Search engines, search engines, search engines....Who knows
which one to optimize for? Why does everyone behave so silly
when it comes to search engines and optimization for a
particular engine or keyword even? As most know, Google is the
flavour of the month. It appears that everyone is excited about
it. What about the other engines? Did someone forget that they
exist?
Because Google is the leading engine, this years "in engine" ,
word of mouth spreads, more people use it, website owners begin
optimizing for it and SEO goes nuts. How easily we forget, that
only a year or so ago, Yahoo was the leading search engine.
Which one next I wonder?
I think it is quite humorous that people have become strung up
about one particular engine and one method of advertisement
because they do well for a short period. By a short period, I
mean a year or two. This is short when your running a business
over decades. Google changed their algorithm end 2003 and sent
the world a shockwave. Someone forget to tell these many upset
businesses and website do it yourselvers, that relying upon one
method of advertisement is not good business practice. If that's
the extent of business knowledge , then some businesses are in
lots of trouble.
Florida (Google HQ) decided to change their system. As a result,
many website owners, who had paid thousands of dollars or
suffered thousands of man hours building a website came unstuck.
Why? Because all of their efforts were built around the
characteristics of one system. Who did they blame? SEO's,
Experts, Copywriters, Link Building Companies, Google or anyone
who would listen - often the media. Someone forgot to tell them
that Google is a business, and if your manipulating a website
within their search engine rankings, your messing with their
business. Keeping this in perspective, only those negatively
affected are crying to the press. Those businesses or
individuals who gained rankings as a result of this change,
strangely enough, don't have anything negative to say.
I think the moral of the story is, people need to stop
attempting to over optimize a website and never concentrate on
only one source for rankings. Website owners need to focus on
reality and market their websites across as many engines as
possible. It is also necessary to keep a focus on what you are
trying to achieve. Essentially, a website to attract visitors
and stimulate their attention for your information and products.
About the author:
Anthony Parsons has been performing search engine optimization
since 1998. In late 2003 I decided to fly solo and opened my own
SEO business to service the global community. With my wife being
an acknowledged copywriter, anthonyparsons.com as a business
will continue stepping forward breaking the boundaries of
conventional SEO techniques. Making a winning husband and wife
team, we make SEO affordable for all budgets.
