What I’m really supposed to be working on is a series of articles on dividend stocks since dividend stocks power the core of my non-retirement portfolio investing. But, I have three monitors and I need something to be on all of them in order for my brain to be satisfied, and one of them has some recent financial “news” articles about dividend stocks. I couldn’t help but notice this super clickbait title from Yahoo Finance.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Yahoo Finance. It’s still my first-stop, go to for quick stock research and graphs for those stocks that make the hair on the back of neck stand up, but that haven’t gotten me to swipe right yet, if you know what I’m saying. But this headline and article… whooo boy! 🙄😏🤥
Finance Headline Clickbait
If your company paid a bunch of money to buy Yahoo, and you pay a staff to keep it up and running, you need to generate traffic. That traffic turns into revenue via online ads, and affiliate links, and so on. The problem with personal finance, investing, and financial independence is that there aren’t that many pithy 500-word articles left to write for a long established site like Yahoo Finance. On the other hand, deep-dive, fully researched articles take a lot of time and effort. When fast traffic is the name of the game, you only want so many of those. What you’re left with is manufacturing news and contemporary advice.
Take the article that caught my eye, “12 Best Value Dividend Stocks to Buy Now According to Warren Buffet.” — I’m not gonna link it. You can search it up if you want to see it. (Here’s a screen shot if you just have to see it.)
Whew, boy! That may just the text-book, SEO-optimized, click-bait, high SEO plugin rating, headline cake.
If you aren’t familiar with search engine optimization, that’s really a topic for one of my other blogs, but let me hit the highlights so you can see what I mean.
Various SEO experts content that certain things in your title either a) help you rank higher in Google, or b) help entice people to click more. Assuming Google is doing its job right, there should be some overlap in a and b. Here is a quick list on supposed best title elements:
- A number in the title: 12
- A power word: Best
- Keywords: value dividend stocks — of course this belongs in the title, though one could argue based on the content if they really looked at the difference between growth and value dividend stocks or they just did any dividend stocks, and added value because that’s what keyword research told them they needed
- A Call to Action: To buy now! You can’t wait to read this article, or bookmark. Warren Buffet says to buy these stocks now (this is the one that bugs me the most. It is inaccurate to the point of dishonesty, but we’ll get there in a minute).
- Celebrity: according to Warren Buffet
Is The Headline True?
Fake Clickbait Headlines are the Worst
Alright, look. I’m a writer. I’m an SEO expert. I’m a social media expert. I am a website content manager and content writer. I know the power and importance of a strong headline. I just don’t appreciate when sites are weasels about it.
Check out this article. Here is the first paragraph.
In this article, we discussed the importance of dividend stocks for Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio and examined the 12 best value dividend stocks to buy now according to Warren Buffett. Click to skip ahead to see the 5 Best Value Dividend Stocks to Buy Now According to Warren Buffett.
12 Best Value Dividend Stocks To Buy – Yahoo Finance – April 21, 2021
Who wants a free SEO lesson?
Clickbait Article SEO
You are supposed to put your keyword (search engine phrase target) “early in the article.” That proves to Google that this article really is about what the headline says and doesn’t just have a nice finance headline on an article about needle nose pliers.
The SEO utilities want that keyword in the first paragraph to get max score. The easiest way to do that is to repeat your title in a rephrased sentence. They did it in the first sentence, but as you can imagine, doing that can be artificial and clunky. It doesn’t help that there is a type in the fourth word. Based on the sentence, that should be the present tense of ‘discussed.’
Next up, notice you can skip to the 5 Best Value Stocks to Buy Now According to Warren Buffet.
Wait. I thought we were reading an article about the 12 best value stocks?
Welcome to some more SEO tips and tricks.
First up, in order for this article to count as long-form for Google, we’re gonna need some extra words. So, like those recipe web pages where you have to read about how the author was inspired to make the perfect crock pot rissoto while dodging monkey fights in the jungles of Peru before you get to the actual recipe, you’re going to spend a bunch of this article reading about Berkshire Hathaway to get to actual list. By my count, the actual list starts at word 767 out of 1803 words. I’ll let you do the percentage math.
But, here is the real trick. The top 5 stocks aren’t even in this article. Instead this link leads to an article on Insider Money. If you do manage to read to the bottom of this article on Yahoo instead of skipping, you’ll only get 6-12 here. You have to click to Money Insider to get the top five. Apparently, Insider Monkey has a deal where their authors write articles on Yahoo Finance in exchange for links to their own website. Google likes links, and so, win-win. Unless you just want to get that list that Warren Buffet put out there.
What Warren Buffet Says – But Not Really
Here is what bothers me. In order to get the snazzy, SEO-pleasing title, whoever wrote the title had to fudge the truth a little bit.
When did Warren Buffet say these were the best 12 value dividend stocks to buy now?
Never.
He didn’t say that. At all.
This list is nothing more than a list of 12 value dividend stocks that are held by Berkshire Hathaway. That’s a pretty big leap to Warren Buffet says these are the 12 best stocks to buy now.
For starters, there are numerous value dividend stocks in Berkshire Hathaway. Mr. Buffet never says that these are the best 12 to buy now. He tells you why he was holding them in the portfolio in THREE MONTHS AGO when the quarter ended. Even worse than that, Berkshire Hathaway has held large portions of some of these stocks for a good while.
Just because something is worth holding on to, doesn’t mean it is the best stock to buy now. In fact, the opposite can be true with dividend stocks. As a stock’s price rises, its dividend yield falls unless there is a corresponding increase in the dividend.
And, while Buffet isn’t known for being a gunslinger-type trader, it is entirely possible that in the quarter since these financials were created for that Berkshire has reduced its positions in any of these stocks, or more likely found another stock they like just as much, or even better that would make the “top 12 to buy now list,” but they don’t have to tell you about it until Berkshire Hathaway reports first quarter financials, likely around the end of July.