Learning More about SEO

1. 78

   Aficionadaposted 14 years ago

   I ran across this article on another site this morning.  It is not specifically about Search Engine Optimization, but it includes enough information to be worth reading, especially for those of us who don't have very much experience or who don't understand SEO.  It's clear, entertaining, and intelligent.  Even at two pages, it's worth reading to the end, and some of the best info is on page 2. Some comments are worthwhile too.
   
   HuffPo's Achilles' Heel
   Search engine optimization won't work forever.
   
   http://www.slate.com/id/2284353/

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2. 85

   Pcunixposted 14 years ago

   Ayup. I've been saying that for some time. But right now, the SEO games still work. There are people right here who make a LOT of money fooling Googe.
   
   They'll have their day, but Google with win out - or become irrelevant. One or the other.

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      thisisoliposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Search engine optimization isn't completely about fooling Google.  A lot of the SEO work I do is about building high quality content netorks across a wide range of sites.  It's aim is to build high quality backlinks, but a lot of what it does is actually provide the content that Google wants.

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      1. 85

         Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I agree. But Google currently does not deal well with the best of the black hatters. They need to do better,

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3. 78

   Aficionadaposted 14 years ago

   Ayup.
   
   The thing that I liked about the article was the way it demonstrated what it was talking about and then explained: what is wrong with SEO; why it is sometimes successful; why it is losing its effect; etc.
   
   For a newbie like me (yep - even after 11 months), the article helped to clear up for me some of the points in forum discussions here that were still a bit fuzzy to me.

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   1. 85

      Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Ayup?
      
      Am I making a New Englander out of you?
      
      

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4. 76

   skyfireposted 14 years ago

   yeah sure. More than 100+ autoblogs in first page as per my spread sheets. Tired of filing DMCA against these autoblogger folks. I'm sure even dreamhost and hostgator support teams are likely to be routing DMCA emails to spam box.  What's more ? Countless threads on hub thieves here on hubpages. I'm sure other blogs are getting many leechers every now and then. It's really funny when people overestimate google.
   
   Looking at current quality of search results i'm sure that engineers working on algorithm are damn confused on how to filter data. Official adobe's results even goes down sometime for product queries, that's sign of something wrong with google's algo. I mean seriously when searching for product  vendor's site should be the first and not affiliates.  Anyway, that was just another wishful thinking post with if's and else's from Farhad Manjoo. Afterall, web is just another place in this world with unknown fear, wishful thinking, fantasy and helplessness at the end.

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   1. 85

      Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      You miss the point. Either Google solves the problem or the lose their preeminence.
      
      They might not succeed. But they'll spend billions trying.

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      1. 76

         skyfireposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         lose their preeminence ? that's not going to happen for plenty of reasons. Bing is relying on clickstream data (just like google) and hence the same results like google so unless they perform better where google is falling, users are not going anywhere. Google only made two major updates in algorithm last year as per their public updates. Google knows that people are stuck on their platform, so they're not in hurry to work on algorithm.
         
         Think about it, giving duplicate content a low priority will change face of black-hat SEO and in turn will improve search engine quality. What stops them from doing that ?

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         1. 85

            Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            It's already happening. I have people tell me regularly that they see no advantage to Google, so they use Bing.  It's not good enough for Google to be the same as Bing. To stay on top, they need to be obviously better.
            
            Google became number one because they were demonstrably better than AOL or any of the others.  Unless they can reach that capability again, they will slowly lose ground.
            
            They cannot and will not just let that happen without a fight.

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            1. 70

               lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Following that same rationale, there's no advantage to using Bing either. In order for Google to lose significant market share and for its users to migrate en masse, they need to totally screw something up along the way. I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future.

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               1. 85

                  Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  But Bing is the default now for Windows. That's erosion Google doesn't want.

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   2. 69

      ThomasEposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      The problem is, the techniques in the article work NOW, what will work in two years time is anyone guess.
      
      (and they aren't even the worst things people do to get into the first page of google)

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5. 38

   kevinwang128posted 14 years ago

   interesting read..!
   
   SEO is not dead, just plain boring and competitive, which make people to pull some short cut

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   1. 85

      Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Who said it was dead?

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6. 71

   sofsposted 14 years ago

   Thank you for the link to the article..an interesting read and some great discussion here. I do hope some day there will content over SEO!!

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7. 79

   thisisoliposted 14 years ago

   Agreed with that, its amazing that you even still get black hat 'seo cosnultants'.  I recently fixed a site for a guy who hired a black hat late last year and got dropped completely form the rankings.

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8. 60

   TomC35posted 14 years ago

   Unfortunately there is no programmed pattern that can truly read content for what it really is, the way a human eye can.  Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc cannot hire enough people to really read each article and sort them out though.

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   1. 85

      Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Yet.  There is no programmed pattern that can truly read content for what it really is yet.

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9. 60

   jmpruitt1975posted 14 years ago

   I agree with this article, and I think that Google may keep dominance in search, however, search is quickly becoming the VCR of finding info online. Maybe even the 8 track. Still out there, and used by a few people, but mainly left in the dark ages.
   
   Social media is more and more where people are going. Google realizes this which is why they are incorporating social status in search rankings. However, its like they are trying to copy a dvd to vhs. they want to go backwards.
   
   Social media will drive more traffic this year than Google, in my opinion.

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   1. 85

      Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      If you earn your money from Adsense, you better hope it does not..

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   2. 79

      thisisoliposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think this will play out.  People may follow a link on social media, but if they want to buy soemthing they will type it in to a search engine (Or go direct to their favorite online site).
      
      Social media has been blown out of proportion by the media, and while it is definitely not worthless, and it is now a part of SEO, it is definitely not going to overtake Google in terms of profitable traffic.
      
      A good indicator of this is that the majority of social media usage comes from the lowest earners in society.

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