search engines vs. human readability

More and more often while I’m reading random articles online in blogs, magazines, etc. I’m bugged with the feeling that the author’s thought somehow does not flow consistently and logically. And it is not about the consistency inside the story, article or whatever is the reading, but inconsistency and discontinuity in the selection of words.

This is happening to an extent that a large number of these articles do not have much reason to exist at all. Or at least no reason other than making noise along a thing – i.e. to advertise and pump up the contents of a page with as many as possible text with “the noble” cause to push the page forward in the search results – in the rank list of google – all because of the mission to be in the top 100 chart.

Write for people first

Of course everyone regardless of profession – whether it is baker, software developer or cook has the right to be a writer and to share freely and proudly their visions. The problem for me as a reader is when these writings annoy me with inconsistency. I feel kind of betrayed as if it is not written for me – the human, but because of the algorithms of a search engine. And for me as an advocate of the user it is false and unjustly that everything becomes so cheap and flooded with information not even written for people.

In the end not the people should blend and crook themselves and their thoughts as to fit together with the algorithms of a search engine – rather the search engines and their algorithms are matching with the text and the thoughts behind. When I read an article about bread making I’m more than happy if this article was written by someone who devotedly want to share something essential and valuable for it and does not care whether to mention the number of keywords that would appeal to a certain algorithm. There’s no doubt that it’s important to optimize your text for robots, but this could be made naturally – without re-using the same keywords over and over.

As if the term search engine optimization has a distorted and banal role – to serve not as it should. My SEO advice is not to forget that a search engine is only the intermediate section between the writer and the reader. Do not write for some machine because in the end it will forward you again to a curious and thirsty for information human being. Write for him – the curious and interested in you person. Thus we have a chance to fill all of these pages with something that has value. There is a chance not to lose ourselves in rankings.