The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Stupid Google Tricks

Posted on | February 13, 2011 | 23 Comments

“Being ranked in the top 5 for something on Google and being ranked 25th or 125th can be the difference between selling your crappy website to AOL for $315 million and going out of business.”
– James Joyner, Outside the Beltway

The fact that a major corporation like J.C. Penney was willing to pay money for Web geeks to make sure they were the top Google result for phrases like “grommet top curtains” ought to tell you how important the Internet has become to commerce. Reverse-engineering the Google algorithm is the sort of knowledge-is-power formula that any student of human nature might have predicted would swiftly be hijacked to serve selfish and/or malevolent purposes.

The whole point of “How to Get a Million Hits” was to demonstrate that blogging isn’t rocket science, and to share a few simple ideas from my Underpants Gnome Theory of how it works.

That’s why, as Rule 3, I recommended Memeorandum as a source for political blog fodder. (Which is where I found Joyner’s post.) Memeorandum is an exceptional tool if the question you’re trying to answer is, “What are other bloggers are blogging about?”

They’ve got an algorithm over there, and one of the ways you make it onto the Memeorandum aggregation is by acknowledging them as a source. Because their choices are determined by an algorithm, you’re not at the mercy of some human “decided” who might play favorites.

You can use Memeorandum as a guide to where the blog conversation is heading, and also to find other bloggers you might want to link and quote. A relatively small group of bloggers who are (a) all getting blog fodder from a common source, (b) frequently linking to each other, and (c) collectively directing a fair amount of traffic to Memeorandum, can thereby become a sort of “center of gravity” in the blogosphere.

Jimmie Bise once dubbed this concept The Million Hit Squad. It is sort of a “gaming the algorithm” trick, except that it isn’t a secret and is intended to produce a kind of win-win result: Memeorandum gets more traffic, and the bloggers who use The Rules get more linkage, because they are engaged in mutually aggregating each other’s commentary. If enough bloggers follow that method, it would also give conservative sites more weight in the Memeorandum algorithm which currently tends to show more Left-leaning blogs (and their pet topics), for reasons that need not be discussed here.

Of course, to succeed with that concept, you still have to bring some element of skill and knowledge to the ‘sphere, and be able to contribute new information to the conversation. Here I would recommend a simple idea: Use Google News searches to expand your aggregation.

For example, I used Google News to find this relevant New York Times story from last week:

[A]n art and science at which The Huffington Post excels [is] search engine optimization, or S.E.O. The term covers a wide range of behind-the-scenes tactics for getting search engine users to visit a Web site, like choosing story topics based on popular searches.
Because Google is many Internet users’ front door to the Web, S.E.O. has become an obsession for many Web publishers, and successful ones use the strategies to varying degrees. But as newspapers, magazines, blogs and online-only news sites increasingly compete for readers, they are making it more of a priority than ever and adopting new techniques, like trying to maximize pass-alongs on social networks.

That article offers a revealing insight into how people who are in the business of generating page-views — whose jobs are dependent on success in that endeavor — do what they do. Even if you’re a dinky new blogger nobody ever heard of, you can adapt such advanced methods to a small scale.

Note that I have now, in a single post, combined multiple elements:

  1. James Joyner’s quote.
  2. Link to the article Joyner was commenting on.
  3. Link to Memeorandum.
  4. Link to a related news article.
  5. My own original contributions to the conversation.

It’s the value-added concept of customer service, applied to New Media. And it’s not rocket science. You can become your own traffic-enhancement expert.


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Category: Blogging, How This Here Internet Thingy Works, How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog, Jimmie Bise Jr., Outside the Beltway, Rule 2, Rule 3

Comments

  • Joe

    The theory of this long predates the Internet (although your “million hits” protocol is still brilliant). It even predates things like payolla scandals in the fifties. Politics is always about getting buzz, getting noticed. Herman Cain is trying to plant a lot of seeds right now, hoping he can get something to grow.

    Ann Coulter is trying to stomp out Romney and Palin running for President. Okay, she has a point but I am still not quite sure why she promoted Chris Christie as the alternative to Mitt (and by inference Sarah). Any thoughts on that Stacy?

  • Icanseehimalayas

    Not all seeds are suitable for all soils and climates.

    When that’s not understood, the seeds strewn seem sterile and the ground barren.

    Herman Cain is trying to plant a lot of seeds right now, hoping he can get something to grow.

    I s’pose that either the ground needs some fertilizer or the seeds changed to suit.

    One or the other or both.

    I would reckon.

    Otherwise the seeds wont grow and the ground won’t flourish.

  • http://ak4mc.us/2c/2011/ McGehee

    What has you convinced Cain’s seeds aren’t growing?

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  • Joe

    McGehee, gg/Icanseehimalayas is too busy grooving to this techno beat to really know if Herman Cain is making headway or not.

    That sock you have on gg is starting to stink bad. Ask your mom to wash it (although you should know how to operate the washing machine by now).

  • Anonymous

    ” the ground won’t flourish.”
    That’s what is known as a “gigi-ism” which is defined as a word or phrase that contributes nothing to any known language or to communication between any known species or members of the same species .

  • Joe

    Even though it comes back like bathroom mildew, I love it when wombat crushes a gg post. It is just such a life affirming thing to do.

  • Anonymous

    I believe you are on to something. We or at least I tend to think of gigi as a “person” or more likely “multiple personalities”. Perhaps gigi isn’t a him/her but instead is an it like Plague or The Plague?

  • http://ak4mc.us/2c/2011/ McGehee

    Indeed. When stomped Zsi Zsi makes that little squeaking noise that always makes me laugh.

  • Me

    GOP Garden of Eden

    “Your seeds are biased big time.”
    “Your fertilizer stinks.”
    “Your ground won’t flourish, nevermore.”
    “Your gombeen green thumb’s jinxed.”

    What a horrible, useless garden!
    On one thing we agree –
    “YOUR happiness depends on this:
    Repeat. After. ME.”

    Ha! Folks, *I* know The Way to
    Ensure a bumper conservatish crop.
    And since this poem is MY poem,
    You can’t tell me to stop. :)

    We find ourselves some pot (not that kind)
    And find a big ol’ spoon
    And say a prayer to Indra’s Net
    By the light of Pharaoh’s, um, Moon.

    We all hold hands (or pixels)
    And jump in, All as One.
    And happily we mix all
    In equal-liberative fun.

    Indra and Isis add spices,
    Tenzin and Benedict, too;
    Quetzalcoatl plays sitar –
    By Zeus, what a brew!

    The fragrant mixture soon is done;
    Hephaestus douses the fire.
    But these are no dampened spirits
    Emerging from the pyre.

    Christie’s now practices Shinto;
    Palin says, “Don’t think, just feel.”
    And stringent atheist Obama
    Gives phrenologist Arianna a wink.

    Huckabee’s now a Druid Priest
    Who blesses Born-agian Newt.
    Paul’s the zillionth Buddha;
    Herman blows up Planet Romney.

    Evolving, recombinant DNA
    Never had as great a time
    As when it took a Lamic break
    To reincarnate forward in rhyme.

    Now every garden is fertile;
    Now every seed is fine.
    The soil is slightly sandy,
    But no one’s drawn a line.

    Snowe grows northern cabbage,
    and Rubio tropical fruit.
    Perfection’s in the salad;
    The ingredients are moot.

  • Anonymous

    Whatever name one uses to describe the she’it should not be capitalized it is never a proper anything.

  • Anonymous

    Whatever name one uses to describe the she’it should not be capitalized it is never a proper anything.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    I have it! gg has watched Being There one too many times!

    President “Bobby”: Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?
    [Long pause]
    Chance the Gardener: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.
    President “Bobby”: In the garden.
    Chance the Gardener: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.
    President “Bobby”: Spring and summer.
    Chance the Gardener: Yes.
    President “Bobby”: Then fall and winter.
    Chance the Gardener: Yes.
    Benjamin Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we’re upset by the seasons of our economy.
    Chance the Gardener: Yes! There will be growth in the spring!
    Benjamin Rand: Hmm!
    Chance the Gardener: Hmm!
    President “Bobby”: Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time.
    [Benjamin Rand applauds]
    President “Bobby”: I admire your good, solid sense. That’s precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill

  • Constant Gardener

    I remember that movie. At the end Chauncy walks on water. Surely, that’s more up your alley than mine.

    Peace be with you, Boob.

    (Rest assured my roots are not severed.)

    Ron Steigler: Mr. Gardner, uh, my editors and I have been wondering if you would consider writing a book for us, something about your um, political philosophy, what do you say?

    Chance the Gardene: I can’t write.

    Ron Steigler: Heh, heh, of course not, who can nowadays? Listen, I have trouble writing a postcard to my children. Look uhh, we can give you a six figure advance, I’ve provide you with the very best ghost-writer, proof-readers…

    Chance the Gardener: I can’t read.

    Ron Steigler: Of course you can’t! No one has the time! We, we glance at things, we watch television…

    Chance the Gardener: I like to watch TV.

    Ron Steigler: Oh, oh, oh sure you do. No one reads!

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  • Anonymous

    I think we are going to need stronger antibiotics.

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    This is very, very informative. Thanks so much for taking the time to write it.

  • Anonymous

    Yep, it’s about closing loops.

    http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
    “Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”

  • K~Bob

    Memeorandum sure misses a lot, though. I think it’s too reliant on the “Instapundit and Politico = everyone on the right” concept.

    They need to add a Smart, Military Blog, and maybe some Jawas.

  • http://ifyouseekpeace.wordpress.com Ran

    Echo chamber: [n] a rubber room in which occupants are engaged in mutually aggregating each other’s commentary.

    Pal, the phrase is “And it’s not rocket surgery“.

    Linking you now. Heh!

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  • http://kingshamus.wordpress.com/ KingShamus

    Maybe some ‘kings’ too.

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