The Big Race to the Top of the “Knol”
“Knol” — which stands for a unit of knowledge — is the latest rage in Internet marketing, and likely to be a powerful one, too. Everyone wants to get their sites ranked by Google because its popularity. Knol may be the just the way to do that.
Sponsored by Google, Knol is similar to Wikipedia. Anyone can publish an article and can link their websites in the text of the articles (or in their bio). Other Knol users can contribute to or comment on the article.
Current Content on Knol - Opportunity Abounds
As of this writing (Saturday, July 26, 2008), the bulk of the articles appearing on the front page of Knol have to do with medical issues. There are also featured articles, such as making Buttermilk Pancakes from scratch.
Google does not censor the content published on Knol. It does, however, prohibit publication of pornography, hateful commentary, racist articles and other generally-tasteless content. The full terms of service can be found here.
I clicked through some of the featured articles to see how the keyword or keyphrases stacked up in Google’s main search engine. For instance, an article published on July 7, 2008, about toilet clogs is number two in Google’s search results (on July 26). Just type in “toilet clogs” in your search and you’ll see for yourself. Another article on tuberculosis does not show in the top 20 search results for that term; as a matter of fact, I did not find any of the medical terms for featured “Knols” showing up in the top 20 Google search results for those terms. This might be due to the date the articles were published.
Over time, I have a feeling that articles published on Knol are going to punch a heavy SEO hit to web pages referenced in Google’s knowledge base. For now and as of this writing, the Knol service is so new that it does not have any page rank. The number of Knol’s indexed pages are pretty small:
- Google shows 1,240 indexed pages
- Yahoo shows 372 indexed pages
- MSN’s Live Search shows 2,170 indexed pages.
The above stats don’t reveal too much except for the fact that this is a new service. Frankly, website owners who recognize opportunity are going to be scrambling to be on the “top of the knoll,” so to speak, for their keywords.
Publishing on Knol is Easy
It’s easy to publish on Knol. If you already have a Google account (such as gmail or Adsense), you sign in with your Google account. Google will want to verify that you are who you say you are in the bio. You have a choice of either receiving an automated telephone call in which you enter a verification number that is generated on the Knol site or you can enter a credit card number.
You can also share in the Adsense revenue that is associated with your Knols. There’s an easy-to-use form that you can fill out in your Knol profile, and you receive a verification email that you need to respond to in order to activate Adsense. Once activated, Knol reports that it may take up to two weeks before your Adsense code appears on your Knol.
As far as writing your articles is concerned, you have an interface similar to what you see when you use WordPress. There are buttons that you can click to bold your type, insert links and images and so forth. It is a user-friendly system.
Conclusion - Start Knoling!
Right now, Knol is too new to say one way or another how much of an impact it will have on your search engine marketing tactics. I’m willing to bet that it is going to be a powerful tool to build link reputation and strength in Google. With that said, I’m going to sign off and start Knoling now!
Link: Google’s Knol
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