Fixing the Online Presence for Polkadot - One Post at a Time

[Juba.K]

TLDR: Fixing issues that are capable of being improved by simply being proactive - especially when it comes to online presence.

Noticed the other day - while doing some due diligence on Polkadot Online Presence - that ‘Polkadot is D3ad’ is the first Google Search Term that appears in the search bar.

*Item in blue removed to refrain from causing any unwanted / inappropriate comments*

Of course, this is absolutely not ideal. The ‘Polkadot is D3ad’ tagline surfaced around X in 2024 - and unfortunately, many embraced this slogan, uncertain of the damage it may cause in the long run. Through this repetitive process, Google has indexed this description as the main tagline for Polkadot when using search. Of course, this may change from country to country, however - over 10 different VPN based searches - this is the response achieved when searching ‘Polkadot is’.

The OK news, is that this seems to be a running theme for other blockchains as well - including the largest known today (Ethereum #3 search, Solana #7, XRP #5) and so on.

However - we at Polkadot are not in the business of being average.

We want to lead by example.

To all content creators, project leads, marketing managers, community teams and anyone with a strong online presence - do your best to refrain from using the Polkadot is D3ad slogan. Just writing it here in the forum is enough to further solidify the presence of it - hence the change in D3AD as to not give more ammo to an already struggling presence.

If anyone wants to take this a step further and do some good for the brand - please - begin using taglines that offer a light to Polkadot.

Active, Vibrant, Alive, Thriving, Dynamic, Animated and Full of Energy. This is the message we could be pushing.

It may not happen overnight - but over time, with enough people posting day to day about Polkadot and its very strong and active presence around the world (literally every continent except Anatartica TBA), we can slowly steer this ship around and regain the confidence of the industry and the outside world.

Every search query counts.

J.

[Birdo]

Also searching from your logged in browser window will change the results.
Try searching in incognito to remove some additional bias ;D

[Sajjon]

Polkadot is incredibly decentralized!

We can try to change this by ALL start writing “Polkadot is ” in the top of all messages, replies etc on this forum, on Github, Reddit and other relevant websites.

Together we can change the misconception that Polkadot is !Alive

[ivans]

Hey there! Ivan from Distractive here. We really appreciate your insights and perspective. Here are some of our thoughts:

Polkadot is D3@D?

Google’s "Polkadot is …” suggestions are prompts, and they only become actual queries when someone decides to hit enter. SEO strategies won’t affect this as autocomplete doesn’t always display the most common queries on a given topic, and we don’t have any control over it unless it’s violating Google’s policies.

But thankfully, this term (although it’s appearing in autocomplete) has medium-low global search volume; see below.

What can we focus on as an ecosystem to generate positive sentiment?

People are much more likely to search “What, why, how, when, where” questions than to type “Polkadot is …” – that’s where the real search demand lives.

If we look at some of our marketing tools for SEO related questions, here are some of the top questions searched that could push target audiences down the marketing funnel:

• What is Polkadot
• What does Polkadot do
• What is Polkadot used for
• Will Polkadot go up
• Will Polkadot recover
• Where to buy Polkadot
• Where to stake Polkadot
• How Polkadot works
• How to buy Polkadot
• How to stake Polkadot
• When Polkadot 2.0
• When Polkadot JAM
• Which Polkadot website is legit

Google-related questions (aka “People also ask”) shows us other common questions searched for:

As you mentioned, more and more of our potential website visitors use AI search engines. We are continually learning and optimizing for this new world of AI SEO, but right now we’re focusing on content that is genuinely helpful, readable, and tailored to different audiences and stages of the marketing funnel.

What can the ecosystem do right now?

The whole ecosystem can contribute to generating mindshare! After all, we can’t do it alone. We are available for support and guidance; check out our forms for collaboration and our co-marketing guidelines.

• Share wins. Link to the Polkadot blog, newsroom, and other trusted sources. Focus on launches, measurable growth, new developers, and real adoption stories.

• Post helpful content that maps to real queries. Think “How to stake DOT,” “Where to buy DOT,” “How X project built on Polkadot,” “Why we chose Polkadot for Y.”

  • Every piece of content should tie to a concrete action or next step for the reader.

• PR and co-marketing: Use the intake forms for news, launches, and integrations so they get proper amplification. The more lead time you give us, the more we can support.

• Here are a couple of additional ideas that we think have been effective at crowdsourcing new content in the past:

  • Ambassador program: We can crowdsource short tutorials, explainer threads, and launch highlight posts. Light incentives help, and publishing on personal channels first gives us better distribution diversity.
  • KOL initiatives: Coordinate topic briefs with creators who already reach relevant audiences. Focus on questions people actually ask and create content that answers them quickly.

CONTENT NOTE: Strong brands don’t need to assert they’re alive; they demonstrate value. Even asserting “Polkadot is thriving!” unwittingly reinforces the life/death dichotomy.

What are we working on as Distractive?

We’re running a competitive SEO analysis comparing polkadot.com and key subdomains to other blockchain projects. This will help us understand where to build content depth and where to earn coverage. We are sharing findings with W3F and Parity.

We’re also exploring content programs around “Polkadot is …” that flip the script without feeding the meme. Think community stories, builder spotlights, and practical “how it works” pieces that can rank well and get cited by AI search engines. We are continually researching and optimizing for the rapidly changing field of AI SEO.

Let us help! The more we can coordinate and collaborate to share wins across the ecosystem, the stronger our collective presence becomes. You can find our marketing request forms here and our co-marketing guidelines here.

[milus]

1. Step: Community should stop posting ‘Polkadot is not dead’. This just makes the problem worse.
2. Alternative: Polkadot is growing. Polkadot is accelerating. Polkadot is more alive than ever.

Reasoning: Human brain cannot process well ‘not’ statements. Instead of understanding Polkadot is alive, it will understand it is ‘less dead’. Furthermore, by posting Polkadot is not dead, we are just making the keyword dead more searchable and associate it with Polkadot.