Standardise and Monetise: The Decline of Online Content
I use a browser extension called Control Panel for YouTube, which allows me to determine who many videos are displayed on my YouTube homepage and to filter the content that is shown. At present it is configured to display rows of six. Something that I have noticed of late, is the amount of videos with hyperbolic titles and thumbnail images created by AI. Both of which are design choices made to increase engagement. Clickbait titles are contrived to meet current SEO optimisation criteria and as such feature more and more in search results. The fact that they frequently have no relation to the subject I am researching, seems to be neither here nor there. The same issues arise with regard to AI generated images, which again frequently have no bearing on the matter. The fact that more and more content creators do this, infers that it works and is now an essential part of the process you must follow to be seen and featured in search results.
Thanks Google Page Experience Update For Desktop
Last Tuesday, I noticed a drop in traffic to Contains Moderate Peril. As I’m currently only writing every other day, I assumed that it is normal to have occasions when visits to the site may decrease. However the decline has persisted and to date, works out broadly as a 20% reduction of traffic to my blog. At present, I have a lot going on in my life so blogging and website growth are not my highest priorities. However, I am a firm believer in cause and effect and so a situation like this must be down due to other external factors, rather than just the capricious nature of my readership. So I searched online to see if Google had made any changes and I subsequently found that they had rolled out an algorithm update starting on Tuesday 22nd February 2022. Apparently Google Page Experience Update For Desktop “is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experiences. Page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account. Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes”. I beg to differ.
The Relevance of Domain Authority?
According to Wikipedia, Domain Authority (also referred to as Thought Leadership) is a measure of a website's relevance with regard to a specific subject area or industry. Be warned, do not read the summary I’ve linked to if you are averse to bullshit marketing speak. I vomited blood when I typed “Thought Leadership” but take comfort in the fact that the marketing executive who came up with that inane platitude is currently closeted at home with a partner and children that hate them and will be facing divorce proceedings roundabout Christmas. But I digress. The reason I mention Domain Authority is because it came up in conversation of the Blaugust Discord channel. Author and fellow blogger Tessa mentioned it as a metric that may have changed for many writers over the course of the Blapril blogging event. It has done so for her, although I didn’t take that as a sign that she puts particular stock in this measure. As this wasn’t a statistical measurement I was familiar with I Googled the term and hence discovered the aforementioned Wikipedia entry.