Oh Gosh, I fear the title of the blog will get many people to click through to this article. Well, that’s how crappy content goes viral on the internet! Write a catchy headline on a trending topic and fill it up with gibberish (and not to forget “Keywords!”) and then vigorously share it on various social media platforms. This ladies and gentlemen is one of the core strategies used by many content centered websites and blogs on the internet.

Have you ever had that woozy feeling in your head when you overstuff yourself with mangoes? Kind of makes you feel heavenly delusional doesn’t it? Much in the same way, websites that use (and abuse) the above mentioned strategy tend to get delusional about the quality of their content.

Simple fact: Just because something goes viral on the internet doesn’t mean its high quality content. When crappy content goes viral, it could only mean either of two things; that your audience is a victim of the “Popcorn Brain” effect or they’re sharing it with their friends just for laughs.

Enough about delusions, lets get back to our trending topic: mangoes in Pakistan during the summers. I’m pretty sure many of us have experienced a case of exploding with mangoes during this season but how much do we really know about the fruit? Most people are concerned about their weight, sugar levels, “Danay” (pimples) and of course managing to keep their clothes clean while devouring mangoes. However, let’s take a deeper look into what the mango has to offer in terms of nutrition and the health risks involved in extensive substance abuse.

Exploding Mangoes from Pakistan

There are over 450 recognized varieties of mangoes in Pakistan. They are grown in various parts of Punjab and Sindh. While India is the largest producer of Mangoes in the World, Pakistan remains the largest exporter of the fruit. The most popular varieties of mangoes from Pakistan are:

Langra

Sindhri

Chausa

Anwar Rataul

Aman Dusehri

Sammar Bahisht

Muhammadwala

Banganpali

Fajri Kalan

Alphanso

Neelum

What’s in a Mango for You?

Mangoes are rich in vitamins, minerals, pre-biotic dietary fiber and “poly-phenolic flavonoid antioxidant compounds. (They fight cancer silly!) In particular, Mangoes are rich in Vitamin A. 100g of the fruit provides you with 25% of the recommended daily dose of Vitamin A.

Mangoes are rich in potassium which is an important component of cell and body fluids. It also helps to regulate blood pressure and heart rate.

It is also rich in various flavonoids like beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin and alpha-carotene. These are essential for vision and can also protect you from lung and oral cavity cancers.

The fruit is also a rich source of Vitamin-B6, Vitamin-E and Vitamin-C. These help your body to develop resistance against dangerously harmful infectious agents (no not those agents from the Matrix) and hunt down harmful oxygen free radicals.

Now I’m no nutritionist but from what I’ve been able to gather through my research, (research, yea right, who does that anymore, we just Google things and think we know it all!) apparently mangoes help improve digestion, help lower cholesterol, improve concentration and memory power, prevent heart diseases, do not cause diabetes and on the contrary can be used to counter the disease.

Sex is another taboo topic that is frequently exploited by content centered websites to attract visitors. And since sex sells, it’s quite effective to have a list of “Top 100 Sexiest Women Ever” and other such soft porn elements on websites. Once again, this may be a successful strategy in terms of gaining visitors but it’s definitely not a gauge for measuring the quality of the content, especially for a not-for-porn website even though that content may be getting a lot of hits.

Moral of the story: Mangoes are good for your health, eat them, enjoy them but remember extensive substance abuse, irrespective of the substance in question is bound to cause problems. Oh and there is another moral to the story: Next time you’re sharing crappy content just for laughs, know that you are actually falling for the “link bait” and helping and consequently encouraging those websites to create more of the same.

You see, Google judges the value of content based on the actions that you perform. Its Google, not God, actions are not judged by intentions on the internet.

Rishadullah Shaikh is the SEO Guy and a whole lot more at Dawn.com. He's on Twitter at http://twitter.com/RishadShaikh

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.