I tell you, if one thing riles me more than anything else when it comes to running a web business, it’s the trials and tribulations of SEO.
Specifically, competing with SEO blackhats, when it comes to the position of your business – let’s say, for example this very site – versus various competition.
And, even more specifically, in the face of Google consistently claiming that SEO doesn’t matter, it’s just about the content:
And that’s not the only example, by an stretch of the imagination, every day we encounter members at WPMU DEV that have downloaded dodgy plugins, themes and worse – all because Google is so easily played via matching domain name matches, spam, link buying and more.
While sites, like this one, that are committed to providing interesting, informative and hopefully engaging news on a daily basis, just have to wait and hope that one day these guys will get filtered out.
Which, unfortunately, despite what they are saying, hasn’t happened yet.
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I’m going to go ahead and put myself out there and reveal that I recently got a negative review by a known blog. In fact they called my site “one of the messiest sites” on the net and a couple of commenters seemed to agree. In fact one of them -after checking a few stats plus with my site ranking high on first page of Google for make money online tips- went so far as to ask how could I possibly rank as well as I do with such an unprofessional site?!
My response to him was simply that the content had helped many ppl out which I know to be true from the comments I have received both in public and in private. Of course I have a decent interlinking structure going on plus I use Gregs HP SEO plugin as recommended by HostGator, but I certainly do not do any blackhat methods.
My point is that a little seo’ing goes a long way even despite certain aesthetic qualities or the lack thereof :)
I’m also waiting for the day when Google can truly recognize excellent content. It seems a daunting task, but if the Internet is to make any sense at all, the search engines must do better than they do now. Thanks for the insights!
I have to say that the overwhelming dependence on search engines simply astounds me. *Especially* Google. Sure, I SEO my own content and make sure my client content meets my own high expectations, but this still scares me. Too many people treat search engines as if *they* are the authority simply because they help people find content, and anyone that works in the industry should know better.
The whole idea of encouraging search engines to “get it right” and make sure that they deliver “only the best content” scares the crap out of me. 1984, people. When you encourage all trust and authority to come from a limited number of sources, it becomes completely homogenous: there is NO distinctiveness and new thoughts are drummed out of existence, or simply never make it to fruition because the cost-to-market becomes so high.
Anyway, I guess an evening of watching political news has done me in. Sorry, folks. :)
I’m going to go ahead and put myself out there and reveal that I recently got a negative review by a known blog. In fact they called my site “one of the messiest sites” on the net and a couple of commenters seemed to agree. In fact one of them -after checking a few stats plus with my site ranking high on first page of Google for make money online tips- went so far as to ask how could I possibly rank as well as I do with such an unprofessional site?!
My response to him was simply that the content had helped many ppl out which I know to be true from the comments I have received both in public and in private. Of course I have a decent interlinking structure going on plus I use Gregs HP SEO plugin as recommended by HostGator, but I certainly do not do any blackhat methods.
My point is that a little seo’ing goes a long way even despite certain aesthetic qualities or the lack thereof :)
You can check it out and tell me what you think!
It certainly does, I wish it didn’t so much though :/
Good looks or not, it looks like you’ve got great content and a good community as a result… nice work!
Things *should* continue to get better (remember, although things aren’t great now, who can forget keyword stuffing etc?). Google can’t be perfect…
Oh, I dunno, given their resources they should be pretty close ;)
I just caught something in Matt’s video that I didn’t pick up on the first time, “We try to make it so you DON’T have to do SEO”
That’ll be the day :roll:
p.s.
Thanks for the positive words James!
I’m also waiting for the day when Google can truly recognize excellent content. It seems a daunting task, but if the Internet is to make any sense at all, the search engines must do better than they do now. Thanks for the insights!
I have to say that the overwhelming dependence on search engines simply astounds me. *Especially* Google. Sure, I SEO my own content and make sure my client content meets my own high expectations, but this still scares me. Too many people treat search engines as if *they* are the authority simply because they help people find content, and anyone that works in the industry should know better.
The whole idea of encouraging search engines to “get it right” and make sure that they deliver “only the best content” scares the crap out of me. 1984, people. When you encourage all trust and authority to come from a limited number of sources, it becomes completely homogenous: there is NO distinctiveness and new thoughts are drummed out of existence, or simply never make it to fruition because the cost-to-market becomes so high.
Anyway, I guess an evening of watching political news has done me in. Sorry, folks. :)
Search it now. “Free WordPress Themes”
The right entry is on top!
Looks like google changes are starting to work here.
Any update on your opinion @james