| LED Digest 2032: Is SEO Evolving or Dead? |
|
|
|
================================================== 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 5, 2005 Issue #2032 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== What's Wrong with DMOZ ==-- ~ Marsha Kopan "...there are some DMOZ editors that get on their high horse but I think they are not the norm..." --== SEO is Dead ==-- ~ Bill Davison "SEO is based up many many false premises..." ~ Jennifer thomas "what we know as seo is evolving..." ~ Shari Thurow "Ask a spammer to build and write a user-friendly AND search-friendly site that converts?" --== The Quality of SEO Forums ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "The quality of guidance that people find in the SEO forums...is generally very low." ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Marsha Kopan Subject: DMOZ > I'm sure to open a hornet's nest with this one, but I wish > to discuss DMOZ. I'm very disappointed in this directory... > Is DMOZ on it's way out or here to stay? - Renee Kennedy, LED 2025 I agree that there are some DMOZ editors that get on their high horse but I think they are not the norm of those in charge of categories. I look for very specific things when viewing a registrant for my area. There are two basic reasons sites get bounced from my area -- they don't belong or there is no relevant content on their homepage that speaks to its purpose. Sites that have a flashy entrance page or too many confusing chotchkies get the boot too. Marsha Kopan, IVAA CVA, CRESS, PL Executive Secretarial Services www.execsecsrv.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Bill Davison Subject: SEO is dead > 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. - Ken Evoy, LED 2031 Well LEDers, I said much of the same years ago. SEO is based up many many false premises such as: 1. higher search engine rankings guarantee higher incomes 2. all commercial websites sell widgets Up to 2 weeks ago, I had a #1 ranking in Google. It has been #1 for more than five years. What was my earnings? Zip, zero, nothing... Much of my clientele are local realtors. They function in a LOCAL market. They could care less what someone in Paris or Beijing thinks about their website listings. They simply want to reach the local market... and they do! Many clients have used me 10 years or more. Ken Evoy is right on target, "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." So stop playing games and wasting time/ money with SEO hucksters. You're not going to automatically become the next millionaire if you get a top ten search engine ranking but you can make money if your site contains what the CUSTOMER wants. Bill Davison bizwebpage.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Jennifer Thomas Subject: SEO is Evolving (Not Dead) Ken Evoy's post is sure to have angered many people. I'd say the LED title served to get a lot of individual's attention but the post itself offered little. That long post could have been summarized in a few sentences: What we know as SEO is EVOLVING (it's not dead). A significant number of SEO professionals and newcomers think (or try to convince their clients) that Google PR is very important when it's not. Providing search engines, and ultimately people, with a content-rich site combined with appropriate development of a site is what will win out in the end. Unfortunately, since few people want to actually spend time doing SEO properly (because it takes too long to do so), we will continue to see various spam techniques being employed. That's about it. Nothing groundbreaking here! Jennifer Thomas ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Shari Thurow Subject: SEO is dead Hi all- This is response to Ken Evoy's post in LED #2031. SEO is not dead. More accurately, search optimization is not dead. Search optimization is designing, writing, coding / programming, and marketing a site so that its content can be easily found before and after visitors arrive at a site. It is very rooted in Web site usability principles, though I have to admit that usability professionals do not concern themselves much with what happens before a person arrives at a site. What are the characteristics of a search-friendly document? There are all types of Web-based documents, and each has its own unique characteristics that can or cannot be optimized based on the current technology. For example, multimedia files can be optimized, but not very well. As software evolves to accurately include more multimedia files in a database, then we might see more user-friendly multimedia files on Web sites. In a nutshell, if SEO is dead, then what the heck am I doing in a graduate program focusing on search and human / computer interfaces? Web search is a young and growing field, and there are few experts in this area. Ken, stick to sales. That's what you're good at. Please do not make blanket statements about a field in which you have limited knowledge. Search engine spammers have limited knowledge, too. Their goal is to exploit the engines. Ask a spammer to build and write a user-friendly AND search-friendly site that converts? They don't have the skills. I often wonder when "advanced" SEO came to mean that SEO professionals could skip the beginner and intermediate skills. My 2 cents. Sincerely, Shari Thurow, Webmaster/Marketing Director Grantastic Designs, Inc. ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: The quality of SEO forums > ... as someone who posts in one 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. - Debra Mastaler, LED 2031 I participate, or have participated, in several of the forums you mention, Debra. And I have to disagree with you. There are some very high profile dispensers of nonsense in ALL the SEO communities. All of them. To paraphrase something Jill Whalen (owner of HighRankings) recently said in her own forum, you cannot trust what anyone says. The quality of guidance that people find in the SEO forums, especially the larger more popular ones, is generally very low. There are too many ill-informed voices (even among the moderators of some of those communities) mixed in with the very few well-informed voices (that really speak very seldom). First-line SEO researchers generally don't share their findings with the public community. They sure don't serve up their best recipes for public inspection and comment. What IS served up in the forums, occasionally described as "conventional SEO wisdom", is a salad mix of fundamental principles, search engine Webmaster guidelines, and senseless references to "Hilltop", "Florida", "LocalRank", "PageRank", "PR", "patent X", and a few other things. SEO forums are weighted down by the outdated baggage of buzzwords like "quality links", "relevant links", "bad neighborhoods", "good neighborhoods", "relevant content", "quality content", etc. I often wonder what people think they are talking about when they use these expressions. I have used them myself, but I've never felt I've given a really good, concise explanation of what I meant. Nonetheless, people pick up these expressions and run with them. That's just the scariest, craziest thing about the SEO community. They'll believe anything, they'll repeat anything. I give plenty of advice in the forums. I can (and usually do) back up what I say, when I refer to the facts, with relevant citations. I also challenge the common assumptions of "conventional SEO wisdom" because a great deal of it was first proposed by people like me, years ago, when it was useful stuff to know. The search engine technology has left the SEO community behind in the dust. People need to accept that one simply cannot (or SHOULD not) blindly trust whatever one finds online. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose." - Hada Bejar |
