1.1. Keep It Real... Search Engines Get Smarter Fast
Everything starts somewhere. And the first Search Engines were indeed pretty simple. To determine the relevance of Web pages for a search term, they looked for keywords in various places on a Web page.
It was easy for marketers to meet/manipulate the crude “relevancy algorithms” of Search Engines. All you had to do was stuff a page with “invisible” keywords (ex., text in the same color as background color) and BINGO! Your page would rank #1 for search requests for that “stuffed” keyword.
“Search Engine Optimization” (“SEO”) was not yet an official “profession” (the first marketers discovered and saved their tricks for their own benefit). Their rudimentary reverse-engineering allowed them to rank highly at the engines for all their important keywords, with little work.
Life was bountiful for Search Engine Optimizers (SEOers). The relevancy algorithms were easy to reverse-engineer and manipulate and “beat.” (Yes, even then the SEO concept was to “beat” the engines, sort of like the way you might beat the game of blackjack at the casinos.)
And just to make life extra-sweet...
... there was near-zero
sophistication amongst competitors.
Some SEOers were “good” (called “white hats” nowadays). They played within the rules. They tried to match the “algorithms of the month” without abusing the SEs (Search Engines).
Others were “bad” (yup, “black hats”). They exploited loopholes in the rules and otherwise tried to fool the engines. Crude tricks like “keyword stuffing” worked, followed by replicated gateway pages. (99% identical, only one optimized keyword would vary.)
But the engines evolved.
As old tricks stopped working, more sophisticated gimmicks emerged. “Non-replicated, zero-value doorway pages” and “cloaking” took center stage. Just like the earlier generation of tricks, they worked at first.
But the engines evolved.
And yet, the games continue, new ploys replacing discarded ones, right up to the extremely sophisticated maneuvers of today.
But the engines never rest. They get smarter. It may not seem so day by day, but month upon month, year upon year, they evolve, and they always will.
SIDEBAR
Don’t get the wrong impression. Engines do not adapt to
counteract SEOers. That does happen to some small degree, of course.
The main drive, though, is to get better at their primary mission...
recognizing reality. More on this later.
While the engines ban the “bad” SEOers, even the “white hats” will progressively fall by the wayside. In the long run, the Search Engines don’t really care whether an SEOer is “good” or “bad.” They are all part of a “whip and buggy industry,” unable to keep up with the natural pressure of engine evolution.
And speaking of evolution...
... the Net is a
Darwinian environment. SEOers will become extinct as the “search
ecosystem” becomes untenable and complex.
SEOers, by the very definition of the nature of their jobs, work specifically to rank highly at the Search Engines, for keywords related to the businesses of their clients. They do that by trying to meet the requirements of the SEs’ algorithms.
But there are two problems with that approach...
1) Complexity-- in those “good old days,” it was fairly easy to reverse-engineer the engines. It is now amazingly complex. So SEOers make their best educated guesses at what the algorithms “require” in order to rank highly.
SIDEBAR
If anyone ever gives you the impression that s/he knows exactly what the
SEs “want,” run-don’t-walk in the opposite
direction. No one knows the “secret sauce formula.” At Google,
for example, a grand total of three people might know the entire
big picture -- everyone else works on a small piece of it.
And those three people? They are tied down by a Non-Disclosure Agreement that makes the one for Coca-Cola’s formula look like Swiss cheese.
Frankly, it’s the height of ego and self-delusion for any “outsider” to pretend that they know how any major Search Engine determines what a Web page is all about.
And yet, post after post in SEO forums are all about that. It’s really just speculation, a waste of time.
As the months fly by, the job of algorithm-chasing becomes harder and harder... with lower and lower yield. Bad news for SEOers.
2) Reality -- if the “complexity” problem sounds big, it’s nothing compared to the issue of “reality.” Actually, “Complexity Avenue” meets “Reality Street”...
... at “Impossibility
Square.”
To understand why, let’s jump to an important question and its oft-overlooked answer...
Q: “What is the ultimate goal of Search Engines like Google?”
A: “Recognize what a page/site is all about and how good it is.”
Sound easy? Well...
It is easy for a human. But it is incredibly complicated for a machine. Yes, Search Engines are getting more and more sophisticated...
- computing power continues to double every 18 months
- hundreds of brilliant computer PhDs work 24 x 7 to build smarter algorithms
- major technology jumps (ex., Artificial Intelligence) will become important.
So the engines will indeed get better and better at what their goal boils down to...Recognize Reality.
However, SEOers do not create reality. They merely mimic it. They try to meet a formula’s definition of reality... a definition that is constantly changing and becoming more and more complex.
In a mere year, today’s “sophisticated definition of reality” will be considered as crude as “keyword stuffing.” How in the world can anyone keep up with that kind of acceleration of complexity?
They can’t.
The SEOers’ never-ending chase of the ever-evolving algorithms is doomed. Even today, algorithm shakeups cause great consternation. Whenever the “Google Dance” happens, a pained uproar goes up amongst the SEO forums, as if Google owed them a living.
Whenever a major Search Engine changes its algorithms, SEOer teeth-gnashing starts anew. The same controversies flare...
“How unfair,” they clamor, “that the engines don’t post their relevancy criteria. ”Somehow, they figure the search world would be a better place if that were to happen. Better for whom? And for how long? Every “black hat” would quickly get to work on mimicking the “secret sauce.”
You stand at an important crossroads... take months to learn complicated
SEO and run the “treadmill of ever-increasing complexity”?
Or use Content 
Traffic PREselling Monetization
to leapfrog straight to what the engines seek... reality (relevance
and quality).
The proof of the “power of simplicity” is indisputable -- 62% of SBI!-built sites surge into the Top 3% of all Web sites...
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/traffic-alexa.html
And the entire body of proof of its power is overwhelming (and unmatched)...
My recommendation? Clear your mind. Simplify your life. Focus on your business. You will “win the world” by not meddling with it.
But only you can decide the right path for you. Read this booklet and then decide.
As we proceed, remember this important fact...
The Search Engines owe nothing to SEOers, “good” or “bad.”
The Search Engines owe nothing to those who use Content Traffic PREselling Monetization.
They do not “reward” you for creating great Content out of
appreciation, nor as a way to say “thank you.” It’s
merely what happens because of what the engines want.
So... to whom do the Search Engines cater? Simple...
They deliver searchers the best search results possible. And they do that, in turn, for one reason only...
Search Engines owe their actual customers, advertisers, the most targeted eyeballs possible. That obligation is why all engines will constantly strive to get better at the two-word mission that best summarizes their #1 Goal...
MYLW: <<1. In the Beginning 1.1 Keep It Real 1.2 Search Engine Mission>>
