Google Knol: Implications for SEO - The Ultimate Linkbait?
(Page 4 of 4 )
I want to reiterate that this project may never get out of private beta. But if it does, it strikes me as possibly the ultimate in linkbait. If you’re a good writer and an expert in your field, Google Knol gives you a chance to write the definitive introductory article about it. What’s more, unlike Wikipedia, there is nothing to say that the links you add to the knol must have the nofollow tag attached to them.
A number of professional SEOs are pretty excited about Google Knol and the possibilities it opens up. EGOL, a well-known and well-respected member of the SEO Chat forums, thinks Google Knol will be a great thing. “With Knol you will know who wrote the article and multiple authors in Knol can write on the same topic – so that will make competition. Lots of people like to compete…The real impact of Knol will be another site in the SERPs.” The consensus seems to be that Google Knol will beat Wikipedia in a couple of years or so, and that the ability to make money from your knol, combined with the fact that you have to reveal who you are, will lead to some very high-quality articles.
Google has said that it is not going to rank knols preferentially in its algorithm. That would be evil after all. But even if it doesn’t, if you’ve written the knol correctly it will contain many keywords. And make no mistake, if Google’s sample knol is any indication, a well-written knol is quite lengthy. Manber said that Google hopes to see knols “cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions.” Somewhere in that list, there must be a knol suited to your needs.
But there are a couple of issues I’d expect to see Google tackle before it goes live with Knol. One of them is authentication. How can Google confirm that you are who you say you are? When it’s a matter of receiving an invitation, that’s one thing, but when it’s open to everyone, what is to keep me from claiming that I’m Steve Ballmer?
The other issue is spammers. There doesn’t seem to be anything to keep a spammer from writing a knol, and/or getting some friends to write good reviews and strong rankings, which will presumably help it climb to a good position in the search engine results page. Sure, Manber said that “Our job in Search Quality will be to rank the knols appropriately when they appear in Google Search results,” and he seemed sure that his team would be up to the challenge, but will they really be able to keep up with the number of knols likely to be submitted? Danny Sullivan wondered something similar over at Search Engine Land: “But how will the project scale when it becomes available to the public?” Time will tell – but when it does, I hope you’re ready. Good luck!
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
