The Steemit SEO Problem: How my tutorial became the top Google Search Result for "Steemit Guide" and why it doesn't matter
When I first joined Steemit, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
How was any of this possible? Where the hell was all the money coming from? I had no idea.
And without really understanding what I was doing, I wrote my first post. It made about $100 and completely blew my mind. I was hooked.
I spent the entire day trying to understand what Steemit was, and how exactly it all worked. It took so many hours of reading before I actually understood what was going on.
But I did understand and I figured that other people were going to want to figure it out, too. So I broke it down in the simplest way I possibly could.
I felt like an imposter writing a guide. But my second post was the guide in question:
Steemit for Dummies (like Me): Everything you Need to Know in Simple Terms
It earned a whopping $.15 in the first 24 hours. Eventually it grew to about $150, but at the time it was crickets.
The Top Ranked Steemit Guide on Google
Over the last month, my Steemit guide continued to get new comments almost every single day. But I never understood how people were still finding it. It hadn't trended in weeks.
Yet every day people were writing in to say they were finally able to understand what Steemit was all about.
Eventually I discovered why when one of my commenters said: "I found your post googling for "steemit guide" (not directly on Steemit site) and it was #1 result on google!"
(I changed the name after posting the guide but it didn't update on google)
I was blown away.
I wasn't sure how in the hell it had happened but it had and that was all that mattered.
Or so I thought.
In the end it didn't matter at all, because on Steemit, SEO just isn't a part of the equation.
SEO vs Curation:
I want to say that I do understand the rationale behind the Steemit algorithms. I completely get why SEO doesn't really make sense on a platform that churns out an endless stream new content every single day.
The name of the game here is personal curation and while it's not perfect as it stands now, it does work.
But it also makes you wonder. Is there a place on Steemit for SEO as well?
Is having the best content continuously cycled out of visibility every 12 or 24 hours really the best way to do it?
Would it even be possible to implement a system for long term visibility of popular posts?
I definitely don't have the answers. Maybe someone else will.
But seeing my post at the top of Google, something I've never been able to do with my person blog, made me wonder if perhaps there is a better way.
I'm curious to hear what everyone thinks!
Like it.
I completely agree with you that the current way Steemit.com is set up is too fast-paced. A lot of content that has long term value just falls through the cracks and gets forgotten. @samupaha had a good suggestion in his post "What is the ten year vision for Steem blockchain?" Basically he suggested different sidechains for different styles of content. There might be faster or simpler fixes, so I think it's good to have discussion on this.
That's a really interesting approach. It's kind of crazy how fast everything is evolving and growing. The fact that it's growing so fast is especially remarkable considering how technically confusing it all is. I imagine that this problem, and all the other problems we've seen, will be addressed over the coming months.
I just got to this article from google.
But I think something was changed sice the original article was posted. I copy-paste some parts of other articles from steemit to google and and google doesn't show results from steemit... And it was hot article here, 250$+.
Do you know some other ways to optimize SEO for post? I be grateful for some effective tricks. 🙏
Just found this post seconds after posting one that kind of continues that discussion, which I'm tagging #the30daydeath :) As a freelance content writer, SEO's been the name of the game for the past decade (even though the particulars of best practices are constantly changing) - it's hard to even wrap my mind around a platform that doesn't somehow hinge on searchability. It'll be interesting to watch as Steemit grows and shifts throughout its beta days.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemitpatina/is-steemit-the-new-youtube-are-you-the-next-pewdiepie-what-about-the30daydeath
Steemit handles content and "SEO" very well. There's no longer access to search hacks, it really depends on your content and structure. Your article did well because it was useful and continues to be. New users will search for a steemit guide and find yours or whoever makes a better one. Thats proper SEO. Articles that don't trend clearly had something missing or weren't meant to. They'll fall to the bottom of search because something else is better.
That's the theory, unfortunately it doesn't always work that way in practice. Steemit is in beta and a lot of current functionality needs at least some rethinking (and Ned and Dan are really actively doing just that). We just need to have active discussion about these things :)
Good points. Though I disagree with your point about articles that don't trend. You're right in most cases, but I've seen so many excellent posts fall through the cracks because of the game like nature of content curation. There is definitely an element of luck and timing, especially for newer members who don't have followers or steem power. The only thing I was trying to call into question was the way content is handled long term. I feel like there should be some sort of way to for popular content to remain visibile longer than 12 or 24 hours, or even 30 days.
It's easy to forget that were still in beta. I know a lot of issues, like this one, will be addressed in some way at some point in the future.
That's crazy cool! Any idea why Google likes you so much?
No idea lol.
You are not the only person who got paid for their first articles because I was astonished too when I first saw this coming and it was mind blowing.
I really like the fact that I see new content every time I visit the site. Although it's unfortunate that quality content often goes unnoticed.
I do too. I would never want that aspect of the site to go away. But I feel like maybe there is some way to increase the long term visibility of a post.
There is the trending 30 days tab. It keeps good posts around for longer.
I'm an SEO (as in Search Engines i.e Google) guy myself. It's interesting learning about Steemit SEO though, and how the platform ranks content.
My account has only just been verified and set up. The first thing I noticed is my newbie "trust" score which Steem says will hinder my contents visibility (once I post some).
This makes me think - should I build up my score BEFORE i post some good content? It would be a shame for the algorithm to devalue my content due to my account being brand new...
What do you think?
This a really useful article on how to get the most out of your Steemit Blogs using SEO