Search Engines Marketing Blog

It used to be simple, the rules where clear, the Search Engines and us had an agreement, We would tell them what our page is all about and they would display it when a user requested information about the subject, and now …

They had to make it complicated, they do not trust us anymore, we are laying, we are the devils who want to take their pressure search users and drive them to unwanted dark and shady places, this is what they are telling the public but …. by the way they are making more money due to this!

What have changed? Goggle figured out that in order to fight a few people who are doing a good job in optimizing their sites, in order to fight these “manipulators” it needs to define something which is called an “over optimization penalty” or in other words, “the trick how not to show the most relevant page to the user so he can stay more on the google search results page and may click some more adwords and create more money for google”

And it is becoming worst by the month.

Just an example, we had a page about a specific term, that was very informational and good for the client, it used to rank #1 just because we had the name in the URL, it was in the H1 tag and most of the natural incoming anchor text was (naturally) that specific term.

Suddenly the page disappeared from the SERPs, so we changed the page title to no include the term, and then it magically appeared.

After a month it disappeared again so we removed the H1 and replaced it with a large font title, surly the page returned again.

Then it was gone again, so we renamed the URL to not include the term and did 301, it came back

Then we removed the meta tags, and then replaced many of the instances where the term appear on the page with some of it’s synonyms, then we bought many more links to reduce the anchor text density and we used as anchor other stupid words …..

Man – where will it end !

The worst thing of all is that a clear page about a specific subject now looks more obscure to the user, and the more it happens the other engines are dropping this page in ranking as well …

I can only imagine that in a few years time what will be written on the page will be so cryptic that no novice user will be able to figure what the page is all about, something like: this page is about a 5 letter words where the 1st letter is the 1st letter also in the name of the 2nd president of the united states and the 2nd letter is the 3rde letter in the picture titled picture 1 on the page below, the 3rd letter is what your like to drink when …..

Is this where we really want to be ?

Over Optimization Penalties are wrong, find some other means to fight the manipulators an let us speak clearly to our audience and serve it better!

here are a few wise words from some good people that related to the technorati state when looking for some highly competative terms in the travel indestry.

Monty Python Spam Song
Scene: A cafe. One table is occupied by a group of Vikings wearing horned helmets. Whenever the word “spam” is repeated, they begin singing and/or chanting. A man and his wife enter. The man is played by Eric Idle, the wife is played by Graham Chapman (in drag), and the waitress is played by Terry Jones, also in drag.

Man: You sit here, dear.
Wife: All right.
Man: Morning!
Waitress: Morning!
Man: Well, what’ve you got?
Waitress: Well, there’s egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam;
Vikings: Spam spam spam spam…
Waitress: …spam spam spam egg and spam; spam spam spam spam spam spam baked beans spam spam spam…
Vikings: Spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!
Waitress: …or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam.
Wife: Have you got anything without spam?
Waitress: Well, there’s spam egg sausage and spam, that’s not got much spam in it.
Wife: I don’t want ANY spam!
Man: Why can’t she have egg bacon spam and sausage?
Wife: THAT’S got spam in it!
Man: Hasn’t got as much spam in it as spam egg sausage and spam, has it?
Vikings: Spam spam spam spam… (Crescendo through next few lines…)
Wife: Could you do the egg bacon spam and sausage without the spam then?
Waitress: Urgghh!
Wife: What do you mean ‘Urgghh’? I don’t like spam!
Vikings: Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Waitress: Shut up!
Vikings: Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Waitress: Shut up! (Vikings stop) Bloody Vikings! You can’t have egg bacon spam and sausage without the spam.
Wife: I don’t like spam!
Man: Sshh, dear, don’t cause a fuss. I’ll have your spam. I love it. I’m having spam spam spam spam spam spam spam beaked beans spam spam spam and spam!
Vikings: Spam spam spam spam. Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Waitress: Shut up!! Baked beans are off.
Man: Well could I have her spam instead of the baked beans then?
Waitress: You mean spam spam spam spam spam spam… (but it is too late and the Vikings drown her words)
Vikings: Spam spam spam spam. Lovely spam! Wonderful spam! Spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam. Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Spam spam spam spam!

and the only thing I can add to this is what Monty Python also said once : SAY NO MORE …. :->

We keep on hearing that the Search Engines are looking for good content, what is really the definition good content, if both the SEO community and the engines will agree on this it will make our life easier.
Good content IMO is giving the END USER who posted the query the most relevant answer to his knowledge needs.
There are indications that points in the query itself if the information requested is informational (information on widget) or commercial (buy widget), but what do you do with a query of “widget”, then it is up to the engine to make the balance between informational content and commercial one.

that brings me to the issue of redirects and cloaking, both the engine and the SEO are trying to serve the end user and bring him the most targeted information for him to covert (as a specific search engine fun and as a widget consumer), for SEO this is a two step process, 1st you need to get the position in the SERPs where the end user is looking for the information and then – 2nd you need to actually deliver the most converting content to the user, this is why the Search engines should not punish or ban sites which use cloaking and using redirects in order to enhance the user experience and convert him better.
The Search engines measurement to their success and the success of their SERP is the fact that most users will not click a lot of results, but will find the information, data and target end sites they are looking for in the minimum amount of clicks on the SERPS.

Last night I watched a re-run of “The Mango”, an episode of the American television program Seinfeld, in one of the scenes Elaine talks with Jerry about his performance in bed while they were dating, Elaine tells Jerry that without him knowing, she had faked all her orgasms during their relationship and gives him a reality check:

JERRY: You faked it?
ELAINE: I faked it.
JERRY: That whole thing, the whole production, it was all an act?
ELAINE: Not bad, huh?
JERRY: What about the breathing, the panting, the moaning, the screaming?
ELAINE: Fake, fake, fake, fake.
JERRY: I’m stunned, I’m shocked! How many times did you do this?
ELAINE: Uuuhm, all the time.
JERRY: All the time?! But I’m so good.
ELAINE: Jerry, listen, it wasn’t you. I just didn’t have ‘em back then.

We work with some of top players in the most competitive markets out there, many times while reviewing a particular search engine results page with a client and looking at the URLs listed there I turn to this quote of “Fake, fake, fake, Fake !” …..