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rocket_rob
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 156
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Posted: 12/01/2003 05:45 am
It has been a couple of weeks now, so under the new rules how do you get high google rankings?
Inbound Links? Uh, no, not using keyword anchor text and not using the same link text on all your links.
Listing in DMOZ and other directories. Good try, but having many duplicated links is now picked up as spam dummy.
OK I got it. Relevant Content? Ummm, no, not judging by the results where spam-laden doorway pages with redirects and hidden text take 2 of the top 5 for a competitive term.
OK now I know. Keywords in your text. Boy, not any more. Obscure 37-terms earch phrases are great and will get you that "targeted" visitor (noticed i said visitor) but using competitive keywords in your text is bad and gets you penalized.
Wait! Keywords in your <title> and <description> tags. C'mon stupid, that is now considered "SEO"ing the page and will get you banned.
GOT IT! Using keywords in your directory structure for your site! Geez, you're a slow study. Putting your "widgets" pages in the directory www.widgets-shop.com/widgets is spam. And don't you DARE use alt text on your wideget pictures that have anything to do with widgets. I recommend calling the blue widget image "Model A23XC9-523" rather than "blue widget".
Ok maybe not such a simple question.
The problem I have with google is the "without warning right before christmas" way they made such huge changes. They knew the damage they would cause to countless ecommerce businesses. It is impossible to judge whether the new algo gives "better" results but from my own little world I see such garbage dominating my keywords.
The problem I have with google is they said "do ABC" and "don't do XYZ" then overnight they completely reversed things so doing ABC lands you in never-never land while the XYZ crowd prospers.
The problem I have with google is they have no integrity. This little "started by a couple guys in the basement" type company is completely out of control, using (and mostly abusing) their power. How ironic that this cool little company beat Goliath and now has become Goliath.
I am closing down my sites and going to work for another great American company. I start tomorrow as a "greeter" at Wal-Mart. $6 an hour is more than I can make on the net!
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Mike-Levin.com
Joined: Sep 27, 2000
# Posts: 1986
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Posted: 12/01/2003 09:44 pm
Wonderful post. Great questions. I won't pretend to have the big picture from an SEO point-of-view, because I've only ever been a Webmaster, and never a dedicated SEO with multiple clients.
But I believe that the biggest secret of successful SEO'ing (and the reason I'm a Webmaster, and not an SEO), is...
Pick an employer that has a lot of potential.
Pick products that have lots of potential.
Then, go to work for that employer, or selling those products. Masterful SEO'ing can't be done on just any company, and any product. It's got to be special. There's got to be a potential fan-base for the product. Things coming out of the company have to be newsworthy. It's just like cooking: you need to start with quality ingredients. Or it's like a Michelangelo sculpture, where you figuratively chip away the rock to reveal the form within.
There was a point in my Webmastering carrier that I realized that I had the outright ability to control search engines, and business plans aplenty were running though my head. This was in they heyday of AltaVista. Should I go after venture capital and start and SEO'ing company? But after thinking about it for some time, (Google was just on the rise, circa 1999), I realized the quality ingredients issue. I realized it took 6 months just to get off the ground with SEO'ing. And I realized becoming a full-time Webmaster, getting a piece of sales commission for a company that had a lot of latent potential was the way to go.
The trick is finding the right company, convincing them to hire you with a sales commission component to your compensation package, and then really delivering. I've done this twice in my career so far (only once with commission), and have consistently achieved THE TOP positions on the keywords that I have targeted. Some of these results have persisted for over 5 years now. The same things that produced top results 5 years ago is the same thing that's producing top results today. Fortification of top positions is the most important thing. People who have been around for a long time may recall me talking about escape velocity. Well, it still applies. And escape velocity is achieved by choosing a company with a lot of potential to start with. You as an SEO are just releasing that potential by doing a lot of clever (and ethical non-spammy) things that they never thought to do. You can take someone whose not even in the results and systematically, deliberately, and in a well documented fashion move them right to the top.
As far as the technical details, yes it still requires a good ODP and Yahoo listing that reinforce each other, lots of miscellaneous links from around the Web from fans and advocates of your product/company, and a few links from a high PR site other than Yahoo/ODP to throw some credibility your way. Press Releases through real news services help. Articles written in eZines help, etc. Constructing your internal linking intelligently still helps. Putting keywords in the important elements still helps. And in order to avoid creating patterns within your site that scream SEO, just write naturally. Writing well goes a long way.
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jpalbicke
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 32
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Posted: 12/02/2003 11:26 am
Both posts are outstanding, but Mike(-Levin) hit on some core principles for me, that I had been thinking about from the time I thought about building my own business online. Alot of what he says to me, strikes at the core philosophies of Google, however they manifest themselves in reality, implemented through changing filters and algorithms designed to fight all the tricks, and shortcuts to good rankings. My personal feelings, and I actually understand those who disagree with this, due to their own dependence on SEO strategies, that high FREE rankings, are simultaneously, good fortune, and a priviledge, and no (online) business should be wholly dependent on them. No matter what the latest algo change, there are 10-25 fortunate sites on pages 1, 2 and (1/2), with thousands of others climbing over each other, and almost unlimited ethical viewpoints on how to do so...
Advertising is a fact of business, with every medium, and those who took advantage of the early days of the web to milk free advertising through SEO techniques were fortunate, but me thinks that will never be the case again.
Even if Google were to take a mighty tumble, and Inktomi, the future choice of MSN, or Search Engine X were to replace them, and subsequently displaying certain stable characteristics or patterns, with respect to filters, and algorithms, well the fact is, all the really smart seo people will manipulate that consistency, and predictability, including colossal spammers, every single time, and search relevance gets skewed anyhow... I also think that it is right to examine any potential conflicts of interest Google might have, but I still think that there core philosopy is to fight spamming their engine, or now over seo a website, and that they are right for example to take the position that link trading is manipulation of the core idea they had that a voluntary link to your site had value...
So Mike tells me what I have been telling myself. Build business slowly, create a wide swath with my site, in terms of content and overall value within my industry. Look for other methods of (free) advertising like press releases, or piggy backing someone elses newsletter. Talk to other websites/companies similar to my market niche - theme, hope they pick up on my site/company, hope enough of them like what I have created, and put up a link to my site. Don't be afraid to spend some PPC money and not only for ROI but also to brand.
What the heck, I will start my own affiliate program, that as a side benefit will create inbound links (with the right software that uses my domain), without even having to trade links I might add, and lastly, just maybe, through all of these efforts, and others that don't come to mind readily, I will get some (free) love from Google for hotly contested keywords in my market as a bonus, and for the most part my site will then be anchored in high search priority, from methods that Google looked on favorably as business building and/or organic so to speak...
JP
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