The best SEO article I have ever read

[kamakiri]

I have been wondering about this beast called SEO for a while now. Much of what I see looks like snake oil. This article confirmed my suspicions and re-enforced my opinions.

Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists (http://powazek.com/posts/2090)

[networkmemetics]

I like the article.....

BUT....he speaks more about Off Page ranking factors than on page factors or site design factors.

Sure you can go black hat, but in the long run it won't work.

There is nothing wrong with writing quality content AND knowing how to syndicate that content to maximize its exposure. There is nothing wrong with posting on blogs....just make sure you add value!

Network Memetics

[officer_dibble]

That's a quality rant. And much of what he says is true - but common sense is often hard to find. Sure most people could work out how to optimise their page in a few hours on their own. The main stumbling block though - if you don't figure out how to find out what people are typing into the search engine - it could be hard to do really well. And frankly, some people may simply judge it's not a good use of their time (80/20 rule).

SEO can only ever be part of an online marketing strategy. And it's useless without a good product/content/offer.

Personally I think page rank has some huge problems. Realtime search tools like Twitter are much more valuable, for example, if you want the latest news/offer (even Google's blog/news search is a joke in this respect). Realtime makes the spam problem incredibly difficult to solve though.

[phil]

Great article. I kinda agree.

[nobodyreal]

Wow.

Hmmmmm... I wonder why top firms/companies have full time SEO guys making 100k+? I wonder why AskJeeves has full-time SEO agents? I wonder why CNN has full time SEO agents? Have all of these websites, with the best web masters in the game, been conned--or is there something more to SEO than what Mr. Powazek thinks?

To show you the efficacy of SEO, look at this : I can take a website that is showing up on page 4 or 5 for Fla. auto-dealer and get them in the top four spots(I have), with only on page optimization. And I'll do that for about 2k. Essentially, that website was almost worthless because it wasn't showing up for the high volume searches, but with a 2k investment, it now commands the #1 spot on a high volume search.

The problem with this guy's take on SEO is that he's minimizing the 'relevancy' factor in the Google algorithm. If I make a website called "mind-body-connection.com" and fill it with relevant data and good, optimized copy, I can outrank CNN's articles on the "mind body connection", even though CNN has one of the highest page ranks on the web. Relevancy CAN trump page rank, and that is what the top SEO agents(those making over 70k) prove all the time.

Is there scam SEO? Yes. But there is a way to discern quickly between scam SEO and valid SEO--client lists. Take a look at their results and who they've worked for. And then contact the web master of those sites and see if they were happy with the work, if it gave them desired results.


Google's imperfect algorithm is resulting in a small, select amount of websites(normally with either great reputations or enough capital to invest in quality SEO) receiving over 90 percent of the traffic. Searchers aren't going beyond the sixth ranking, and a recent poll taken in the UK shows that kids aged 12-15 think that Google ranks things based upon their truthfulness.

Those disturbing facts join together to show that the web is beginning to look a lot like a pyramid--and it isn't going to change. If the author has a content driven site, than he is right that the secret to getting regular readers is to provide quality content and rely upon people spreading the word, but it's a total different world when you have a commerce site or a site offering services.

Oh well, it's too bad that SEO is getting a bad name thanks to the proliferation of scam SEO. It's just going to result in the little guys continuing to get beat down due to lack of marketing, as happens in the offline business world.

[nobodyreal]

Yeah... that guy who wrote that article began deleting comments and then closed comments. It sounds like he got called out on his claim, and didn't want to retract his statements--so he deletes the comments and then closes the comment section.

[networkmemetics]

It was good SEO linkbait though :)

[nobodyreal]

It was good SEO linkbait though :)

Haha, indeed!

[DaveinHackensack]

Make something you believe in. Make it beautiful, confident, and real. Sweat every detail.

This was good advice, at least. How many of us are doing that with your muse/business ideas?