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 It is not a case of coincidence that Google in its FAQ and
guidelines compares Search Engine Optimizers with 'Nigerian
dictators'. It is somehow a sign of the times that search engine
optimization (SEO), which under other circumstances would have
been a "gentleman's" occupation, (bringing together the diverse
worlds of marketing, web design and search engine indexing) is
compared to a ridiculous scam that offers 'money for nothing'.
Unfortunately quite a few search engine optimizers today tend to
offer a 'money for nothing approach' in their promotion and
advertising tactics: "we submit your page to 75,300,000,000 Seventy
five billion three hundred million search engines", "we guarantee to
placement in all search engines", "immediate top rankings in Google,
altavista and major search engines". And it is exactly this approach
of nosnsense producing companies that give the gentlemen (and gentlewomen) search engine optimizers a bad name.
Moreover, the actual approach of search engine optimization by some
'professionals' offers a 'lets beat the house' technique in which
search engines are treated as large gambling houses that have to be
'tricked' in to producing their client's sites first. This not
infrequently leads to a ban of websites from search engines in
accordance to the well known gambling mote: 'you CAN'T beat the house'.
Let me just mention my favorite ways of getting a site banned from
a search engine:
- Cloaking: showing a different page to the search engine
crawlers, than the one you show your visitors, that is full of your keywords.
- Submitting your page again and again in the search
engines hoping that this would make them list you higher.
- Repeat your keywords meaninglessly in your META
keywords and in your body text as if there is no tomorrow
- Jam-pack your page with keywords in a text font the
same color as the background color.
- Use 'hidden' 1x1 gifs to link to keyword rich pages.
- Join a link-farm
- Use doorway pages created by SEO software that are
just collections of keywords that carry no meaning.
…and the list can go on and on… Very often search engine optimizers
find 'exploits' in various search engines that appear not to cause a
ban at that stage, and introduce this to their clients pages thus
showing immediate results which of course are valid only for the
short term (but carry the risk of getting their clients pages banned in the future…).
Search engine optimization, whether you plan to do it yourself or use
a consultant, should be done in the most gentlemanly way possible.
Your final aim in doing all this and going through all that effort and
expenses is just one: To sell more of your products to your website
visitors and this is just what you need to have in mind constantly.
There is just one safe way of doing this: Think of your visitor!
The truth is that you are not creating your website for a "robot
crawler". Chances are that the crawler will never buy anything of your
web site. The important step to understand is that you should
optimize your web site for your visitors which you hope they will
become your buyers through the visitors' experience of your web
site. Search engines are simply a way that some visitors will find you
and should be dealt with as a by-product of the whole way of doing your business.
Search engine optimization done the right way means that you show
respect for your visitors, you treat them as if they have entered your
bricks and mortar store, and offer them all the information they need
about your products and services that would help their evaluation.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that you should ignore the
search engines. Au contrair… they are a source of visitors (and
income) to you and you should carefully plan the content of your
website to help yourself get promoted in the search engines. Search
engine algorithms will 'appreciate' this approach as the whole
structure and meaning of the internet works this way. You get a
bonus from all the internet's users for actually offering something
worth linking to and you get penalized if you are a selfish and arrogant two-timer.
The secret is simply to 'be yourself' with your visitors and the search
engine crawlers and offer them what they will both appreciate: High
quality content, targeted for your audience, which is not a
space-filler, but an integral part of your web site and services.
You do not need to worry about search engines in the end. Proper
information of high standard, arranged properly is just what your
visitors need and the reason why both crawlers and people will come to your website, and return for more.
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