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Why it’s important to understand SEO
In the July/August issue of 1to1 Magazine we’re working on a story about search engine optimization (SEO) and how mastering it is more than just knowing which keywords to buy and how to create the most inbound or outbound links. I came across two examples this week of companies that clearly don’t understand what SEO is all about, for two very different reasons. One is looking at a possible ban from Google for undermining the spirit of search engine practices, while the other has its head in the sand trying to pretend the digital age isn’t happening.
You may remember hearing about a story reported earlier this month by most major news outlets about a 13-year old boy who supposedly stole his dad’s credit card, hired hookers, and then proceeded to play Xbox with his friend and ignore them. None of it was true. The story was made up by Lyndon Antcliff as “linkbait,” an attempt to create a lot of incoming traffic for the site, money.co.uk, on which the story was hosted.
He didn’t do anything illegal, but Google is considering action against the site for not disclosing that the story was fake (a note stating the article is a parody has since been added). There are many ways to trick search engines into ranking a site higher than it should be, or building traffic dishonestly; generally this is referred to as “black hat SEO.” I don’t know if what Antcliff did rises to that level, but he did prove how powerful viral marketing can be. Unfortunately by doing so he also killed the credibility of his client.
While the fake story was created to drive more traffic from search engines, a group of newspapers in Belgium want to stop Google from driving traffic to their sites. The publishers allege that Google News violates copyright law when it includes links to their articles and the first few sentences in its search results.
Only the print media could pull a stunt like this, denying that the Internet changes the way people consume information. I don’t know what the subscription numbers are for newspapers in Belgium, but I’m guessing it’s lower than the number of people worldwide who access Google News. The papers have asked for $1.5 million per day if Google refuses to take down their content. Maybe they’ll use the money to buy a clue and put revenue-generating ads on their sites to take advantage of the traffic they get from search.
*Images: www.digitalheretix.com, www.westwiltshire.gov.uk*
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This does remind me of Ted Leonsis's comment at a WOMMA conference in 2007 that, increasingly, marketers find themselves forced into "marketing to algorithms". (I wasn't there to hear his keynote, but I read about it in several blogs after the event).
Leonsis illustrated this point with the fact that one time his car's control panel apparently gave him a message that he needed new tires, so he used several hours of his day to do that. But he had already ignored the millions of dollars spent in advertising and promotion by the tire company, all aimed at trying to get him to do the same thing.
The search-engine optimization task, essentially, boils down to algorithms. In SEO you're trying to anticipate the algorithms used by various search engines, and then to use your own algorithms to ensure that your message appeals more strongly to those search engine algorithms.
There may also be an analogy here with respect to how the financial markets have changed in the last five years or so. Roughly three out of four stocks today are traded solely by computer programs -- not by human decision, in other words, but by applying algorithms that evaluate the financial opportunities available as a result of other algorithms.