So, today, (Thursday 18 Jan), HuffPost US announced it is closing its contributor platform. HuffPost say this is because, with the

“proliferation of social media and self-publishing platforms across the web, people have many more opportunities to share their thoughts and opinions online.

“At the same time, the quantity and volume of noise mean truly being heard is harder than ever. Those who are willing to shout the loudest often drown out new, more-deserving voices. The same has proven to be true on our own platform.”

 

I tweeted the news and then had a Twitter conversation with Chris Countey, US-based SEO Consultant, that I found really insightful (and depressing). Chris told me he was happy the platform was closing down, due to the relentless amount of sales tweets, LinkedIn messages and emails from HuffPost contributors trying to sell him HuffPost links.

Chris’ view was that Google probably caught on to what was going on and told HuffPost to stop the practice or risk the whole platform being blacklisted by Google.

Sure, this is all speculation. And SEO has always been about the commercial pursuit of backlinks through content. After all, I work in PR and so I know the true value of how content can boost SEO rankings. But what struck me as particularly dismal about this situation is the shoddiness and cheapness of what was being sold to Chris, and countless other SEO people like him.

Chris says:

“[This] happens in our industry all the time. People game the system and it works for a while. But what will those people tell their clients when it stops working and their sites lose visibility?”

It all just stinks a bit. Try to game the market and it sinks. Sub-prime mortgages led to a phenomenal worldwide financial crash. Email spam and poor marketing tactics by charities led to GDPR legislation. Gaming Google just leads to a new algorithm.

This HuffPost situation just goes to show that SEO and content marketing CANNOT be about gaming Google and finding short-cuts. It’s short-term thinking and only lasts until Google changes the rules.

SEO seems to be caught in a continuous boom and bust bubble.

FFS! Stop it.

Instead of gaming the system, just go back to basics and answer your audience’s questions. Create good quality stuff that people want to read, watch, listen to, engage with and share. It’s really not that difficult, but it takes work.