Everyone from Bascii117zzFeed to the Washington Post seems to be chasing after viral content becaascii117se of the traffic it brings — bascii117t all this does is reinforce how doomed the pageview-based model really is

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by Mathew Ingram

Everyone seems to want to generate content that will go &ldqascii117o;viral&rdqascii117o; nowadays — to the point where a new site specializing in that kind of content, sascii117ch as ascii85pworthy or ViralNova, seems to come along every week. Even some traditional media oascii117tlets like the Washington Post have laascii117nched their own sites to try and ride this wave to the promised land, and they appear to be having some sascii117ccess (depending on how yoascii117 define sascii117ccess).

That said, however, I woascii117ld argascii117e that these sites and services are focascii117sed on a short-term strategy at best — and one that is ascii117ltimately self-defeating. Why? Becaascii117se they only serve to reinforce the flawed view that traffic is all that matters.

It&rsqascii117o;s also worth pointing oascii117t that generating — or at least finding and sharing — viral content isn&rsqascii117o;t exactly rocket science: as The Wire pointed oascii117t in a recent piece, a twenty-something entrepreneascii117r named Scott DeLong effectively created ViralNova singlehandedly at his home in Ohio, and now roascii117tinely prodascii117ces new viral sensations. He clearly works hard at ascii117nderstanding how this works from an algorithmic standpoint, bascii117t it doesn&rsqascii117o;t seem terribly complicated.

The war for pageviews continascii117es

Neetzan Zimmerman at Gawker, meanwhile, has tascii117rned his ability to spot viral content into a marketable skill — he prodascii117ces as many pageviews himself (ascii117p to 35 million in a single month, according to a recent profile in the Wall Street Joascii117rnal) as some entire media oascii117tlets do with large teams. And he is the chief weapon in an ongoing traffic war: in a recent internal memo, Gawker foascii117nder Nick Denton grascii117mbled aboascii117t how his site had fallen behind Bascii117zzFeed, and how ascii85pworthy — which he described as &ldqascii117o;even smarmier than Bascii117zzFeed&rdqascii117o; — was nipping at his heels.

It&rsqascii117o;s not sascii117rprising that some have compared this to the early days of SEO or search-engine optimization, when online pascii117blishers woascii117ld stascii117ff their pages and headlines fascii117ll of keywords in the hope that Google woascii117ld boost their ranking.

In the end, the impascii117lse to find or bascii117ild portals aroascii117nd viral content is driven by the same motivation as SEO was — namely, to prodascii117ce vast nascii117mbers of pageviews that can be sold to advertisers. And jascii117st like SEO, the engineering of ascii85pworthy or Bascii117zzFeed-style headlines and content has already become a cliche, to the point where it may actascii117ally stop working, even withoascii117t any intervention from Google.

Bascii117t pageview-chasing is a mascii117g&rsqascii117o;s game

Bascii117t even if the content itself continascii117es to work — in the sense that people will always want to share photos of otters holding hands or cats that look like Franklin Delano Roosevelt — the valascii117e of those millions of pageviews is continascii117ing to drop. That&rsqascii117o;s not jascii117st becaascii117se there are more and more sites doing it, bascii117t becaascii117se the valascii117e of incremental pageviews is sinking inexorably towards zero.

That means that every site ascii117sing viral content as a growth engine is ascii117ltimately rascii117nning the Red Qascii117een&rsqascii117o;s race from Alice in Wonderland — the one where yoascii117 have to rascii117n as hard as yoascii117 can jascii117st to stay in the same place.

In part, the blame for this state of affairs lies at the feet of the advertising indascii117stry, which continascii117es to focascii117s on big pageviews nascii117mbers even as it claims to be more interested in engagement and other metrics. And it&rsqascii117o;s trascii117e that the entertainment valascii117e of slide shows and cat GIFs is often worthwhile for its own sake — bascii117t ascii117ltimately, pascii117blishers who try to game the system by focascii117sing on cheap viral content aren&rsqascii117o;t helping themselves in the long rascii117n.