Imagine a boss who never speaks to you, changes KPIs overnight and penalises you for reasons you don't understand. That's Google. In the decades since it launched, bringing in a fresh perspective to the search business in World Wide Web (www), Google has changed its algorithms many times.
It has always been the dominant player in the internet search business, and these changes are meant to ensure it continues to stay number 1. But for those of us in the news business, trying to please the world's most powerful algorithm is like attempting to win Employee of the Month without knowing the rules. Yet we try. Oh, how we try.
I still remember the glory days, when SEO was simple. Naive, even. All you had to do was toss a few keywords into a headline - example 'Salman Khan Diet Plan', 'Smartphones Under 10,000' - and traffic rained like (sudden) Delhi dust storm in June. In 2010s, SEO in newsrooms was like horoscopes in newspapers - nobody really understood it, but it brought in the eyeballs. All you had to do was cram keywords into headlines like overstuffed vada paos, and Google would reward us with page views.
Back then, digital media professionals weren't optimising for algorithms. All of us were gaming them. And the system? Well, it didn't mind. It was said that "Content is king", but really, content with the right keywords was emperor.
Google's Tantrums
The world's largest search engine wasn't unaware of what was happening. It started releasing updates every year, to focus on what mattered. These, which have now become even faster, show how seriously the company takes its core business. Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird - all these adorable names were assigned to Google updates. But they brutally changed the game.
Suddenly, keyword stuffing was frowned upon. User experience mattered. Headlines had to be meaningful.
One day your evergreen article on "budget smartphones" is driving 100k daily pageviews. The next day, it disappeared. No memo. No explanation. Just a "core update".
These updates now feel like a passive-aggressive Slack message from a boss who won't say what's wrong. They just expect you to know. One day your article is trending. Next day it's missing. Welcome to Search Result Purgatory.
Growth: The Blessing And The Burnout
We all want growth. But when did growth stop being exciting and start feeling like a treadmill on fire? CTRs, impressions, time-on-site, scroll depth - welcome to the modern newsroom's daily crisis.
In editorial meetings these days, SEO experts sound like astrologers ("Mars is in retrograde, and your bounce rate is high"). These meetings revolve around what will rank, not what matters. Growth becomes this sugar rush - addictive, unsustainable, and occasionally nauseating.
And still, you chase it. Because traffic = ad revenue = job security (ish).
The Contortion Act AKA Headlines
Let's take a moment to mourn editorial dignity.
Nothing breaks a journalist's soul quite like having to turn a well-reported, nuanced investigation into a headline that sounds like clickbait wrapped in keyword soup. "New Govt Guidelines Introduced" becomes "Big Government Rule Change Will Affect Your Life". (Bonus points if it's "shocking".)
This is the real struggle: balancing journalistic integrity with the SEO gods' thirst for CTR.
AI, E-E-A-T And The New World Order
Are you fatigued by the algorithm change? Wait, there's more - Google's last major "core update" E-E-A-T. It's not a restaurant chain, but short form for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust.
Suddenly, your bylines need bios. Your news site needs schema markup. And your reporters need to be experts, not just fast typers. Meanwhile, AI-generated content lurks in the shadows, waiting to replace us all with polite but soulless summaries.
Dear Google...
We're not asking for special treatment. Just a break from the whiplash. A moment to breathe. A chance to be journalists and digital citizens. We get it. The Web is messy. And you're trying to clean it up. But could we please have a little stability? A heads-up before a traffic nosedive?
Because the truth is:
We're not trying to game the system anymore.
We're trying to work with it.
We want to write stories that matter AND stories that rank.
If SEO is the new editor-in-chief, can we at least get the style guide?
(The author is Executive Editor, Growth, NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
