Can an individual writer still compete on the modern Web?
77I just watched a video about Google's continuing refinement of Panda. I found it interesting, but also deeply disturbing.
Heck, I might as well say it: that video depressed me.
No, there's no startling news there, no insider expose. There's nothing really new about it at all, at least for those of us who have been following Panda since its crashing descent upon us last spring. It's a good overview for those of you who have somehow managed not to read anything about Panda up to now, however.
So why did it upset me? I think because it was it brought into focus some inconvenient truths that I have been refusing to look at for quite a while now.
I really am a dinosaur
I put up my first website in April of 1996. There were only a few hundred thousand web sites on the whole world wide internet before then and many of them had only a few pages.
That year (1996) was the year that corporations first started noticing the Internet. There were a few that recognized the value earlier, but very few indeed.
Early websites were AWFUL
While some of the poor design of the early websites was due to the deficiencies and limitations of the early web browsers (Netscape, for example, which was what most of us used then as there really was little choice), those of us creating those early web pages were also responsible.
Keep in mind that there was no w3.org where you could go to learn HTML. We learned by examining other people's pages, which of course led to vast repetition of bad HTML.
Design? This was design:
That's what those of us who made the effort to learn something about HTML did, anyway. There were thousands and thousands of pages that were nothing but text. No HTML at all.
Photos
Photos? We'd try NOT to have any photos and if we had to, we'd almost never imbed them in our pages unless they were very, very small. This was because dial up modems were all many of our visitors had, and they might be as slow as 300 Baud.
Even by 1999, when you could depend on most people having something faster than that, we'd still be very careful not to use many pictures.
Things have improved
By 2005, I had a slightly more modern looking site. I added Google Analytics in mid November of that year, so I know that 130,357 December visitors saw pages with that design.
Pretty sad, isn't it? What's sadder is that my current design isn't much better.
I'm not a web designer. I have basic - very basic - HTML skills. More important is that I am completely lacking in artistic skills. I might have enough HTML and CSS know how to create an attractive site, but I don't have the artistic imagination to know what that should look like or even sufficient appreciation to know who to copy!
That's only the beginnings of my limitations. I detest keyword research, keyword analysis - in fact, if it has the "keyword" word at all, I hate it.
I'm just not equipped for the modern web. I'm like the old car dealership ads you'd see years ago - the guy in the cheap plaid suit and the obvious toupee telling you to "Come on down!".
Don't get too smug if you are a keyword guru
Your days may be limited too. Many of the comments at that video I mentioned earlier are from people who think that their keyword skills are going to keep them safe.
That's probably false hope. As that video said "...Not enough. Sorry. It's just not enough. There are too many people making too much amazing stuff on the Internet."
What you need today is the "Wow!" factor. You need the whole package, content, design, marketing, research and sizzle.
Teams
It's far more than I can even begin to do. I cannot compete in this modern Web. I'm one person, and what skills I have are fragmentary and limited.
I'm not sure anyone can. Oh, right now some still can, of course. But the competition is ramping up and becoming stronger every day. I really think that the day is coming where only a team of highly skilled specialists will have any hope of real success.
That's depressing for me. I'm not a team player, I most definitely do NOT work well with others. So, when I contemplate what seems to be an inescapable future, I see no place for me in it.
Keep plugging?
That's what my inner voice keeps saying. "Just soldier on, one foot in front of the other. They haven't knocked you to the ground quite yet!"
No, not quite yet. But I'm reeling from the blows.
So, sure, I'll keep on plugging along. In a few days, I'll forget how depressed that video made me. I'll put it out of my mind, substituting my own reality, because I like my version better. I'll be an optimist and see the dribble of income Panda has left me with as something to be grateful for. I'll keep scribbling away and cheerfully stoop to pick up the few dollars that I would have laughed at a few years ago.
Or maybe not. I really don't know.
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No, it's not just site design. It's page design also. But the real point is that it's everything. It's like comparing that old car lot tv ad with a modern Super Bowl ad..
I think maybe because you have been around so long that will still give you an advantage. For someone like me who's just getting started, I think, the outlook is even more bleak. Maybe there is someone who wants to read stuff like mine, but will they ever find it with the deck stacked against us?
I don't know. I really do not know.
@Sherry Hewins -hold on to some patience so far as your hubs or stuff on other sites is concerned!
There's been many times I've seen something I published six months to a year earlier suddenly "take off" with search engine traffic.
So far as optimizing your hubpages stuff for search engines is concerned - I learned so much from submitting a hub to the "extreme hub makeover" forum here....that without what I'd learned there, I'd probably have given up on this hubpages thing.
I hope it is just some technical stuff I do not need to worry about. So many changes in our world but life goes on. Other things will come to overtake them too. So, let us enjoy the moment. Thanks.
Oh, good suggestion Wesman Todd Shaw.
I'm baaack, and I just watched the video. I didn't think it was as bad as you did Pcunix. He said they are trying to get rid of all that "keyword" stuff, and look for what users like. I know, still, it's a moving target. I'm not sure if they're looking for flashy graphics as much as easy to use, attractive pages. Some of the other stuff, like low bounce rates, and looking for the WOW factor rather than just accurate, grammatically correct, OK information didn't sound like bad goals, maybe better criteria than how many keywords and links you have. I just hope the machinery is good at meeting them.
I'm told that one thing Google takes pretty seriously is the amount of time it takes for a page to load.
Too many videos and high definition images....slows the speed that a page loads, so someone could theoretically be beat out in page rank due to someone else's page on the same topic containing more text, and less visual and audio media....but of course, and as always - there's Google only knows how many other factors involved that might have more or less relevance or value in their super secret and monolithic algorithm.
No, they are not bad goals at all. But it's the guy in the plaid sport jacket up against the Super Bowl commercial.
Stop with all the reality, Tony! You're making my head hurt. I know, I know, I don't have to read your hubs, but they're too good to ignore.
Great Hub. I always enjoy your writing because it's so honest and point.
Having been embarrassed by lies when younger, I soon decided that raw honesty is better :)
I always assume big business will eventually control anything which has the possibility of being monetarily lucrative on the net. We peasants are only used to gather stats for a while until TPTB have enough to run us off and take over the whole thing for themselves. It always seems to happen this way in this day and time.
SSSSS
Yes, though the leading edge is always somewhere and there is an attraction to hearing the opinions of individuals. But here we are, writing on corporate sites because they give us advantages.. Tough decisions!
I actually commented on this progression when I first started (pre Panda) when I first started. Like you, I've been on the web since inception.
However, the same model is working for business where, increasingly, to start in business, one has to have more and more capital and other stuff.
I found the recent case in which the government sues Apple and various publishers interesting. Essentially by the publishers naming the price of the books and forcing retailers to sell at the price they set, they enabled entry to the market place of the small business man. Amazon went down from 90% in the ebook market to 50% in the ebook market. What I find fascinating is that many small businesses were finally able to enter the market.
The model where the manufacturer sets the price for all retailers was the model in use during the 50s and 60s in South Africa. In the 70s, when it passed to Retailers, many businesses crashed, including the beginning of the end for my parents. As a result of that legislation, more and more money started gravitating upwards and more and more small people couldn't compete.
So, essentially, with the web, of the gazillions of websites, it's only the first ten that matter, and of the gazillions of keywords that people can come up with, it's only a few that matter...
Bottom line: We are entering a time (again) where only kings and princes will have lives worth living. Our children and grandchildren are not going to have it easy.
I have hope that we can stop that, but I admit it does sometimes seem impossible.
Wesman Todd Shaw 3 months ago
Well, you sold me on NOT watching the video!
Of course I don't know the first thing about even basic HTML....closest I ever got to diving into that was when Myspace had a huge blogging community and a fine blogging platform that nobody seemed to foresee being replaced by something as dull as Facebook.
But you're talking about web designing, really - and I've only ever wanted to talk at the world with text, and see if any of the world talks back...so I'm fine, right?
So far as computers and speed are concerned...I'm waiting for my ISP to get on with it, and make fiber optics available for this upper middle class suburban neighbourhood.