Does content drive traffic or is it the other way around?

After watching episode 2 of The Newsroom (a new show from HBO that I'm watching now), I got some ideas about content driving ratings or ratings driving content. 

As the world becomes more and more aware of and interested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization), is there a decline in quality of internet content as a whole? Is it still content that drives traffic or does traffic drive content?

What happens is people write about what is most searched for. People focus too much on keywords and less on content. Content farms from all over the world have armies of bloggers that fill the internet with all these traffic-driven content. Many times they don't even really care about quality anymore. What matters is that your get to rank in the search engines. It's really quite decadent when you think about it.

But there is importance in studying how search engines work and making sure that content is optimized especially when there is important and credible information that needs to be disseminated to those who demand for it. Also, there's responsibility on the consumer side, like with anything, to always be skeptical of the credibility of internet content.

Imagine those people, for example, who are searching for information on dosage or dangerous interactions of their medicine online. Are they really getting quality content? Or is it one of those content farms generating content for medical keywords?

We are hopeful that in the long run, quality content will persevere. Those who focus too much on ranking and traffic will lose the confidence of their readers and patronage will eventually go to those who write quality and credible content.

Lately, I've actually been focusing less on rankings and keywords and just writing about things I love to write about. My traffic and earnings are decent anyway. Many times I just write reviews of movies or TV shows I watch (like the one on The Newsroom above) or I'll write about politics and libertarianism over at HarryLeaks. Those are things I love to write about regardless of keywords or rankings or even traffic.

I got to try the McDonald's "Big N' Tasty" earlier. I actually like it, sort of. I mean, I'm sick of McDonald's and I find their selection boring but I actually liked the Big N' Tasty.

@harryinitiative