Search Engine Optimization: May 2007 Archives

It started with an article on Forbes called “Condemned to Google Hell”, an article that goes through cautionary tale after cautionary tale of what happens when you inadvertently incur the wrath of the Google Gods and get sorted into Google’s supplemental index.

According to the article, the supplemental index is “designed to lighten the workload of Google's 'spider,' the algorithm that constantly combs and categorizes Web pages. Google uses the index as a holding pen for pages it deems to be of low quality or designed to appear artificially high in search results.”

So -- is Google’s supplemental index fair or foul?

According to Matt Cutts (Head of Google’s WebSpam department), being in the supplemental index is not a death sentence for a Web site and there are ways to lessen the chances of ending up there. However, being relegated to Google Hell can have disastrous effects, as it did for www.mysolitaire.com.

As Cutts describes what mysolitarie did wrong, we can learn what to do right. First, steer clear of nefarious (black hat) SEO tactics as part of your strategy. Second, if you hire an SEO outsource, be careful who you pick and monitor what they do after you hire them.

More blog reactions to the article –

Cautionary Advice from The Marketing Pilgrim

Commentary from Jason Lee Miller at WebPro News.

If you want to drive traffic to your Web site, engine optimization (SEO) almost always has a role. But before your launch into an SEO program, take a quick rest stop and consider--

1. How best to optimize organic search for your Web site.

2. How organic search fits into your overall search marketing strategy.

Organic search results are simply the “main” results you get on Google as opposed to the upper and side banner results which are paid for by advertisers. Google’s ability to find the best results possible for your search term/keywords is their bread and butter and it could be yours as well, depending on your Web strategy. Search engine optimization drives “free” traffic to your site.

Sounds great. So why wouldn't everyone want to build a search strategy around organic search?

1. It forces you to make your site extremely focused with a limited number of keyword phrases.

2. It requires frequent review, updating and modification to hone the precision of your keyword phrases and adapt to the ever-changing rules of the major search engines.

3. Organic search is not a "quick fix". It can take months to achieve top rankings.

4. And there are no guarantees. Depending on your industry, first page positioning may be difficult or impossible to achieve.

PPC advertising and other paid search options deliver immediate results, but like any marketing tactic carry their own set of disadvantages. For further reading--

Bitwise Logic discusses the relative merits of organic versus pay-per-click (PPC) search marketing.