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I tend not to really focus any of my time or attention on SEO or search engine optimization here for many different reasons. The biggest reason is that SEO is seen by many as just tricks and scams to get better natural positioning in the search engines. And unfortunately, some search engine optimization companies and people have said and done things that have put themselves on the same levels of honesty as used car salesmen.
Rumors are running rampant that Google is preparing this weekend to update their page ranks and every SEO and his brother are scurrying like roaches when the lights turn on to do everything they can to get their page ranks increased. I have been reading articles by people using terms like “link trains” and “link baiting” and I finally decided I wanted to say a thing or two about SEO and about some of the buffoons who are seen as “experts” in this field.
You want to learn about SEO and how to do it right, here it is:
- Build a web site with technology that will allow each and every page of the site to be read and indexed by the search engines.
- Architect the site so that each page has the appropriate navigation so not only search engine spiders, but also real live users will be able to surf the site easily and quickly.
- Write great content that users will find interesting and that they will want to recommend and come back for more.
That’s it. You can make it a lot more complicated, but it isn’t. It’s not about gaming the system and seeing how many links you can get and writing articles that use the same word 400 times in it. It is about very simply building a solid web site on the back end and then writing content that your target audience will want to read and interact with. It is time for people to realize that getting into the top 10 of natural search results does not guarantee success. How many times have you gone from a search result to a page and thought, “What a piece of crap” and closed that page and moved on?
Some of these SEO gurus really blow my mind. I was reading an article today on a site which is ranked under 3000 in Technorati. The guy has over 2000 blog reactions, but he has under 250 people registered for his RSS feed and a very low Alexa ranking! He has gamed the system with BS link scams, but he has absolutely no readers, no community, in other words he has nothing.
All hacks off the stage!
P.S. There was absolutely no chance that I would link to any of the hacks I referred to above and give them yet another link.
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Technorati Tags: SEO, search engine optimization, natural positioning, search engines, Google, page ranks, link trains, link baiting, Technorati, blog reactions, RSS, link scams, community
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Hi Cord,
It frustrates me too when I see bogus Technorati rankings like that, and believe me I’ve seen a few.
Whilst I “hear you” (and not knowing this blog) in all fairness, some people work damn hard to build up a subscriber base of “under 250″ (and I’m assuming here it’s between 200 and 250), and would be tickled with that. If you can remember back that far (Mr 400+ !), 200+ subscribers is not “absolutely no readers”
Assuming of course they are legitimate subscribers….
Meg,
Please do not think that I am saying having 200 some odd RSS subscribers is a bad thing. If you took that from what I wrote I apologize. What I was trying to show was a site with that many links and that high of a technorati rating should have a lot more readers and it was just an example of good SEO and creating a community versus just being a spammer and scammer. I apologize again Meg if you took it another way.
hey Cord,
What a great post. Just like that, you simplified SEO to everyone. Really, core seo is not that difficult. It is about building a good and functional website on a search engine friendly platform. Our PR rank hit 5 after starting the site for 6 months. We did very little in terms of SEO. The only focus has been on providing good content.
The real difficult task is SEM or online marketing in general if I may say. That definitely takes time and a lot of skills.
Khalid
Khalid,
Thank you for your kind words and I agree with you that the SEM / online marketing piece is more difficult and requires a lot of time and attention. Thanks as always for your comments.
Cord,
You’re absolutely right…let that sink in for a second.
There are a thousand different “hack” ways to make money online, but running a true business in centered on knowing your consumer: who they are, where they go, what they do when they are online. SEO is a fundamental, but shouldn’t be the focus of a website’s marketing. Being number one for this or that term is useless if the site doesn’t push the user through conversion. That’s it plain and simple. You could lead the free world to your doorstep, but the website has to provide value to the user. That value starts with providing the right content to suit your user’s needs. The most over looked element in this is that content isn’t always text. It can be embedded video, product tutorials, 360 product animations, etc. What do all of these things have in common? None of them can be viewed by search engine spiders, but all of them will provide an experience that leaves the user feeling as though they actually held your product in their hands.
Textual content and basic optimization are fundamentals. They are the bare minimum of what should be done and should be built into the site from the ground up, not because you’re gaming the engine, but because it provides value to the user. If SEO were the only focus the site would stop here and miss those other elements that push the user experience over the edge to conversion. Any idiot can SEO a site for a fee and it may work for a time, but eventually you will be throwing money down the well trying to keep up with shifting algorithms and updated PR. Why waste the time when you could increase your conversion rate long term and build a better business altogether.
Cord,
Good SEO work includes the work behind the first 2 steps you mentioned. A lot of companies out there need help with those tasks and that service is valuable.
I really do agree with you about all of the other garbage that SEOs try to sell though. I read about an SEO contest that a Canadian auto parts company (shopauto dot ca) offered and followed the results for a while. The worst examples of SEO trickery came out, including one user creating a forum designed to look like it was the official board of the contest.
Ok, I know it’s not my birthday, but it sure is special as I got Revill to comment on something and say that I was right. Pinch me.
Revill - Preach on baby!! Your words are so right on the money. I absolutely agree..
Thanks for your thoughts.
Matt - You’re absolutely right, SEO folks can be great assets for companies who have big technology issues and how to fix them in the best way possible.
Yea, there are so many scams out there it is ridiculous.
Thanks for your thoughts.
SEO may actually be worse than buying a used car; in the car industry there is a lot of information available to the buyer. A consumer can find out the average price of a car in their area, the options it comes with, reviews from other consumers, and come up with a good idea of how much to pay.
Nothing comparable exists for SEO. There is no seotrader.com to help people compare prices, services and results.
El - Excellent point about the seotrader. If I did not think that almost all SEO businesses would be toast in the next couple of years, I would start one myself. Thanks for your comment.
Hi Cord
I agree that the 2 numbers wouldn’t appear to correlate and in the absence of a large subscriber count you would probably expect to see a low Alexa rank. No need to apologise.
Alexa redirects are another of my pet peeves. It always makes the blog look so desperate.
As you say, basic fundamentals are a must. If you’re serious about your site, and have fantastic content, you are doing yourself a disservice if no one happens upon it. It’s not always “build it and they will come”.
Of course, “fantastic content” is in the eye of the consumer, not the provider. So some bloggers may become over zealous, not realising their content is crap.
You’re bang on. SEO is very often nothing /but/ scams and tricks. I’d like to pick a few holes in your post to clarify it:
1. Clicking through and getting a page that sucks isn’t bad SEO, it’s bad marketing. Any moron can make a poor landing page, not just SEO morons.
2. Alexa ranking only provides a view of what Alexa fans like to view; it’s not really fair to judge a site simply by what Alexa fans think. The representation isn’t fair.
SEO Ranter - I absolutely agree with your thoughts. I use Alexa as a very basic and quick tool to give me an idea of what kind of traffic a web site gets on a daily basis. It is FAR from perfect, but when you need to get a quick snapshot on a site, I find it useful.
Yes and no. There’s a lot more to SEO than that. Proof? Try taking your advice and ranking number 1 for online poker. It ain’t gonna happen.
The problem I think, is that there’s a lot of very bad information around about SEO, not that SEO itself doesn’t work, or isn’t important. If you want a good guide as to the main factors, check out the guide over at SEOmoz.
(If you can’t find it, try using the SEMPER search engine on my site.)
Pete,
I think you missed my point. Of course, there are a lot of steps when it comes to SEO and I made some very general and broad strokes. My point was it does not matter if I am number 1 in online poker or I am number 6 or even number 15, etc. etc.
The success of an online business is not going to be solely based on what position you are coming up on the search engines. It is just one of many important factors.
Oh and by the way, cute plug for your site.
How important is Alexa?
In Germany, Alexa is not so well known,
How important do you think the Alexa rank really?
Greetings from Germany
Werner