Have you seen the writing on the wall?

I realized last night that I’ve been altering my writing style to satisfy a website plugin. I had installed it because it does offer useful features, but something it does is highlight sentences the algorithm doesn’t like – passive voice, long sentences, etc.

I’m wordy, and tend to use long sentences as I over-explain things.

I first noticed all this a while back when I was working on a post while waiting at the mechanic for my Jeep. When I got home to finish, the plugin had flagged most of what I had written for one reason or another. Since then I’ve been paying attention to what the plugin algorithm has been suggesting, and recently I noticed myself writing in a manner that adheres to its suggestions.

Last night I was reading an article and realized that article’s author was doing the same thing, but somewhat poorly. There were sentences that looked intentionally broken up that would have made more sense as a single longer verse. Keywords were awkwardly crammed into places that didn’t really fit. Headings broke up content that should have been together. (The plugin always yells at me to set a keyword and use section headings, which I don’t and rarely do, respectively.)

It wasn’t difficult to tell the author (or the AI they used) was writing for the algorithm rather than an actual reader, and that bothered me. I mean, I understand wanting to optimize content for better search ranking. Hell, one of the original reasons for starting this site was to experiment with and figure out search engine optimization (SEO) before that was even a term. But even with that origin story, I have always intended this site to be a creative outlet for myself, not the almighty algorithm.

So I turned off the plugin. I can do that because I’m not trying to sell anything, not trying to “go viral,” and I’m certainly not trying to be a professional blogger. Others might have more difficulty doing that because they are writing for the algorithm. They get paid for content based on clicks and readership, and the search engine and social media algorithms are what puts the title in front of eyes. It is their livelihood and I can’t fault them for wanting to make a buck so they can eat – but it isn’t the content I particularly care to consume.

So we’ll see how this little experiment goes. I didn’t reboot the site trying to get it back to the levels I had during its first run, so I don’t really care about SEO and things like that for it. I use song lyrics for post titles and not keyword rich slop designed to grab attention. I’m still not advertising the site, and don’t really talk about it to anyone.

This site and my writing isn’t for anyone else but me, and those who care to follow my journey.

Song of the day: The Writing on the Wall by Iron Maiden