Social media become a powerful channel of distribution for publishers as search engines tune up
IF YOU FOLLOW the evolution of the web, you might have noticed the proliferation of websites that focus on publishing trending content. Their business model is based on keeping a close eye on what queries are popular with search engines and capturing this shifting traffic. However, as Google and others update their algorithms to filter out poor-quality search-optimized real estate on the web, the latest generation of content providers turn to social media and social search as a more powerful driver of visits.
Enter search engines and searchable content
The model based on popular search queries has led to the emergence of the so-called content farms with Demand Media and Associated Content, two startups, quickly dominating the landscape. Attracting heavy traffic with its stories taking advantage of the search engine algorithms, they quickly grew into media empires. It was easier for them to generate profits because they relied on an army of freelancers rather than full-time reporters to do the legwork. Sites like eHow.com could use relatively simple web design to feature keyword-studded text or video content.
But as Google and others started taking notice, the pressure on tweaking search algorithms to stop rewarding keyword-heavy trending content led them to introduce modifications. Readers started paying attention to questionable quality too and many turned to reputable publications that offer higher standards of reporting, fact-checking and writing. Now, barely five or so years after its inception, the model adopted by Demand Media, Associated Content and others is at the point of exhausting itself.
Enter social media and shareable content
But you'd be wrong assuming that content farms are getting idle. Many are switching focus to social media that seem to offer a traffic channel more adequate to today's online experience. People flock to social networks, from Facebook to Linked, in search of entertainment, news and meaningful interactions. Search engines place a growing importance on signals from social media websites in calculating their rankings for specific keywords. In its latest privacy policy update, Google openly admitted its intentions to integrate data from Google+, its social spinoff, into its users' web experience, including search.
Most importantly, though, social media are designed in a way that encourages people to share their interests and experiences online, which in itself can become a powerful marketing channel. You're extremely unlikely to resist visiting a website recommended or liked by your friend.
This is where the latest generation of content farms come into play, picking up every possible signal that there is social interest in a topic and that it's likely to get shared. Making it easier to share is a factor worth optimizing too. What follows is a high volume of social media driven visits that tend to be of higher quality and more sustainable than regular search.
Shareable content sites exploring hot topics like BuzzFeed or Wetpaint have yet to prove their appeal to readers but we might well be witnessing how social media are about to best search engines as a predictor of interest and distribution channels for publishers.
This blog entry was brought to you by NetroStar, a website development company.
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