The first blogs were believed to have started in 1994 on a site called links.net by an individual named Justin Hall. Similar to today’s blogs it contained facts, opinions, and links to sites with additional information. The concept quickly took off as a host of imitators began adopting the concept on their own sites. At the time this was seen as a bastion of free speech & the sharing of ideas, opinions, and facts. It was not until sometime after that the issue with blogs began.
As blogging exploded in popularity so did its marketability. Blogs took off not just for individuals but media groups & commerce companies. Today anyone with an e-commerce site worth its salt posts blogs about its products and industry. You are currently reading a blog included in this category. As business and private blogs have continued to grow so did the need to establish what is relevant, what is not, and what should or should not be easy to find. The Great and Powerful Google has done this by creating web crawlers. The algorithms that these crawlers apply to define these parameters are precise but remove the human perspectives. This has caused the issue with blogs.
The Triage
The most relevant content and links should be at the top and then filter down because no one has time to sift through all the information out there. What defines the “most relevant” data is the issue. Voice tense, transition words, and paragraph length are a few of the factors that take precedence over the accuracy of the words themselves, the conviction in which they were written, and the opinion of the writer. It is incredibly difficult to express opinion freely under the requisites of these crawlers. If we don’t “follow the rules” we will lose ranking and my message will not reach as large an audience. The writer is a slave to robots. I only have the choice to conform or lose the audience, no matter how important the message is.
Hired Guns
This has spawned the vocation of professional blog writers for hire. Professional blog writers know how to trick the crawlers however in most cases know little about the subjects they are writing about. The opinion of these writers is paid for.
What We Do
At 502 Hemp we try our best to straddle the fence. We do everything possible to not sacrifice content and play the game as best we can to get our blogs to you. If our blogs don’t receive the highest-ranking but convey our thoughts accurately so be it. We believe in what we do and what we say.
Recommendations
Whether you read our blog or not, you owe it to yourself to scratch the surface. If you like something, share it. The more attention a blog gets the higher the ranking it will receive. You may find the most “trending” blogs at the top but may not necessarily find the most insightful or accurate there. You need to dig to find the diamonds.
