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Archive for November 2007

Do keywords in url’s matter?

In seo on November 30, 2007 at 12:59 pm
13 comments
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Jill talks about changing url’s in her post here.  In my opinion, if you have a good ranking URL then to change it for the sake of a position or 2 is a little silly and potentially destructive.

That said, it did get me thinking about the whole keywords in url thing around whether it is a good thing or a bad thing to use them.

Perhaps bad thing doesn’t really come in to it. Besides excessive use, I can’t think of any bad reason at all. I think  if anything they are good thing as they are both descriptive for humans and may also gain you a little weight in any link based algorithm that gave weight to keywords in the anchor text of a link, especially if people chose to link to you using the url only. Seen within a SERP they may also inspire a user to click through, simply via the fact that they tie the page to to the user query.

Consider this.

domain.com/keyword-keyword.htm

vs

domain.com/123456789.htm

Now, if that url is picked up by a search engine then any anchor text attribution will either be of the form 123456789 or keyword-keyword. Keyword-keyword would certainly be of more benefit especially as -’s are treated as space delimiters. (Jill does cover  this in her piece, so do go checkout what she said)

So what to do? Do we create nice juicy keyword urls in our CMS’s or do we just stick to short xyzpagename.htm conventions? I think it’s pretty clear to say that we’d be better served long term by using keywords in our URL’s, if only for the user benefits mentioned previously.

Algorithmically do keywords in a url even matter?

It’s hard to prove or disprove absolutely. I’ve tested this in the past and at the time I came to the conclusion that keywords in a url were worth doing and did give you an additional asset. Yet I can’t say with any certainty that the same applies today and forver more, simply because there are too many variables at play and you can’t ever be certain for sure around what SERPs are being weighted in which way and why. IMO different SERPs have different entry criteria, what might be easy to rank for in one space will be doubly difficult in another, simply because of how the algo has been weighted at the backend.

Search algorithms are a constantly moving target, (a little like search guidelines ;) ) They are updated and modified to take into account both the changing nature of the Internet itself as well as the actions of SEO’s looking to exploit a flaw or two.

How would you test such a thing?

There are all manner of ways of testing things, or reverse engineering algorithms to test and see how they work. I won’t focus too much on the software that already exists out there other than to say that some programs allow you to analyse SERPs and look at things like keyword placement and densities and back link numbers and other contributing factors to overall SERP position, none of which do any kind of definitive ‘that’s the whole unifying answer to what you seek’ simply because there are too many hidden variables that we don’t have absolute access and scrutiny of. These might be the trust rank number of the page or domain that links out, the human factor of the edited SERP whereby a search engine employee has artificailly downgraded or boosted a particular page or domain.

Thankfully, for the purpose of this little test, I think there is still a way to determine whether keywords in a url have a contributory benefit.For the basis of this example, in a test of ‘do keywords  in the url have any bearing on a serp’ here is what you might want to try.

Create 2 pages of equal size and structure.

Lets say that each page has a title tag, a h1 tag a paragraph of random nonsense text with an instance of the ‘magic’ keyword. The magic keyword would be something like huggersaurus, that mythical friendly dinosaur with a penchant for squashing people with love.

Page one would would mention the keyword in the title, the Hn tag, the p tag and in the url.

Page two would would mention the keyword in the title, the Hn tag, the p tag but not within the url.

We would then link to these pages using our anchor text and see what one would be returned first in any SERP.

We would need to vary the other words with our title and Hn and paragraph tags in a way that created two different pages of equal size and keyword density. It wouldn’t really help our test if one was demoted on the basis of some dupe content penalty.

We’d also need to ensure that for the purposes of our test, we measured and monitored what page we linked to first and how.

For example, I might well create a  link_to_page_one_ here, then a link_to_page_two_here.

Any bot encountering such links *might* well take into account what link was cited first and apply a small degree of weight in any date_encountered_timestamp field. To account for this, we would run another test in tandem that reversed the positions, so that we linked to page with keywords in the url second, rather than 1st. The pages would be of equal size and structure albeit with a different keyword.We could then look at what page was returned in any SERP and draw our various conclusions. If page with keyword in URL was returned 1st, then we could say that keywords in the URL do have a slight advantage over those that do not.

If we wanted to, we could also play around a little more and link to the pages in different ways. We could see if anchor text gave a significant boost to our pages and record how variances affected the outcomes. We could for example link to the page with the single keyword or multiple keywords, or the absence of the keywords and rinse and repeat until we were happy with our results.

Lots of SEO’s do this sort of stuff, it’s a great way of learning about algo’s and weightings and how the positioning of elements can and does have an effect of the makeup of a SERP. That said, lots of SEO’s don’t bother either, simply because they already have an instinctual feel for what works and what doesn’t. They know how to get pages ranked and know the best methods for doing so. They don’t need to test such things and unless you are an anorak geek, neither should you really! It’s fun to play around with it though, dont you think? :D

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Closed for a long lunch

In blogging on November 21, 2007 at 7:42 pm
22 comments

I’m taking a note out of David Aireys book and have decided to take a break from this stuff.

Lately I find myself either rehashing what others have done, or getting all hatey with a company who couldn’t really care less about what I think anyways, and that’s just all a little crap and life’s too short for all that nonsense. I’m going to concentrate on some of the more positive things out there on the Internet and try and have a little fun with it all instead.

To my American friends, I’d like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope it’s spent with those you care for and who care for you too. For everyone else, stay safe , see you when I feel a little less gloomy about this particular niche!

Meantime, I thought it would be nice to leave you all with some of the things you’ve said here these past 11 months, and give you a little link love too. To the guys a big firm pat on the back, to the girls a warm friendly hug. BFN

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It just goes right back to the fact that G thinks …
Jim Kukral said on… Pssst…wanna buy a link?
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Great post about the SERP and juice. I liked the c…
Joe Whyte said on… SEO – Brain surgery? Perhaps not, but its not so far off!
Hey Rob,

This is a realy well thought out post! V…

John said on… Writing or Buying Paid Posts
When considering whether or not to contribute or c…
John Cronin said on… Buying links without a creditcard
Hi There

(I’m a recent feed subscriber.)

It’s no…

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So I thought that I was alone to get all those and…
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John Pickering said on… Buying links without a creditcard
Hi Rob,
I’ve read your blog for a while now and ne…
Johnson C. Philip said on… SEO Job in London? SEO Vacancies London
Thanks for, among other things, the SEO articles a…
Jonathan-C. Phillips said on… Tumbleweed Plugin – Get more comments on your blog posts
Hi Rob, i tried the plugin, it’s working fine, exc…
Judy said on… 10 magnificent steps on becoming a crappy blogger
I really thought that was a great and smart post! …
Jules said on… Tumbleweed Plugin – Get more comments on your blog posts
Oh I like the sounds of this! Drop me a line when…
Justin said on… Really really bad blackhat SEO
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That is one of the most angry and amusing blog pos…
JW said on… Why domain authority and trust is not to be trusted
Unfortunatley there is little you can do to begin …
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Nice article. And no one can come around the fact …
Keiron said on… 10 magnificent steps on becoming a crappy blogger
I love it! Clearly I am failing in my calling as a…
Kevin Henney said on… Lazy ubiquitous everywhereiness
I think the potential for this type of abuse first…
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Kit said on… SEO’s our own worst enemies and Negative SEO
You make a lot of sense Rob. One can only hope tha…
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Thats just awesome, never knew that! However it wo…
kuku man said on… 10 magnificent steps on becoming a crappy blogger
Wonder if my blog is a crappy blogger…

eventhou…

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I think a plugin in that is highly underrated is A…
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Hmmm…went from vision therapy to German costumes…
Laura said on… Tumbleweed Plugin – Get more comments on your blog posts
Really sweet idea. I have a blog begun in 2004 and…
Le blog SEO du Portail du Web said on… Buying links without a creditcard
Google have demonised the concept of buying links,…
Lee said on… Bidvertiser – monetizing a blog?
I tried out Bidvertiser when they first launched t…
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Very nice post, I’ve had tons of visitors from Stu…
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What newspapers etc can do better than bloggers an…
Linkbait Cowboy said on… Controversy marketing – why it works and why you should consider it
For ages I have been looking for someone to get st…
lisi said on… Using the HTTP Referer to personalise your pages
so .. this is not out of TOC?
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I actually came here searching for really really b…
Local SEO Specialist – Terry Reeves said on… SEM Role Acquired – Attention span required
Excellent Rob!

I am not sure how I found your blo…

louis r bucalo said on… Writing or Buying Paid Posts
If you want to buy articles be sure to work with a…
Lucia said on… Spotting comment spammers and link droppers
Hey, great plugin! :)
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I’ve…

Luke said on… Paid posts are the devil incarnate according to search engines
How come we never here anything from Yahoo! and MS…
Lyndoman said on… I’m an SEO expert, no really I am, trust me, you have my word
I know what you mean about Ugly Betty, the wife lo…
Lyndon said on… Mybloglog messaging system and why I think it sucks
Yum, spam.

I will check it out and resist the te…

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Finally I got round to installing this. The time I…
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Magician said on… Spotting comment spammers and link droppers
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Maki said on… Don’t ever bank on free traffic, build on it
Hey Rob,

Thanks for the mention.

Actually, my…

Malignition.com said on… Wordpress Pagerank flow considerations
Interesting indeed. I was completely unaware that …
Manila Mom said on… Link tips – are you linking to your friends in a useful way?
I usually link using the blog name itself, especia…
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I see Lyndon’s picture on social media sites all t…
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I just looked at that tool and had a question. A l…
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I guess I’m not the only one that found the “I lea…
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I am just amazed how you made pictures in your blo…
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I think that your advice is great for those that a…
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Rob – great comments here. Been a while since I h…
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Great article – lots of additional tips for the ol…
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Howdy Matt – Great post! I’m in total agreement, …
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Consider Google as the best search engine at the m…
Martin said on… Old School SEO Sucks and is a waste of money
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Marty said on… Brand Building – How social media sites help build your brand
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Great Post!

I’ve been wanting to write something …

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Google toolbar search throws up this message a goo…
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Would be nice if they explained why they man handl…
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this is great! I can’t believe I didn’t find this…
Matt Keegan said on… Pay to Blog what’s the big deal?
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It’s probably an error on Google’s part, but what …
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Great read and it’s true, yet I’m a victim of obse…
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The right answer is, text link ads. They are mini…
Meg said on… Learning from your blogging mistakes – 5 things to avoid when blogging
Hi Rob

OK, so that got my attention! Being liked …

menopauseprincess said on… 10 magnificent steps on becoming a crappy blogger
This is a great article. As a newbie blogger I had…
Merell said on… Google spidering its own custom search results?
Its actually a good idea to display the distance o…
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miadeo said on… Give a little link love say no to nofollow remove the link condoms
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Michael said on… Spotting comment spammers and link droppers
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Mieszkania Poznan said on… Google Like it – Promote your site in your SERPs
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Mike said on… Monetize your blog or website – Earn money from your passions
Wow, what an awesome reply :D

The click ratio was…

Mike – Twenty Steps said on… Closed for a long lunch
I’m hearing you, Rob. I’m in a similar situation m…
Misha said on… Paid posts are the devil incarnate according to search engines
Rob,

Thanks for putting it all together. It doe…

Mitchell Haynes said on… Google spidering its own custom search results?
Google spidering its own custom search results? – …
mlankton said on… Learning from your blogging mistakes – 5 things to avoid when blogging
Fortunately I changed my permalinks after about 3 …
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nofollow sucks. if someone is leaving you a commm…
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I hate nofollow so I figured out how to use the Do…
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I would add to your list of mistakes, don’t do som…
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why lie i just want a link!just joking after all y…
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The bottom line is do what is right for you and yo…
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Your blog is the best blog in the world!!
Hi Rob

Nate said on… Mybloglog messaging system and why I think it sucks
I agree. Worst idea out there. However I was hopin…
Ned Carey said on… Why domain authority and trust is not to be trusted
It is frustrating to see links from social network…
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Nick Wilsdon said on… SEM Role Acquired – Attention span required
Hey Rob,

Good news on the new job, those tests s…

NikiV said on… SEO Porn
No fair! I was really hoping for some hot, sexy S…
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I have blogs that have PR and almost all content i…
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O said on… Wordpress Pagerank flow considerations
I use something very similar in my blog header. I …
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Operating Agreement said on… Promote my website online in 2008
You have some great tips here!
Out of curiousity…
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Being penalized definitely sucks, it’s happened to…
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Paul Buchhorn – Online Marketing News said on… Just another iphone blogpost? Yeah probably
im not interest on an iphone. i dont post about it…
Paula Mooney said on… Don’t ever bank on free traffic, build on it
Very cool, Rob.

You’re right, the way my email su…

Paula Neal Mooney said on… Pay to Blog what’s the big deal?
I know, right? What’s the big deal? I turn down as…
pennis said on… Online Marketing Show Islington London
you are such a dick head. by getting a little buis…
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interesting post rob, but i guess i don’t understa…
Peter said on… Promote my website online in 2008
SEO ITS COOL! :-)
Peter Egan said on… SEO’s our own worst enemies and Negative SEO
This was an excellent piece about a subject that f…
phil b said on… SEO’s our own worst enemies and Negative SEO
Is there any evidence that Google even pays attent…
Phishie Diaz said on… Controversy marketing – why it works and why you should consider it
You’ve really hit the nail on the head, mate. Like…
Phoenix SEO said on… Google spidering its own custom search results?
When I read this kind of stuff I left scratching m…
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All that matters is the bottom line. This blog pos…
pittfall said on… PageTank – Have you been hit by the PageRank hatey stick?
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Principle Oz said on… Online Marketing Show Islington London
I just recently learned what SEO is and how it cou…
Promotional Dude said on… Adding images to your blog posts with Flickr
Excellent post, I learned a few things; thank you!…
Randa Clay said on… Give a little link love say no to nofollow remove the link condoms
Want to tell everyone that you’ve turned off the…
Reggie von Zugbach said on… What’s your tumbleweed ratio?
This sounds like a fun idea. Wish I had thought of…
rishil said on… Twitter – 6 little things on why twitter is great
I love twitter. One thing I keep telling friends i…
rita said on… Writing or Buying Paid Posts
Great points. I had someone write a paid review of…
RK said on… Tumbleweed Plugin – Get more comments on your blog posts
Thanks Rob! Sure looks exciting … and I did bung…
rob said on… Podcast your blogs – turn your blog posts into audio files odiogo
http://www.odiogo.com/faq_content_providers.php#q1…
Rob Hallums said on… Online PR – Off Site SEO – If there’s a difference it depends on who you are
That’s a very useful article. I always try and rel…
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Hey Rob,

Thanks for responding to the tag mate, s…

robwatts said on… So I have a blog
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Barbara :) I…
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I’m with you Rob. A great book or mag on a plane …
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Hi, you share a lot of interesting info and though…
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I just wanted to write and congratulate BlogCatalo…
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Hi Rob,
Liking your work.
i am doing a web desi…
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I have a blog called “The Gadget Spot”. I would ap…
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Where can I find resources about working with Goog…
Santa Barbara SEO said on… Writing or Buying Paid Posts
Great post thanks for sharing your experience. Jus…
santaram said on… 10 magnificent steps on becoming a crappy blogger
hi thanks for adding my blog in technorati favouri…
Sarah said on… MyBlogLog – Y! Privacy and Widgetisation
Aww thanks for the mention! :0)

Must admit I ha…

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Well at least I got to be super girl! Now I see wh…
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Hi, To the extent we know, we’re safeguarded again…
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Hi Mike, damn, I dont know what happened there – o…
Seo Blog said on… Blogging is dead, no more blogging, a last word
wow… that’s an interesting thought. Personally I…
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Interesting statistics, I’ve been using digg all o…
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It is great for networking and the evolution of Tw…
SEO Consultant – Terry Reeves said on… SEO Porn
SEO Porn…

My favorite kind! :)

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Great thoughts! everybody have ideas but mostly ar…
SEO Guy leeds said on… Give a little link love say no to nofollow remove the link condoms
Hi Rob,

the sitemap algo is what decides whether …

SEO Specialist – Terry reeves said on… Do keywords in url’s matter?
@ Boris – The more “local” your site and key phras…
SEO THINGS said on… Bebo Promotes Herbal Viagra
social sites are so big, so huge… and administra…
SEO Tracy said on… Really really bad blackhat SEO
Pitfall your scale is quite accurate, but I have t…
seo training said on… Podcast your blogs – turn your blog posts into audio files odiogo
rob,

i guess odiogo is pretty similar to anoth…

SEO Web Design said on… SEO Porn
This experiment is a waste of time. Webmasters can…
SEOidiot said on… Blog got hacked sigh
My cache checker tools would have spotted that for…
SEOTrends said on… SEO’s our own worst enemies and Negative SEO
Quality of a website should be linked directly to …
Sephyroth said on… Google blogsearch – sometimes you suck 403 forbidden
Hi, I’m reading via the Bumpzee No Nofollow | I Fo…
Shana Albert said on… SEM Role Acquired – Attention span required
Congrats on your new job, Rob. That’s very exciti…
Shane said on… 8 random facts about me meme
“I learnt I needed glasses by accident, prior to t…
Shantanu said on… MyBlogLog – Y! Privacy and Widgetisation
Utterly fascinating! …I am going to explore this…
Shaun said on… Making money from your Blog – What is your favourite method?
Google Adsense all the way! lol…
Shaun Anderson said on… Most directories suck and could do a whole lot better
Matt that is quite a big photo you have there…….
Shawn Collins said on… Akismet made defunct by math comment plugin
The math plugin was great for me for the first mon…
shaz said on… Making money from your Blog – What is your favourite method?
google should really stop tryng to take over that …
shazad said on… All quiet on the Rob blog front
It happens all the time with me to just always mak…
shelina said on… Twitter – 6 little things on why twitter is great
Love to see the faces rather than just words all o…
Shippuuden said on… Site links for yack yack
congrats!! now you can even manage them in webmast…
Sid said on… Twitter – 6 little things on why twitter is great
A really great read , i up until now was not using…
Sixkiller said on… Meanwhile in a search engine vortex oft 53rd street..
Maybe because on Christmas everyone is more good t…
Skip Hire UK said on… Fake Car Jacking or Real ?
That is almost definatly fake, no person in their …
Snoskred said on… Why every blogger should have subscribe to comments checked by default
Do you know if there is some kind of plugin like t…
So confused.. said on… SEO blogger to SEO evil link selling bad ass spammer bastard
“First off, for the record. I do not sell text lin…
soloads said on… Site links for yack yack
Sitelinks are a mistery to me.

When I log into …

Spicy Searches said on… Tr0 to TR10 in 90 days – Simple plugin for blog measurement and motivation
Congrats Rob, looks like you have to keep up the w…
Stanley WAS said on… Web 2.0 drives individuality killing the power of the collective
No `amateur` point of view if you ask me….
Stefanos said on… SEO Job in London? SEO Vacancies London
Very passionate!! I liked you article. I am lookin…
Stephen Cronin said on… Google blogsearch – sometimes you suck 403 forbidden
I get the same problem with Google search from tim…
steve said on… 5 Posts you may have missed plugin
nice plugin, just installed it: http://www.cymru66…
Steve Jones said on… Earn Money from Blogging – Get paid to write reviews
Nice job, this Site is full of some great info and…
Steve Wordpressguy said on… Tumbleweed Plugin – Get more comments on your blog posts
Nice plugin, I’ll be trying this out. I’m a huge f…
Steven said on… Search engines – Public or Private accountability?
Interesting thoughts. It’s kind of scary how much…
Stingray City said on… Why every blogger should have subscribe to comments checked by default
I think the only time I would want to subscribe to…
Straight Forward said on… Does Google have anything to fear from the blogosphere?
Honestly, I think that most important thing would …
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This is really interesting.

I did a similar thi…

Submit Comfort said on… Promote my website online in 2008
That was a neat list robwatts. You are so right. I…
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Rob great list of plugins. Just curious how you go…
suzanne said on… My Twitter Friends
blimey you have alot more friends than me!…
Tara said on… Tumbleweed Plugin – Get more comments on your blog posts
I thought I would report back and say thanks, the …
Tech Blog said on… SEO’s our own worst enemies and Negative SEO
I didn’t realise people did this sort of thing but…
TechnoSamrat said on… Site links for yack yack
Ohh thats really very good man… Are there any SE…
Ted said on… Google penalizes for paid links and promoting yourself
I think promoting yourself by purchasing links is …
Ted Murphy said on… Paid posts are the devil incarnate according to search engines
My response to Matt.

http://community.izea.com/bl…

Terry Heath said on… All quiet on the Rob blog front
Everyone gets discouraged once in a while. Hopeful…
Terry Reeves said on… Paid posts are the devil incarnate according to search engines
I also have to recommend the shoemoney video on th…
Terry Reeves – Mr Unkie to you said on… Do keywords in url’s matter?
Very informative. I have tested this idea by accid…
Theresa111 said on… Podcast your blogs – turn your blog posts into audio files odiogo
I like it until the automated reader gets to readi…
Thomas Hansen said on… Link tips – are you linking to your friends in a useful way?
Nice informative blog about the importance of anch…
Tim Hawkins said on… SEO’s our own worst enemies and Negative SEO
Rob, I find your post rather nieve. You seem to b…
Tim Nash said on… Lazy ubiquitous everywhereiness
I guess its what your trying to target that makes …
Tinu said on… Don’t ever bank on free traffic, build on it
lol @ smarty arse… True words… there are so ma…
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You asked a review of bidvertiser advertisers prog…
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it interesting post. I wonder what Googles up to. …
Tom said on… SEO Advice – Subscription Based SEO and Web Marketing Advice Forum
This looks like it could be a very good idea assum…
Tom Busch said on… Learning from your blogging mistakes – 5 things to avoid when blogging
My blog is one big mistake. :)

But one mistake …

Tom Paine said on… Google blogsearch – sometimes you suck 403 forbidden
I’ve had that coming at me a couple of times.
It r…
trCreative said on… Promote my website online in 2008
Some good tips there – Thanks!

It’s amazing how…

Triple Ox said on… Twitter – 6 little things on why twitter is great
Twitter is a superb networking tool. It will come …
Turk Hit Box said on… Give a little link love say no to nofollow remove the link condoms
Hey check out this new plugin I made removing nofo…
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Great for niche marketing…now I just need to fin…
Utter Thought said on… Learning from your blogging mistakes – 5 things to avoid when blogging
Nice post, very quick and to the point.

Lol, it…

Vahid Chaychi said on… Google blogsearch – sometimes you suck 403 forbidden
Hi,

This is normal because Kevin Marks, one of th…

vincent said on… Blogrush – Join Blogrush, do it now!
Is it really worthy?…
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Interesting article. It certainly make the brain t…
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Hi Rob, really a Great stuff. your five tips are r…
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good plugin, I here something about security issue…
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Participation in forums and message boards can bri…
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funny. this rant feels like it’s just after the d…
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Could I be able to get some seo work, does your co…
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BlogRush Stats

In blogrush on November 21, 2007 at 12:11 pm

David from sciencetext informed me that Blogrush had been pretty much a waste of space for him. So I thought I’d login and have a little look to see what I’d received from the program.

These are my  Blogrush Stats from Sept through to today. I’ve had 114 visitors in 3 months from 148,766 impressions from my network. That’s a low CTR for sure. I have about 52,000 credits in the bank, if anyone wants to buy them, you can have them for 10 cents per pop ;) (jk)

The pluses – well… that’s 114 visitors I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

The minuses – it’s a bit of a stinky old conversation rate

Credits Earned: 148,766

Your Traffic: 8,390

Referal Network Traffic: 140,376

Bloggers in Referral Network: 20

Bloggers added to Referral Network:20

HEADLINE TITLE SYNDICATED READERS DATE POSTED
Does The Google Algorithm Rank Pages Fairly? - - 09/16/2007
Subscribe To My Blog Its Bloody Excellent I Tell You! 587 1 09/16/2007
Brand Building – How Social Media Sites Help Build Your… 6,594 7 09/19/2007
Mbl Loses User Due To Forced Account Merge 3,088 3 09/21/2007
Ghosts In The Google Machine And Seeing Double 3,393 2 09/25/2007
Getting Noticed In A Sea Of Endless Chatter Whilst… 1,761 1 09/27/2007
How To Improve My Blog For Me Me Meme 11,108 12 09/28/2007
An Ever Changing Post For An Ever Changing World 5,445 6 10/04/2007
Google Penalizes For Paid Links And Promoting Yourself 3,287 9 10/07/2007
Wordpress Pagerank Flow Considerations 11,215 19 10/09/2007
Does Google Have Anything To Fear From The Blogosphere? 26,992 24 10/14/2007
Don’t Ever Bank On Free Traffic, Build On It 4,973 4 10/25/2007
Blogging And Making Money – A State The Obvious… 16,940 21 10/31/2007
Seo A Waste Of Money? 53 - 11/11/2007
Seo A Waste Of Money? 5,286 6 11/11/2007
5 Things About Online Rob 1,572 - 11/16/2007
No Paid Ads, No Paid Links, Just Blog Monetisation 3,895 7 11/17/2007
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No paid ads, no paid links, just blog monetisation

In Aff Marketing, blogging, make money blogging on November 17, 2007 at 6:02 pm
9 comments

There’s more than one route to the chip shop

Against the backdrop of a bunch of negative posts about bloggers and Google and their general anti blogger behaviour, I thought it might be useful to just touch on a method or two that I’ve not discussed here so much that might just help fill the void for those worried about any further actions from the Google monster down the line.

If you are worried about getting hit more than you already have, then this could be a post for you.

Before the meat and potatoes though, I just wanted to add a few words on some of the nonsense and hypocrisy on all of this. The bottom line is do what is right for you and your blog. Don’t get too caught up in safe theories. Weigh it all up and decide what is right for you and go for it.

It is my opinion that the next stage of the Google actions could possibly be a dumping of ranking ability or a removal from their index of bloggers who promote advertisers via the use of advertorials with KW rich anchor text.

I don’t think that it really matters if a company invents a new metric and calls it something new as ultimately savvy advertisers will know that at the end of the day, a good dofollow link is still a good dofollow link.

The creation of new metrics as a buy in tool does virtually nothing to reduce the impact on any text link dependent algorithm of 10’s of 1000’s of bloggers writing about 1000’s of different topics so IMO, I can’t really see how Google or any other company dependent in this way can publicly stand by and do nothing…well it could, but I think it unlikely, especially when word gets round that advertisers using this method are seeing a good ROI. Google will not only be exposed to arguments that say that their algorithmic index is corrupted by paid advertising, they will also see a potential loss of income as advertising dollars are diverted to alternative more cost effective streams.

Yet in the same breath, it’s kinda funny that when you think that virtually every single page in any competitive KW SERP is in some way there by virtue of a paid leg up from some tech savvy SEO, then you do begin to smile and see the inconstancies of any defence.

The perceived distinction between their algorithmic results and their paid ads is as important today as it was when they first started, if that perception is diluted, and their SERPs actually become more relevant into the bargain, then the urge to click those ads might just diminish too.

Google like to insist with their mantra that so long as it is of quality and of use to their users, then ultimately they are happy to send traffic to people in search of good on topic stuff. I’ll leave you to work out why the same can’t be said for bloggers being paid to write about on topic services and products for companies. It seems like it’s ok for a company to use an SEO or SEO methods to boost themselves up the SERPs, yet not ok for individual bloggers to enagage in actions that help do the same.

Be they paid blogger or paid SEO, both have the same outcome, potentially. The only difference is that someone somewhere decided that the paid blogger route had a greater potential for loss of advertising income.

Where to go to next for your blogging pennies and dollars?

So, you’ve tried adsense, you saw that it sucked for your blog, you’ve looked at Kontera and Bidvertiser and Adbrite and Ebay and all the other bunch of stuff out there that’s vaunted as a good way of earning money and found that without adequate traffic levels it just hasn’t paid, what next? Where to go?

Niche affiliate blogging

In this blog here I talked about how we all have our interests in life, every single one of us. In virtually every area of life there is a product or service that could be of benefit in some way. It’s how we humans work, we like to do stuff and we like to have tools and things to help us do it. Be it food, clothing, transport, love, toys…you get the picture I’m sure.

There are a literally 1000’s of affiliate programs out there today, with millions of products looking to be bought dissected and discussed, millions.

All you have to do is identify the products that interest you, or that you have a little knowledge about and write about them.

How you do that is entirely up to you. The trick is to be able to write about things in such a way that your visitors and readers will be inspired sufficiently to want to buy the product or use the service. What you want also, is for people to find your reviews in search engines too, write good stuff and people will link to it, it’s that simple. By getting  people in ‘buy’ mode, you’ll be getting visitors  who are actively seeking product reviews or the products themselves in the search engines. Search engines have no problem with affiliates, provided that they add value. An affiliate review or discussion of a service or product is one such way of adding value. You can do this via all manner of ways too, the only real block is the limits of your imagination.

Finding the right kinds of products and services

You could just go into your favourite search engine and type ‘product keyword’ affiliate program. You might get lucky too. You could also type into a search engine affiliate programs and take a chance with those you find, alternatively you could just sign up with one of the great ones that you know others have used and are reliable. I guess this is where I come in and get to recommend 2 that I’ve used that not only have a fantastic range of items, but have actually paid out too. In other words, they are a safe bet.

Commission junction being one and Tradedoubler another.

It’s very simple, both offer a similar route. In short, you search for a product or brand that you wish to discuss, apply to the program, and wait to see if you are accepted. Once accepted, you can choose from their inventories and discuss whatever product it is you wish to write about. In most cases you are paid if a visitor from your page clicks through to their page and performs a pay trigger action. A pay trigger action could take the form of a sign up, a lead generation or a sale.

You get a choice in terms of what you put on your pages.

You can use plain text links generated from vanilla html or if you don’t want to do that, javascript, or where they exist you can also use product imagery or banner type ads within your content as provided by the companies in the program.Subject to individual policies there’s nothing to stop you getting a little imaginative and doing some creative creation of your own.

An upshot is that you can still make money from your blog and you don’t have to be reliant on programs that could jeopardise your blog or content long term through clashing with some search engine monolith.

A downside is that you ‘ll need to take into account that if you are too brand specific then you could find that at some point down the road the brand has left the program or that the product no longer exists. It’s one of the reasons why I’d sugest going with a big provider like those mentioned as both have great tools and a wide segment of markets.

Keeping your readers happy

I think it also needs to be said that you have to think about your readers too. If you suddenly start writing a load of shitty stuff about products that bore the pants off of people then you’ll quickly see a big exodus and lose the very essence of what attracted people to you at the outset. Perhaps a good initial approach would be to allocate say one post per week to a product or service, or a 80/20 split between what you usually say and what you are reviewing.

If you are smart then you should be able to take an idea and put a different spin on it. The last thing you want to do is create some thing that is very little other than some snooze inducing advertorial.

Take this post from a Perfume Gift blog and you’ll see how the writer has injected a little humour and supplemental content to discuss a product called love scent pheromone. It doesn’t just say, ‘buy this love scent pheromone product ‘ expecting the sales to rock on in, no, it attempts to get behind the science and explore the whole phenomenum a little, making it all a little more appealing than it perhaps may be. Laughter and mirth are much underrated selling tools. Another good example of a niche blog is Darren Rowse’s Photography Blog there are lots of others too, I’m sure you’ve encountered them along your travels.

The bottom line is that if you can retain your style and add a new angle adding value into the process, then you can suceed in doing well with this stuff and making yourself some good money online. We live in a world built on commissions and kickbacks and %’s, there’s no reason why you can’t do the same.

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5 things about online Rob

In meme, robwatts on November 16, 2007 at 10:56 am
7 comments

YC tagged me in a meme entitled 5 things about me online so here goes.

1. How long have you been blogging?
I’ve blogged here for 11 months now, but have also blogged in other places too.So overall I’d say Ive blogged for about 4 years.
2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?
I am like most people who have something to say, I like to share my opinions and see what others think too. I’d posted in forums and other blogs here and there and thought that I might as well build something of my own on topics I had an interest in. Blogging helped me deal with my divorce for example, it was a way of getting out stuff that was quite frankly, killing me, in this regard blogging was cathartic.

I actually started this blog here after posting a humungous comment on Matt Cutts blog; he suggested I start my own blog, so here I am 11 months later :D

In terms of mentors. I’ve learnt a lot from some quality bloggers out there, some of whom can be found in my blog roll and some whose egos are far too big for me to mention and inflate further ;)

3. Are you trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?
I am most certainly trying to and succeeding in making money online, a small % of what I earn comes from blogging with the remainder coming from various niche sites as well as the odd client here and there.

It can be and most certainly is fun too, especially when you hit on a new idea or technique that works well or achieve an aim and get where you wanted to be, not to mention the various interactions with some smart and interesting people similarly interested in the areas in which I dabble.

4. Tell me 3 things you LOVE about being online

Hmmn, Love is a powerful word reserved for special friends and people dear to me, but I guess I can pretend, so I’d say in no particular order that

i. I get to rant regulary on topics I have a passion about!

ii. I get to play with all sorts of things and ideas that I have an interest in professionally and personally.

iii.I get to make a few quid from the above too, which is always a bonus.
5. Tell me 3 things you STRUGGLE with in the online world

I struggle with the actions of a minority who act in ways that negatively impact me, I can’t lie when I say that there’s a person or two out there that I’d take great delight in kicking rather firmly straight right up the khyber pass :D

I struggle with this laptop and its broken spacebar, having to hit ctrl-v after every word with some clipboarded copied space! In fact I’m off to buy a new usb keyboard later as I’ve really had it with this now…aaaaargh!!

Thirdly, I guess that would be my intermittent wireles connection up here in the bedroom.It’s up and down like a whores knickers :D

Thanks YC that was fun :)

I’ll tag just 3 people as this ctrl-v thing is getting to me ;)

Tinu at Free Traffic Tips

Maurice at his Cayman Islands Blog

and O

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PageTank – Have you been hit by the PageRank hatey stick?

In blogging on November 16, 2007 at 9:33 am
18 comments

Has  your  PageRank  recently  tanked?

A lot of people have the hump with Google today.Snoskred  put together a little compilation.

Google Goes after the Everyday Blogger
ZeroRank – More PageRank Carnage (Round 5)
ACCC alleges misleading and deceptive conduct by Trading Post and Google
PayPerPost Scrambling – Trying to Implement “RealRank” After Their Bloggers Page Rank Disappears
Selling Text Links Without Getting Into Trouble
OK, Google… They Surrender
Goodbye Google
Page Rank is now Pointless
Stock Tip of the day – sell Google!
So The G-Gods Are Smiting Bloggers Again
My De Riguer Nod to Google
Your Tip For The Day.
Dear Google…..(I surrender)
Spank – Part 2
Stock Tip Alert! SELL GOOGLE NOW
What the heck is going on with pagerank?
Anti-Google Claims: To Reply Or Not?
How To (Kind Of) Buy A #1 Organic Search Ranking On Google
The US Search Engine Optimization Market
Google’s Page Rank Update Increases Profitability of Selling Text Links
Google’s PageRank: A Double Edged Sword

If you should feel so inclined and feel like getting hatey back then, Snoskred also has a suggestion or 2 .

Now it does also need to be said that this *could* just be some kind of data centre pre toolbar pr update.

Whitebars are often a sign that a page has been indexed but has yet to be  assigned any PageRank, you’ll often see this behaviour with new pages or sites that have been recently launched.

Somehow  though, I doubt it.This looks like yet another rollout of previous manual interventions.Perhaps the next phase will be removed ranking ability, or complete removal from the index even.

I can understand why a company might want to make a point or 2, but jesus don’t they think that we got the the message the 1st time?

I would love to know what it was that I did here that was so so bad and damaging to their index and the people that use them, really I would, it’s starting to needle me.

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SEO a waste of money?

In search engine death squads, seo on November 11, 2007 at 8:02 pm
12 comments

SEO is not the wysiwyg thing we’d all like to believe

SEO – the process of search engine optimisation as we’ve all come to know and love may appear to be about cause and effect but is it really so?

Whilst it’s nice to think that our seo efforts are a simple case of do action x, wait, montitor record, rinse repeat/reduce the reality is very often, much, much further from the truth.

Do not believe the lie of the algorithm

SERP’s are a monitored thing – do not believe that it’s an algorithmic thing. It is not true, it really is not.

Whilst it may be kinda cool to think that there’s this cool algorithm that sorts out bits and bytes and densities and semantic relationships and link structure and magically puts them all together to create a list of relevant sites for your inputted keyword, the reality is that this is only part of the equation.

Some SERPs are editorially controlled

This is especially true when the space in which you play just happens to be a touch more competitive than the rest. Be it ‘Hotels in $place’ or ‘$service in $place’ or ‘$product $common_search_string’ you can be pretty sure that SERP positions like those will be looked at both by your competitors vieing for the same and by the search engine that monitors them. If you happen to be ranking for a term and a competitor finds something to report you on then, you might just find yourself thrust into the unwelcome gaze of the search engine death squads.

If what you produce that lands in these pages isn’t up to some loosely defined subjective opinion of a search engine rep using some ‘vote based opinion scoring system designed to weed out anyone who doesn’t happen to fit the criteria of the day’ then you can be pretty sure that an action  affecting how your page performs in the SERP will be levied against you. The only notification you will receive will be your inability to rank where you once were accomapnied by significant drops in income.

The reality is that if you are doing things that in the view of the search rep are  ’designed to manipulate the outcome of a SERP’ , then you may find that your efforts have been in vain.

Search engine guidelines are a site zappers charter 

There is an certain irony in that whilst we are told not to do things for the benefit of the search engine, to not even try and push the boundries would dictate that we would simply not rank for most of the words we would like to. Humans like to figure things out. If a person knew that putting a hidden pink fairy on their web page would help boost them to page one, then they’d be a fool not to do it, especially if everyone else was doing the same.This one of the many idiocies that exist within search engine guidelines.

The facts are that in order to keep up with our competitors we must do similar things to them and hope that our content or profile allows us to be teflon too. We are damned if we do and damned if we dont,  by taking these actions, we give the search reps a green light to downgrade or reduce our ability to rank, if we choose not to then we’ll never rank for jack. An example could be a series of site wide navigational links that link through to various pages, do they exist to help manipulate the search bots, or do they exist to help our visitors under some BS view of usability?

Link juice is vital to SERP performance 

SEO’s learnt a long time ago  that by pointing a variance of differing keywords from differing places in sufficient numbers will have the effect of boosting our target pages’ SERP performance. They do so because in their view they happen to believe that the page that they want to get there is the best page for this particular term. It’s laser focused and relevant to the theme or set of words they wish to rank for. Just go look at any keyword SERP and you’ll see evidence of this in effect.

Yet to do so, could be interpreted as highly manipulative and could get you kicked out of a SERP overnight. Should this happen then you can forget about tweaking title tags or going out and getting more links, or playing with keyword densities or disallowing duplicate content or insert_any_other_number_of_random_suggested_groovy_moves as you will be basically wasting your time. The only way to repair such an action is to get the manually applied sanction lifted. You could try de-optimising or scaling down your seo efforts, yet what is the point in doing that? Who really wants to rank on page 6 for their natural efforts?!

The SEO is a waste of money message

So it would seem that taking the SEO route is a risky business. It would seem that a subtext of the ‘we want the best pages for our users’ mantra gievn to us from search engine mouthpieces is really about don’t employ SEO, advertise with us instead and if you can’t afford to then maybe you should consider why you are here in the 1st place.

The message we are being sent is that whilst SEO can be immensley profitable, it can also be taken away in a heartbeat too. Don’t spend money on SEO, spend it on our search engine advertising programs.  

SEO is honest versus Search engine penalties are not 

SEO is Honest – Every single thing an SEO does is open and available for public scrutiny.Can the same be said for a search engineer?

Via the use of a combination of the various reporting tools of Y!, Msn Live, Ask, Google, GigaBlast, search caches, user agent switchers etc you can pretty much determine the reasons why a page ranks well. It’s there for all to see, nothing is hidden. All you then do is either replicate those aspects or do it better.

What’s that I hear you say? What about invisible text, or javascript redirects, or cloaked pages, or keyword spam, blog spam, domain spam, keyword stuffing etc etc..the simple answer is, none of these are SEO. They are tactics that the search engines were too dumb to filter out,so chose instead to paint them in some evil kind of guise.

Don’t buy the whole blackhat vs whitehat argument as it’s simply not true.

Silent search engine penalties are dishonest -If you happen to come under the scrutiny of a search engineer in a bad mood then the reality is that you can find yourself pretty much blown out of the water overnight.

Your site or page will no longer be adjudged on the basis of its content, its link structure, its html composition, its popularity, its age, its relevance. It will be adjudged on one factor and one factor only, that factor being the opinion and mood of some random stranger hiding in the shadows deciding that you’ve breached some loosely defined guideline. They are too cowardly to say  hey dude we didn’t like that so we did that.Unless it’s otherwise politically expedient to do so, you can be pretty sure that he (or she) won’t afford you the  courtesy of letting you know as christ, that’ll just make your life easy, and easy isn’t what they want your life to be. You are after all, playing in the playground of SEO, you are daring to purposely manipulate the output of their SERP’s and worse still you know how to too, you dastardly SEO you.

SEO IS worth it

The upside is, that it really isn’t so difficult to look at any site in any serp these days and see what terms a site is targetting. If you have the requisite site authority score then you can pretty quickly attain good serps for a good number of keywords. It’s just a matter of generating the right inlinks from the right places with the right content.

Fly below the radar and you’ll do ok, alert the attention of a SERP cop and you could find yourself sunk, especially if you aren’t an important brand. The view is, there are 100’s of other equally relevant pages waiting to take your place. You can’t insulate yourself completely, and it’s probably best to just plug along and forget that search engines exist, at least from a  monetisation perspective.

Risk versus reward and a long term view

As mantric as it sounds, you are far better served building something that you have a genuine passion for, or products for, and promoting it without search engines in mind as ultimately the resultant loss of any business accrued via some kind of hit, will then be much easier to cope with.

Yet of course too to say such a thing would be to ignore the massive competitive advantages that your competitors taking more aggressive stances could be acquiring and leave you well behind in the race.

I can recall a site that used to perform well for some pretty big hitting keyword terms using all manner of tactics that for their time, were pretty off the scale as manipulative SEO went. I watched them stay in their position for 3 years, whereby every other week I’d see them still there and think, hmmn their days are numbered.

I’ve no idea how much money they earnt whilst in those positions but can say with confidence that it was considerably more than the already considerable sum of money a site I ran was attaining for just a fraction of their targetted market. Had I acted like them and replicated their tactic then I too could have done as well as they did. By refusing to compete as they did, by taking the choice to play it safe in the mistaken belief that being a ‘good’ boy would serve me well, I lost out. I may have stayed in the game longer than they, yet ultimately my fate was the same as theirs. The search guidelines we’re changed, my competing site become a thin affiliate, and the rest as they say is history.

Moral of the story – make hay whilst the sun shines as there are plenty a raincloud on the horizon

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