Search Engine Optimisation [2008]
Introduction
Just having a presence on the Internet is not a ticket to increased business.
Nevertheless, with widespread access to the internet, a majority of companies and businesses do have some form of web presence which can make finding information, products or services quite overwhelming. This is why trustworthy and reliable search engines have become one of the most relevant services on the web.
According to a number of online studies, around 90% of all online traffic for any particular web site is achieved via search engines.
Obviously, the quicker a customer can find what they are looking for, the greater the likelihood they will visit a site that suits their needs. According to Fallows (2004), “The average visitor scrolled through 1.8 results pages during a typical search”. Therefore, sites optimised to be listed in the initial results of a search (ranked highly) will benefit greatly.
The Flow-On
Due to the huge potential benefits of good search engine ranking (coupled with an appropriately designed site, of course), web-based businesses have embraced the notion of optimisation as a significant marketing strategy.
Although most search engine listings are provided for free, web based search engines are a business; therefore they have developed facilities to make money out of promoting better results for paying customers. Of course, few businesses are immune to competition; hence, third party optimisation services emerged to leverage this resource. Optimisation services offer to help web site owners to achieve even better returns on investment (ROI) than that offered by the search engines. As a result, search engines and many of the optimisers have become steadfast business adversaries.
Search engines do not openly publish technical specifications on how their engines collect and rank sites; however, they do provide general guidelines to those that wish to legitimately increase their ranking. These advertised techniques help the search engines produce much more reliable and useful results. For these free listings, the methods are usually relatively passive, such as, quality content creation and “lite” keyword optimisation (Goodman, 2005). Although these methods do help to promote a site, they are by no means any guarantee of placement. There are many other technical factors involved, such as site popularity gauged via inwards linking.
Working with a search engine provider’s recommendations is seen as “white hat” optimisation while the methods undertaken by many third party optimisation services are generally seen as dubious and underhand, therefore, they wear the “black hat” metaphor (Goodman, 2005). Many of the third party methods are not tolerated or encouraged by search engines because they affect revenue.
Most of the devious but effective techniques by third party SEOs can often be detected and dealt with by the search engines. This may even result in a site being removed from the search database altogether – as happened to www.bmw.de in 2006
The main players
This article could not be written without reference to Google, which is by far, the most popular web search engine in Australia (and many other Western countries). As of January 2008, Google held 68.6% of the search engine market share (with nearly 5.9 billion queries for the month). Compare this to its closest rival, Yahoo! with only 16.7% market share and 1.4 billion queries; it is obvious why Google is so significant.
One of Google’s main focuses, from its inception, was to ensure it offered quality results. This means completeness without too many “junk results” (Brin & Page, 1998). Achieving this, along with shear speed, are significant factors in its popularity.
It is important to point out that there are some fundamental differences in the way search engines work. There are three main types of search engine technologies. They include crawler-based, directory-based and paid-for search advertising.
Crawler-based search engines automatically visit all web sites (using advanced programs, called robots) and compile a listing of site structure and content. Careful site creation can help to generate multiple references and reasonable search rankings. These crawlers also register the number of links to individual sites. This information is used to gauge a degree of popularity and has a direct effect on ranking.
Directory-based search engines are manually assessed and compiled. Sites included in these types of directories have to be submitted by site owners. This can be an advantage, as there is some control over the content of the listing and the site is confirmed by a person (rather than automatically). Obviously, this creates a much more reliable listing, but, the inclusion in directory-based search services can also potentially help rankings in crawler-based search results due to the extra inward links they create.
Finally, there is the paid-for search advertising such as Google AdWords , Yahoo! Search Marketing and MS adCenter These search services allow a site owner to bid and pay for listings related to relevant search keywords. These listings are often called sponsored links and are displayed along with normal search results. However, they are often distinguished as such by way of their display properties or location on the page.
Issues with Search Engine Optimisation
It is impossible to guarantee first position in any search engine. It is said to be a “black art” (Godin, 2004). Even paid-for results have a degree of uncertainty; for instance, a competitor can easily outbid for specific keywords.
Most modern search engines offer incredibly powerful search features as well as other useful features for free. These extra features can include solving mathematical equations, exchange rate calculations and foreign language translation. Due to the popularity and subsequent extremely high traffic search engines receive, they generate interest from commercial sites that wish to maximise their exposure. This is where paid-for services become relevant. However, search engines must protect both their paying customers while ensuring they retain relevance and popularity among the general web visitors.
The motivations for many site owners to rank highly is many and varied, however, those actively promoting a product or service have a legitimate desire to maximise their chances. Therefore, many may attempt to distort the search engines’ indexing and ranking processes (Pringle, et al 1998). Some of these techniques include; excessive repetition of keywords (usually invisibly to a site visitor), or to redirect the search engine robots to a specially designed page that misrepresents the site.
Some third party SEO services go even further in their attempt to justify their fees. They may set up dummy (shadow) domains with multiple links to client sites (link farming), multiple cross-linked sites (that are almost identical or may be related to unrelated search terms – such as pornography) and specially designed doorway pages (or cloaking). All these techniques raise the ire and attention of search engines as well as create an overly complex web presence for the site owner. They can reduce the credibility of a site and most assuredly reduce the reliability of most search engine results.
This is not to say that all third party SEO services are dodgy and employ tactics that will have your site banned. However, it is important to understand that every web site is different and search engines are constantly evolving (sometimes in response to effective SEO services), therefore, a technique that may have been successful for one site may not necessarily work for another.
Conclusion
From my investigations, I am convinced that, although there are legitimate third party SEO services, a majority seem to be dubious and akin to snake-oil peddlers. Their methods are risky to the long term credibility of a site and can potentially end up devastating any reasonable chance of a decent listing with major search engines. Many of the black hat SEO techniques have an overall negative affect on the quality of search engine results, consequently, reducing the value of searches for everyone.
Using normal marketing strategies coupled with a well-designed web site and basic paid-for search engine services will provide better long term results than using a third party SEO. Again, I concede that there are legitimate SEO services out there, but I am not convinced that they would provide the best return on investment, especially over time. As SEO techniques prove to be effective, the search engines will devise ways to detect and prevent them.
If deciding on a third party SEO, the negativity and adversarial nature of their service would require constant work and ongoing investment to maintain a significant and financially viable return.
It is easier to have a sound knowledge of search engine optimisation requirements and abide by their recommendations. I feel that this will provide the best long term results. Although these methods may not guarantee the very top rankings, they will ensure longevity of your site. And as the site builds a reputation and popularity, more inward links will be created, steadily moving the site up the ranks.
Seth Godin (2004) puts it very nicely, “You won’t win by fooling Google into listing you first for a common search term. You will win once you figure out the simple mechanics of turning strangers into friends and friends into customers.” The second sentence is relevant to all types of marketing for all types of business. The overall statement supports the concept that good search rankings coupled with good site design are imperative. Neither will work very well without the other.
References
Goodman, Andrew 2005, “Search Engine Showdown: Black Hats vs. White Hats at SES”,
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3483941
Godin, Seth 2004, “The problem with search engine optimisation”,
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2004/07/the_problem_wit.html
Fallows D, Rainie L 2004, “The Poularity and Importance of Search Engines”,
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Data_Memo_Searchengines.pdf
Pringle G, Allison L, Dowe DL 1998, “What is a tall poppy among web pages?”,
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~lloyd/tilde/InterNet/Search/1998_WWW7.html
Brin S, Page L 1998, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine”,
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html