Paid Links, Search Optimization Are Increasing Web Clutter

There’s no small measure of irony reading Leslie Walker’s lament about the cluttering of web sites by paid links and SEO tactics on a page featuring two clusters of paid links, three display ads, a tool-bar ad, and branded search. The RSS feed that first delivered the column to me included an ad. Walker writes about link farms of various types, among them Marchex, Inc., a Seattle-company that specializes in drawing paid-search traffic and this week rolled out 50 sites with zipcodes as domain names. Each features local weather, maps and sponsored links for local businesses. Other companies produce articles created specifically with SEO in mind.
Walker: “I can’t help but think that this new wave is generating too many useless link directories designed to provide no value to site visitors … Many redistribute text ads sold by Google and Yahoo, which makes the Web feel like a hall of mirrors.”
From my perspective, the balancing act for media companies getting deeper into paid search will be gaining search-optimized revenue without cheapening their own appearance or devaluing their own content.

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