| LED Digest 2031: SEO is Dead |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. October 4, 2005 Issue #2031 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ======= NEW ===================== --== SEO is Dead ==-- ~ Ken Evoy "If you are not ready for the future...you do not understand why SEO is dead..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== On PageRank ==-- ~ Derek Andrews "...I think it's popularity has come about because of the ease with which we can measure it." ~ Debra Mastaler "...eventually Page Rank mania will go by way of meta tags being the end all to ranking well." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== ROR XML ==-- ~ Rich Dudley ===== NEW ================================= From: Ken Evoy Subject: The Death of SEO (and Google PageRank) Hi to all, Wow! Dirk Johnson wrote, regarding Google PageRank [issue 2030], the single best summation of what it's all about... > We see sites that have modest PR values holding first place > positions in search results over very long periods of time, while > the sites who are actively chasing high PR may never really get > there... > This is not rocket science, yet many people are in deep denial, > based upon what they have read or heard and subsequently believe. > PR chasing borders on religious zealotry at times. As I said, Wow! This is as close to "the secret" as it gets, Dirk. One of THE best posts about what it takes to succeed online long-term that I've read. The good news, and it is good news for those who "get it" and are WILLING to do it, is that most people will gloss over those words. Too much work. Too much work. Too much work. "There's gotta be a formula. PLEASE tell me there is..." - Keyword stuffing from 7 years ago. - Doorway pages from 4 years ago. - "Fast content" or "trash sites" purely for AdSense income today. It's all the same, just more sophisticated... "gaming the engines." If you do something FOR the engines that you would not otherwise do for humans, you're gaming the engines. Picture this scenario... engines now possess artificial intelligence. They read a page about Anguilla and say to themselves... "Wow, what a great page about Anguilla." They even go a step further and not only know that it's a great page, but it's part of a great site. Most importantly... They do at as well as you or I do when we read about something that we understand. Accept that as a hypothesis. Now ask yourself... "Is my site ready for that?" If you're NOT comfortable, you're not ready for the future. You're not ready for the present, actually. Because it's happening now, in a primitive way, by tracking human judgment through WAY more than link pop or Google PR. It's quickly becoming "ungameable." Google PR is just a diversion (although I do find it, along with Alexa, a fast way to get a quick "big picture fix" on a site I don't know). If you are not ready for the future, for what's coming big-time, you do not understand why SEO is dead and has been for a while. Oh sure, the corpse is still walking, and SEOers get real upset when they read a book that is normally only for our Site Build It! customers but that has leaked out and I'll share it here with you. It's called "The Tao of CTPM" -- I hope it helps you understand the underpinnings of why there will NEVER be an easy answer that works long-term... http://buildit.sitesell.com/TaoOfSBI.pdf (Please understand that it's been written for normal business people, not geeks. But also please understand that these people, unskilled in the Net but who know their BUSINESS, outperform as a group, SEOers.) We don't mind SEOers and some Webmasters laughing in derision at our "simplistic" approach. It's not simple at all, except in concept. Succeeding this way is hard work. But "the work works." SEOers have wailed and gnashed their teeth before, and they'll continue to, every time Google dances or Yahoo! burps. They do not understand that the engines don't owe them a living. More importantly, they don't understand that THEY owe the engines great and original content. They owe it to the Web. And that is far more than idealistic. "Doing good" works. Polluting the Internet with SEO'd junk fails. Walking the line, finding new ways to game the engines, may or may not work for the moment. Sure there are exceptions, but they prove the rule... The "way out there" boys and girls in porn and gaming are so ahead of anything discussed online, for example, and they make significant income at the moment. These are the top guns who chuckle at the SEO drivel in the "professional forums." By the time it's in those forums, these people are three more steps ahead. But they make great canaries in the mine, and the engines will eventually solve them once and for all, too. It's just a matter of technology catching up and approaching the hyptothetical that I pose above. So... Work WITH the engines. Give them more than what THEY want -- give them what humans search for, what they crave... great, relevant, original and focused content. Yes, include enough on-page hooks to be sure the engines know what the page is about (because they are not yet THAT "intelligent"), but beyond that... Quality content builds successful businesses online, long-term. And it does it for all the right reasons. That will be true even when the Web has gone two-tier. But, as I said, it's good news that most won't get this, most won't put in the work. Because the "rest of us" just keep sailing along. Great post Dirk. Sorry I've not been around lately, been totally jammed, but I never miss an issue of LED. This time, I just had to revert from lurking to commenting on a great post that truly contains the ONLY "secret" to online success. Too bad most will miss it. Yeah... too bad. ;-) Ken Evoy http://www.sitesell.com/ ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Derek Andrews Subject: Google PageRank Whilst PageRank may have some uses, I think it's popularity has come about because of the ease with which we can measure it. Just install a toolbar and away you go. Unfortunately, some of the things that are much more meaningful are harder to measure and track. For example, how many PR chasers know, by keyword, how long a visitor stays on their site, and how many and which pages those visitors look at? Or better yet, which search terms bring the most sales? Page Rank is easy to measure and talk about, but just how much does it tell you about the bottom line? Derek Andrews, woodturner http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Debra Mastaler Subject: Google PageRank In issue #2030 Dirk Johnson wrote: > This attitude derives from their having read all kinds of > theories and strategies on the SEO forums. Much of what > is presented on those forums is terribly misguided, > misinformed, and shallow in it's factual foundation. > Then again, some of it is valid. While I understand a caveat was added at the end of this quote, I'm disturbed by the larger part of this statement and would like to offer an alternate view. I don't know what forums are being referenced but as someone who posts in one (I am the Link Building Moderator at High Rankings) and a daily lurker / occasional poster at several others, (SearchEngineWatch, Cre8, Webmaster World, SEOChat, Digital Point) I can confidently say I see no misguided or misinformation being disseminated there. Yes, people new or less experienced in SEO post "misguided, misinformed" questions but they're quickly offered credible SEO information to consider. Even the search engine reps think the SEO forums are a viable hub since they post and offer insights on some of them. > It occasionally spills out into the larger realm of published > articles and even SEO conference presentations, where it > gains even more traction. Lacking experience, it is very hard > for the average business owner to figure out what is legitimate > and what is "we have the secret formula" scare tactics. I have spoken on the Link Building Panels at the Search Engine Strategies conferences since 2003 and can say I've never heard anyone insinuate they have a "secret formula" for anything linking related. And there is certainly nothing less than "legitimate" being said, especially since the search engine reps sit in on our panels and are part of the presentations. And while I've never had the opportunity to speak / attend a PubCon, many of the same speakers present there alongside the search engine reps so again, ditto on the comments above. > Too many prospective clients come to us with the > single-minded goal of establishing a high PR for > their site. Let's call it "PR chasing". I too have people write and ask me to secure 100 Page Rank 9 links but those kinds of emails are far and few between these days. I like to think it's because people are reading and learning from credible resources like the LED, published articles, the conferences and the FORUMS. Old habits die hard and eventually Page Rank mania will go by way of meta tags being the end all to ranking well. Debra Mastaler Alliance-Link ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Richard Dudley Subject: ROR XML > Addme.com is suggesting the use of ror.xml. Does > anybody have facts on this new SEO technique? - Salem Kashou, LED 2028 Not familiar with the specifics, as this is the first I've heard of ROR. It sounds a little like Google's SiteMap. If it were me, I'd be inclined to use an RSS format, since there has been so much emphasis by the SEs on understanding RSS, and see if ROR catches on. Rich Dudley www.bloomeryweddings.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. 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