During the last week of September 2012, Google launched another algorithmic change to lower the power of Exact Match Domain (EMD) websites. For example, a website with the URL SanFranBest.com now ranks relatively less well in a “Best Of San Francisco” search than a site called BubbleRock.com, which talks about San Francisco and other great cities around the world. People started freaking out, even though Google stated only 0.6% of websites would be effected.
Google’s goal is to even the playing field for those sites who don’t have relevant key words in their URL, but who also have good, relevant content. Makes sense. A lot of EMD websites were purchased long ago and may not have the quality content as newer websites. Unfortunately, whenever there is a change, someone feels wronged. Furthermore, we all believe our content is excellent, so we start resenting Google for deciding what’s good and what’s not.
Leveling the playing field is a very important goal which has significant socioeconomic parallels. In a society where the rich get richer and more resourceful, it is becoming more difficult for the common person to get into the best schools, land the best jobs, and live the most fulfilling lives. If you grow up in a poor single parent household, how can you compete with Richard King Jones III who lives in a mansion in Greenwich, CT with two loving parents and a tutor to guide? If you’re constantly trying to avoid getting beat up as you walk home from public school, how do you compete for a job with Richard who attends Philipps Exeter Academy and then goes on to Yale?
Competition is possible, but brutally difficult! I’d like to think Google is trying to help the little guy who puts in the effort.
THE CURIOUS SEO “EXPERTS”
The funniest phenomenon I’ve observed is how “SEO Experts” react to each algorithmic change and the recommendations they suggest as if they work for Google. I took a look at one SEO website’s content from the beginning of this year recommending users join link farm networks like Build My Rank (BMR) where you pay a fee to get a massive amount of spammy backlinks. Then Google de-indexed BMR and hurt many sites who participated. Oops. He also said quality content and length of content does not matter and to instead, focus on heavy keywording and SEO structure. Very well. He is entitled to his opinion.
Then this week, he publishes a post on how to overcome every Google update ever where he basically says “Just kidding!” about all his previous advice. His excuse is that he knew his readers wanted easy solutions without having to do the work to rank well, so that is what he gave them. He’s now advocating: “working hard,” providing “true authority,” and “on page optimization.”
In other words, he’s recommending nothing new. We all know in blogging and gaining a presence online there are no real shortcuts in building a quality site with champagne popping traffic. It just takes time.
IMAGINE IF YOU WERE GOOGLE
The easiest way to think about search engine traffic is to think like a search engine.
* We want the most relevant and best content to come up first. If Google users continue to find the best and most relevant content on the top of our search results, our users will continue to come back for more, bringing more advertisers to our search platform. We are a huge publicly traded company that needs to drive growth to create value for our shareholders and ourselves.
* “Best” and “relevant” are subjective words. We must therefore continue to tweak our algorithms to ensure that the best and most relevant content does indeed rise to the top. There are new advances in information and technology every year. Such new information is written by new people who also deserve a chance to get found. As a result, we must be constantly updating our search results as time goes on.
* We realize there is an SEO industry out there trying to figure us out. Given we have proprietary technology and competitors, as soon as the SEO industry figures us out, we lose our competitive advantage against our competitors. Publishers of great content who will likely continue to publish new great content may start losing their positioning as well. As a result, we need to stay opaque and send out various signals to keep them guessing.
* We aren’t fans of the SEO industry. Their existence is an attack to our technology. If our technology was perfect, then there would be no need for SEO experts. Our bots will automatically find the best content and rank them to the top. We’ve already told the web world that all one has to do is write consistent, quality content that provides value to readers in order to rank well. With millions of writers on similar topics, it’s obviously difficult to be the best. We’ve rolled out 20 Panda updates in 2012 already, and plan to continue updating our algorithms to provide the best search experience for our users.
* We need to stay relevant. As companies such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, Wikipedia, Amazon, OpenTable, eBay and so forth become world renowned, Google becomes less relevant. Instead of Googling “best sushi restaurant in San Francisco”, users can now search directly on Yelp. Instead of Googling “the best LED TV”, consumers can go directly to Amazon.
Watch this video where Matt Cutts, Head of Google Webspam argues why you don’t have to be SEO savvy.
SO IS SEO DEAD?
As long as people want to take short cuts, the SEO industry will never die. Why bother writing 100 guest posts that will take an eternity when someone can hire an SEO company to potentially get similar quality link backs? (I don’t know how, but that’s what they claim). It’s in our nature to want the world without having to put in the effort. Many of us, including myself have collected low hanging fruits from our sites. But we’re learning from our experiences, figuring out the best balance, and moving on.
Basic SEO is not dead. Write a search friendly meta title, make sure your post is well-written and contains meaty content, link out to related sources to buttress your point, potentially add a YouTube video, and do a little social networking and you’re good to go!
I now wonder whether the SEO industry can focus its efforts on helping the little guys. I wonder if there’s a way in which the SEO industry can create a cooperative venture with Google in order to help level the playing field for all. If the search world is a true meritocracy, where those who put in the most effort and write the best content get ahead, then cooperation between the SERPs and the search engines make a world of sense.
START A MONEY MAKING BLOG
It’s been six years since I started Financial Samurai and I’m actually earning a good passive income stream online now. The top 1% of all posts on Financial Samurai generates 31% of all traffic. The average age of the top 1% posts is 2.3 years old. In other words, after putting in the hours to write some very meaty content over two years ago, 10 posts consistently generate a monthly recurring income stream that’s completely passive.
I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, check out my step-by-step guide on how to start a blog. It’s one of the best things I did in 2009 to help earn extra money and break free from Corporate America!
It certainly does sound like SEO is becoming more and more a waste of time. If Google creates the perfect search engine, then conceivably we will have perfect search results and no need for SEO.
The issue is, there will always be a debate on what is perfect, and what are the variables in the algo to determine what is perfect. Google is a business first. They are also trying to get the best content, regardless of quality ranked the highest.
Well I obviously don’t know much about SEO because this is the first I’m hearing about the latest Google update. I have a plugin that I use to input the keyword I want for SEO that shows me how many times it’s used in my post, but it’s definitely not something I obsess about.
I write content because I want to say something, not because I want to be at the top of a search page. Sure it’d be awesome to rank well on a lot of topics and get more traffic through searches, but I really don’t focus that much on SEO. Things will always be changing anyway, so what works today probably won’t work the same way in a few years. I like how you say “think like a search engine” and not wasting time getting angry at Google. There are more important things in life!
Sydney, I think that’s a good attitude to have. However, we should spend at least some time on SEO to make sure at least the basics are being accomplished. Titles, tags, and relevancy of content are important. But after that, all is good!
With a PR of 5, you’re clearly doing well!
I don’t believe SEO beyond the basics is a waste of time. I usually spend more time researching each article and optimizing it than I do writing, and the search engines always reward that effort. Some people to think of SEO as a dirty word, as if anyone who optimizes their content is trying to game the system. Honestly, I used to be guilty of this, but then I met a big Panda in February 2011 and quickly changed my tune.
What I’ve learned is this: 1) No, Google does not like to be gamed. Eventually an algorithm will roll out to counteract any major sneaky acts on your part 2) Search engines want the most relevant content to rise to the top. But, in the end, they are only machine-driven and may not be able to figure out if you are any better than the blog next door without a little nudge in the right direction. 3) You can still increase your odds of ranking highly by sending search engine signals that your content is relevant (using keywords people actually search for, getting social media cred and quality back links, etc).
I think the simple strategy you mentioned above is just fine. If you produce quality content and network, search engines will find you. But sometimes it doesn’t hurt to wave a flag in front of your content to get them to take notice a little sooner or give the appearance that you are a little more important than everyone else in the crowd.
Lena, thanks for your thoughts. Which site are you discussing about where you’ve employed more than the basics of SEO to see great search results? I’d love to take a look and learn more from what you’ve done.
Thanks!
I’d be more than happy to show you some examples, but not publicly. :) I’ve been burned one too many times by being too free with my advice due to copycats. I’ve been considering revamping my old SEO guide (I previously offered it on lenagott.com pre-Panda, but never updated it with my post-Panda thoughts). There are many little things I do that happen before I ever get to the optimization step, like researching competitors and completing extensive keyword research, that what I do won’t be obvious from simply looking at an example. I’ll send you a message.
OK, I look forward to your e-mail and secret sauce!
Uh oh – I think it may have gone to spam. I sent it on Oct. 7th to f/s at gmail. I believe I got that from your website. Is there a better email or way to contact you? I just resent the original email in case you see it this time. Let me know if you don’t!
I should also say – even after having said all that, if doing keyword research causes you to have a case of analysis paralysis, do a little bit, then go with it and move on to the next article. What you learn from Analytics data can be just as valuable as toiling over the perfectly optimized article. And you never know when you will stumble across a real winner.
That, and I forgot to link (above) to my original analysis of Panda1 on my body of articles at that time.
At the end of the day, it’s all about quality over quantity. Doing quality search engine optimization like writing well written and formatted posts on a specific topic and organically gaining back-links by doing guest posts, getting included in roundups, and social sharing will help you in the long run. Doing spammy or black-hat SEO like buying links and getting on link exchanges that are designed to fool robots and not actually be read, will wind up hurting you as Google discovers them.
Hmmm, what you say makes sense Sam!
Once again, you’ve made me rethink my course in the way I think about and approach things! Usually it’s in financial matter but this SEO category is just as valuable.
Thanks again!
The problem with Google is that they are completely erratic in their decisions and they keep changing the rules of the game because they have a monopoly.
I’ve been able to observe several things over the past 6 years since I run may blogs and other websites. The funniest part is that after 6 years, each update is still a threat or a blessing for one of my site. The content quality did not change overtime but from time to time, Google decides I should receive 1,000 visits per day from them and some other times, they decide they should only send me 200-300 for the same site.
Over the past years, I have been either heavily penalized or incredibly advantaged in search engine ranking. I always focused on basic SEO and forget about the rest because I thought that it was easier to buy a site that is being liked by Google than creating a site and get the same amount of traffic.
While Matt Cutts claim that Google is here to help you if you make SEO mistakes but you have great content, I can tell you that starting a site today and rank on the first page for a good keyword is impossible if you don’t use SEO.
I would bet with anybody that they can’t get 20,000 visitors/month from search engine by simply just writing good content with a new site. However, if you use SEO, you will get it there. Unfortunately, I’m not good enough at SEO to pretend having the secret solution :-(
Hi Mike – When you say “use SEO”, do you mean hiring an SEO consultant to help you with traffic and keyword ranking?
I think plenty of bloggers get 20,000 a month from search engines through basic content, and basic SEO. What time frame are you talking about to get to this goal?
I’ve never used a SEO consultant (I can’t find someone I can trust ;-) ). Using SEO to a higher level such as using specific strategy like link building, keyword research, article marketing, etc.
I’m pretty sure that most bloggers don’t get 20,000 visitors per month from SE. If it was the case, most bloggers would easily make over $500 (even $1000) per month. We both agreed that it’s not case, right? It would be an interesting pool to make in order to see how many people gets from SE :-).
I can’t believe that you can do it within 12 months now… there are too many bigger players (such as medias and corporation) trying to rank for the same keywords. I’ve conducted a few searches and noticed that now, most pages that rank for my previous top keywords are all big corporation… kind of interesting info!
If You Can Read, You Can Cook probably qualifies as a good example of a site that gets pretty decent Google love without doing any conscious SEO work. If anything, I did many things wrong. Not black-hat wrong, just stupid wrong, like changing domains 6 months in. I have next to no do-follow back-links. It turns 2 this month, and it is currently getting 5000 pageviews per month. At my current rate of growth, I should reach 20,000/month somewhere around the 3 year march.
Sounds good to me. You touch upon another issue, and that is, can people last 3 years? If people can, good things happen!
When I plunged into blogging, I never heard of SEO but I had good number of traffic and visitors. I even managed to get a page rank after a few months. I am confident that I should owe it to relevant and high-quality content of my articles.
I recently changed my approach. For a while I was trying to figure out what keywords to focus on and how to build links to my site and the whole nine yards. Then, I realized that my content wasn’t great. It was okay, but nothing worth linking to. So, I decided to force myself to write longer content. I am still a long ways a way, but I expect in the next year for my traffic to boost. I’ll keep you updated. I’m definitely banking on quality winning out in the long run.
Sounds good. I think more thorough articles will definitely help you tremendously over time, b/c they are the posts that stick around in search for years.
I absolutely think the rule of diminishing returns applies. At work and at home, I give thought to the basic, but not beyond that (I don’t do keyword research, for example – it makes more sense for me to focus my time on content and great writing). Did you read that Forbes piece quoting Matt Cutts on SEO dying as social rises (or a headline to that effect)?
I didn’t read it. Is there a link you can provide? If not, will check it out! thx
It did take me a long time to learn about SEO and I have stayed at the basics – not for want of knowledge. Manipulating any system that uses some kind of measurement to create a ranking is rife – I don’t go for it in any area of my life (my academic life is marred by it as well; publishing has become not about having something to say and contributing to knowledge but about getting into ranked journals and organisational positions). I am a firm believer in growing things organically – takes longer but one is building a solid construction rather than a sky-scrapper build on shallow foundations in the sand.
That’s good imagery Maria. A skyscraper built in sand. Google’s consistent updates are making your imagery a reality.
SEO is not dead by any means, nor it is a waste of time. I have some websites I with good content (not the best), and I don’t think they’d be where they are w/o SEO. as long as one stays away from questionable practices in my experience SEO pays off. quality content, although a necessity, will not get you where you want to go. having said that, SEO can occur “naturally” in the sense one doesn’t have to “pay” for it or “force” it. this approach will take much longer to show any results however. sometimes it may not at all and that’s why deliberate SEO is necessary sometimes
Sunil, so what do you suggest above and beyond the basics of SEO? Do you not agree with any of my points on how Google thinks above?
Well, I’m really having a hard time optimizing my website’s sub-pages even though I created a good content on it, but stil it’s not worth enough the effort for Google. That’s sometimes I keep thinking that I’m wasting too much time in SEO.
I focus my time on managing and improving my content rather than caring about SEO. Yet basic Seo is a main part for website or blog, so I take care for basic parts and leave the rest on google.
[…] got to be very careful what I write, especially if it’s about blogging, online marketing, SEO strategies, and social media because some of the most astute personal finance bloggers on the web read that […]
I agree with this. SEO is necessary because you need to know what people are searching to help guide them to your site, but to ‘game’ the system seems silly to me, because then you get frustrated readers who were looking for quality content, and end up with crappy content that has good SEO.
I have only done basic research when writing an article, and actually haven’t written any article specifically for SEO, though it doesn’t mean I won’t in the future. I just think that hiriing out SEO experts to use black hat tactics to get you ranked well is not a great long-term strategy.
I’m really hoping that the Yakezie Network as a whole will do a lot to raise the standard of writing in the PF sphere. I think it’s happening, and if it can continue to happen, I think everybody benefits!
I can’t agree more!! I don’t know what it is but lately as I have been trying to find out how the PF blogging sphere is moving I’m finding more and more splash pages, poor content, and sales pages. I think bloggers that are here and even solid ones that aren’t have a really important job to keep trying to raise the bar.
As for your post I think it’s hilarious when “experts” have to back track or and I love trying to just focus on quality. I think if you listen to a few good SEO pod casts or get the basics under your belt it’s then the experience that keeps people coming back and sharing. : )
Although my opinion doesn’t count for much as I’m no blogging or SEO expert, but it seems that the best method is to write great content and then apply the “SEO Paint” to make that easy to find with relevant keywords. This is the method I’m using… stay tuned on how it works out.
Common thread in everyone’s thinking is to focus on quality content. Nothing new to any of us. SEO will never be dead. Really, writing good content is SEO… Optimizing for what the search engines are wanting. Google wants good content. Pretty simple game. Shame it’s not as easy as buying a few links and an EMD though!
SEO is a marketing tactic. Just in all marketing tactics, as long as someone know how to use the tactic well, it will continue to be a useful way to acquire users or customers.
There are lots of spam emails but do you think ’email marketing is dead’? Probably not. Similarly, SEO will never die.
Most folks who claim that SEO is dead saw it as a pure manipulative practice designed to misguide the search engines. That is not what SEO is all about.
As to whether your suggested SEO practices are sufficient, let me just say this: within each marketing field there are differing levels of expertise.
In email marketing, there are people who has 50% open rate and there are folks who scrape by with 5%. Can we live with 5% open rate? Of course we can, but a good email marketer knows all the practices that makes email marketing more effective for him.
Similarly for SEO. Anybody can live with basic SEO or even no SEO. However, for those who understands and applys it a bit better gets to enjoy a higher success rate.
Basically, SEO is about the following:
– keyword research
– content
– links
– feedback metrics
Any one of the four areas have depths that can make one’s SEO more effective. Take link building for example. Most SEOs falsely believed that links are everything and they advise getting volumes of spammy links. The real link builders like Eric Ward understands that the true value of links lies in their ability to pass traffic and visibility to the site. As such, his link practices are safe, generates a return for the site owner and avoids depending 100% on Google traffic.
I shall stop here but I hope you understand where I am coming from. SEO cannnot be dead if you know how to use it effectively.
I’m assuming you make a living as an SEO then? What about using your SEO skills to get some traffic on your site and make some money then? Please share with us something new that we may not know. thx
I am not making a living offering SEO services. I am applying them in my current startup koobits.com. During my free time, I like to make or buy websites that pull in some income.
New? What do you want to learn? Everything is about how you combine basic ingredients to form a delicious recipe. Knowing where to get keywords is one area where you get a lot of advantage. For example, I always target new product launches because they have no competition. I also used keyword cross promotion whereby the keywords that are bringing in traffic for one site is being applied to another site.
You rudely write on your blog that I’m a novice, yet you have no traffic on your site. You write on your blog that you make $100-$200 a month, which is fine, but a tiny fraction of what many of us make online.
If you are such a veteran SEO, then where are the results? I’d like to know where you come across as calling me a “novice”. Do you know my experience or income from online? I don’t go attacking you.
If you want to learn how to retire by 40, go read retireby40.org.
Aaron, who are you? You show poor taste on your own website by insulting Sam. He doesn’t talk about you in his post and you act so condescending yet have nothing to back up your claims.
I still believe in the classic method of adding quality content to your website in order to get a high Google ranking. It would also be beneficial if you put in some videos and promote your site on various social media networks. I don’t think that people need SEO beyond the basics to get a high rank. The SEO industry still exists because a large majority of people want their sites to get a high rank in Google overnight. Content and Design is king
I don’t really think SEO is a waste of time. I have been in this industry for over two years and what I have observed is that good quality content is vital. Although you’re right about huge number of writers out there but still ‘content is king’. Important is it has relevance to your market and your market can benefit from it.
Overall, I don’t think SEO is dead or a waste of time. The problem with SEO experts is that SEO isn’t like physics – there are no laws. SEO evolves, not based on fixed logic or principles, but based on an a team that is human and is capable of making mistakes, changing their short-term objectives, and changing the way they try to achieve these objectives.
As long as there is an algorithm in place to decide the rankings, however, there will always be a way to optimize your site and affect the rankings. How you do it will change, and the factors will change in terms of how they are weighted. The “expert SEO” is one who stays current with the changes, staying on top of “what works.”
When Google started out over a decade ago, don’t you think they had the same goals as they do today? Quality content? Reduced spam? Relevant results? The same goals have always been in place. Therefore, if you create your site with this in mind, you’ll always have a better chance of ranking.
The more you try to “game the system,” the more at risk you will be for being hurt by Google’s changes. Once again though, this isn’t a new phenomenon. SEOs have always had this risk, and will continue to have it in the future.
Just my $0.02…
Thanks for the mention! I personally think SEO beyond the basics is a waste of time. For the most part, traffic and engagement are better for you and your reader. With that said, there are advanced SEO strategies to use for niche sites but I think Google is getting better at penalizing site owners that use those strategies.
Most folks who claim that SEO is dead saw it as a pure manipulative practice designed to misguide the search engines. That is not what SEO is all about.
As to whether your suggested SEO practices are sufficient, let me just say this: within each marketing field there are differing levels of expertise.
You’re probably right. And at the same token, how do we really rate our “SEO expertise?” My position is after the basics, SEO doesn’t really matter. Hence, how much of an expert can someone be after the basics?
For getting a site cleaned up, or analyzed, an SEO is very welcome. But other than that, what to do?
[…] you can gather from my previous posts on SEO, I really don’t think SEO matters beyond the basics. The basics include a searchable title, filling out the meta description, writing […]
[…] does have some link power.I’m pretty anti-SEO as you’ve read in posts such as: Is SEO A Waste Of Time? and Thin Content Is Out, Thick Content Is In. Beyond basic SEO that should be naturally […]
[…] what the SEO industry and bloggers like to do. Check out this post I wrote in September, 2012 asking whether SEO is a waste of time. In my opinion it is, beyond the basics. The time spent trying to do SEO could be better spent […]