I said it before, headlines are fucking up Google search results big time.
A while ago I pointed out a nice quote from Dave Winer’s Morning Coffee Notes. Usually my blog has about 4 visits per day, not counting those who sub to the feed (note to self: get the feedburner feed implemented in the template soon). In the last couple of hours hits have risen drastically, coming from Google search. I checked and et vòila, the planet sab post is ranked second even above the main coffee notes site. Well Dave, I am sorry, it wasn’t my intention to rank high with planetsab.de (although I use that strategy on pöbler.de), I was trying to nail down an argument with your quote.
However, how do I as a communicator rate this phenomenon? Cluetrain believers preach communicating truthfully with the consumers, directly. Sure, blogs work by linking to other blogs to increase your audience, but up to which rate is that truthful? If I want to be heard in PR-business, is it fair to link to Micro Persuasion, Nevon, A Shel of my former Self (No links on purpose) if there’s no related content in the post, just to get the hits? And how far can I go to “use” the headline to increase traffic? In my post, I was just mentioning the source in the headline which ultimately could lead to more traffic on Dave’s site.
Anyhow, I am not the ethicist, just curious about the fact how easy it is to manipulate the most used search enginge. Now I just have to figure out to sell my knowledge.