#SEO wiz turned #JAMstack and #Blockchain n00b
I have a confession to make…this is a personal rant so treat it as such :-)
Since almost every internet action starts with Google, being a #SEO enthusiast (rather than expert) sometimes kinda makes one feel like an overseer of the internet. It gives such digital professional the view of the internet similar to what an all-star NBA guard sees on the court in transition.
Yet, even more than other concepts, the internet landscape is constantly changing so the introduction of groundbreaking technologies like #Blockchain and #JAMstack made veterans like me truly feel like noobs.
It turned me from Stephen Curry to a league rookie. But a driven one, that was determined to understand and utilize the power of Blockchain and JAMstack for SEO and video platforms.
First I needed to understand what they were and what they were for.
Blockchain is a technology developed for safely, transparently storing any type of data across a network of computers. I’ve heard it compared to a Google Docs file in that it creates a new file for every edit while keeping the previous version, and the connection to it. Anyway, I did share my learning experience starting with blockchain workshops overview, then the colorful world of bounty programs and crypto mining hosting solutions.
I did start writing about ICOs but then the bitcoin started tumbling down and something else caught my attention.
What caught my eye is JAMstack, a modern web development architecture based on client-side JavaScript, reusable APIs, and pre-built Markup. I was introduced to the concept by a friend of mine working with JAMstack developers company Bejamas.
After all I am, was, a man of the web.
Blockchain + SEO and Video Platforms
The unavoidability of Google suggests that search engines aren’t going anywhere, the number of daily searches on the digital behemoth surpasses 3.5 billion. The same can be said for video, which is expected to reach 82% share of IP traffic by 2021. To not think about how these mainstays will be affected by the surging innovations would be naive.
Blockchain went mainstream, but it’s mostly exciting people by its use in the booming cryptocurrency industry, and some casual internet users are also intrigued by application of Blockchain to the music industry for example. Yet, the same way Blockchain is enhancing the music game, it’s possible to help the digital video industry and improve the experiences of video publishers and viewers alike.
Some of the features which can be established with decentralized video platforms — unlike Google-owned YouTube — is that video viewers could be paid directly by fans. Micro-cent transactions are already happening with the blockchain technology, and it offers the strongest alternative to ad-saturated video markets of today. Realizing that for fast-paced Millennials — and especially for Generation Y people — every second of waiting matters and that they would rather pay small amounts than wait, drives the conclusion that Blockchain-powered video platforms have a bright future.
Getting paid directly by the fans is one potential benefit, a highly important feature of Blockchain video platforms is the cure to censorship YouTube has been infested by. Geo-blocking can be a thing of the past too, P2P content sharing can be monetized — video perfectly illustrates how Blockchain is practically changing the way we behave online.
Blockchain technology is battling Google on the video platform front by eliminating the middleman YouTube from transactions and it’s used to combat Google’s main source of income — running ads. Google now verifies and vouches for the trustworthiness of advertisers and ad space publishers. It’s an authority, and as much as it has given me in my SEO career at least, I now see it as not needed.
With Blockchain technology, the whole connected network views and verifies transparent agreements while remaining un-hackable due to its scale. Advertisers and publishers work directly with the Blockchain community verifying the dealings. Less money for Google means more money for advertisers to spend and website owners to earn.
It’s a rare win-win.
JAMstack + SEO
As for JAMstack, while it might be a bit more tech than using WordPress, in essence it shortens the four steps taken when a user jumps to a web page. Instead of your server asking a MySQL database and using a PHP interpreter, combined with data from the active theme and plugins, for merging together an HTML document to only then be displayed on the user’s browser — JAMstack offers a more elegant solution. And a bit safer one as well.
It is a step forward from the LAMP stack model most of the web relies on. It asks a simple question whether server-side software and databases are still needed in this day and age? Especially for simpler sites. And answers emphatically ‘no’, while increasing smoothness and speed of loading, decreasing costs of holding databases, and offering greater safety with a more compact system.
Naturally, I was mostly interested in JAMstacks’ affect on SEO. With Google getting better at crawling and rendering javascript websites and speed becoming one of the key ranking factors it is easy to see the potential.
Reliability, simplicity, and speed are benefits too obvious to ignore.
These and numerous unmentioned traits of #JAMstack and #Blockchain are making these innovations a high tidal wave of internet change.
Want to know the best part?
They are still in the early stage :-) I became an early adopter, you should too.
Read on…the links :-)
Learn from the communities dedicated to JAMstack here:
Websites
https://jamstack.org/community/
https://thenewdynamic.slack.com/
https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/jamstack-radio/
Reddit channels
https://www.reddit.com/r/JAMstack_dev/
https://www.reddit.com/r/JAMstack/
Linkedin groups
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8722827/
Facebook groups
https://www.facebook.com/groups/jamstack/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2628040424090703/
Twitter
https://twitter.com/jamstackconf
https://twitter.com/bejamas_io
