Trust but verify?

As I may have shared before, I take frequent trips on the struggle bus when IT issues arise. I’m fairly sure the average preschooler is more adept than me at navigating the online landscape.

One of the great paradoxes in my life is that despite my technological handicap, I have done part-time work in search engine optimization (SEO) since 2006. Simply put, the goal of SEO is to tweak websites in ways that help them move them up in Google rankings.

It sounds more technical than it is — at least where my role is concerned.

I may not know how use a computer as anything more than a glorified typewriter, but I write a mean blog and know what helps a website move up the Google search ladder.

I’ve blogged exhaustively for SEO clients about such topics as dog training, auto appraisal, crime scene cleanup, cryostats, hyperspectral imaging, and 3D laser scanning.

A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to grasp quantum computing. Last night the topic was innovation and AI as they apply to advanced metrology.

I don’t have to master a subject; I just have to figure out enough to write at least 600 intelligent words about it. Google “crime scene cleaning” and you’ll find dozens of blogs saying basically the same exact thing. The goal of SEO is to pile up content and hope folks click on the embedded link in a blog leading to a client’s website.

Even though I have only a tenuous grasp on any of these subjects, I can make myself sound like an authority.

That’s scary, and it’s why I’m wary of anything I see online that isn’t from a website like mayoclinic.org.

If I can write stuff and sound like I know what I’m talking about, so can anyone else, for better or worse. It’s the worse that nags at me.

So that’s the first main reason I take everything online with a grain of salt.

The other reason I am distrustful of what I find on the internet is that it’s hard to tell if information is up to date.

I’ve spent a lot of January trying to update the paper’s informational guide, “This Is Grant County.” I quickly learned that consulting websites was not the way to get accurate information on the businesses and entities listed in the guide.

As a result, I reached out to nearly everyone in the 112-page guide either by phone or email. Everyone was lovely. If you’re reading this and you helped me verify information or updated the content on your organization, thank you!

Against my better judgment — because why would I trust the answer? — I Googled “Is there a way to tell if info on a website is up to date?”

The responses may just as well have been in Finnish.

“Look for the HTTP Header. ...

Use XML Sitemap. ...

Google Search is the Key. ...

Command Using Command URL. ...

Try Google Cache. ...

Use Internet Archive. ...”

Please. I’m not doing any of that.

For the sake of reliability, why can’t there be a rule in this online wild-west stating that web content must include a “last updated” tag beneath the title?

Knowing that a website was last updated in Dec. 2023 as opposed to June 2017 would be so helpful when looking for a senator’s current address at the capital or a list of officers for an organization.

No XML Sitemap (whatever that is) required, no special tool for accessing meta data, no memorizing a Google command — just a simple date at the top of the page.

On. Every. Single. Website.

Is that too much to ask?