is that people will begin to construct their Tweets to be discovered on search rather than as content to share in a genuine way with others.
A lot of blogs have become like this, and that content tends to crowd out the often better stuff whose authors don’t play the SEO game. I’m afraid Twitter will be the same.
Many people have built their follower lists not based on who they want to connect with in an authentic way, but on who they want to promote themselves to as experts, authorities or some such. Many, I suspect, are just imperfect humans seeking validation of their worth in a sad and very public way.
[Wow, how's that for ill-informed pop-psych condescension! Wonder what I'm seeking validation of?]
And now I’m afraid these folks Tweets will now get just as tactical, as deformed by their marketing and drive to be recognized as their follower lists. Some “conversation.”
Eric–
I’m sure there’s a demand in the marketplace for human cognition. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone has been able to figure out how to monetize it.
Thanks Craig. What you’re describing, though, is Twitter being used, well, incorrectly. If you follow 1,403 people there’s no way you can really use Twitter in any practical or useful sense. So it just becomes spam. People who tweet to be discovered or to sell will be ignored like spam. I say the people who rush to the Twitter echo chamber and follow for the sake of gaining followers, who don’t produce interesting or valuable content, deserve one another.
Any social network is going to be a target for marketers, both high and low quality, looking for new opportunities. If not with their search capabilities, with random following, bots, or something else. As annoying as it may be, I still think Twitter is a pretty valuable networking tool.
Valerie, Dina–Thanks for the thoughts. Together they make a great summary: The fools can be isolated and ignored; and the marketers won’t wreck everything.
I plan to revisit this entry in one year and see whether it was prescient or paranoid. Or pedestrian. I have some of all three in my portfolio.
Craig
[...] Stoltz blogged about a similar and amusing situation in his blog “Web2.Oh…really?” that occurred when he Tweeted about SEO and [...]
I’d love to see a follow up post. I’m very interested in where the social networks will be a year ago. There are so many of them, but only a few have had staying power.
I’m going to put this on my calendar so I don’t forget to write the post.
I will hold a press conference about it in Second Life.
I’m intrigued by your thoughts on SEO and information becoming degraded by its findability, but don’t understand the distinction between people who want to connect in an authentic way on the one hand, and others seeking validation of their worth on the other. To my mind, most of the traffic on web2.0 is of the latter kind. After all, when we bloggers spend hours trolling the net desperately looking for something to say, the need to inform is not what motivates us…surely we’re performing a social task first and conveying information second.
Petter–That is a brilliant and insightful comment, and dead-right.
I feel chastened. Thanks much for this.