A few years ago my boss signed me up for a few SEO newsletters in the hopes that I would rise to the occasion and become some sort of learned internet superstar; a lean, mean Search Engine Marketing machine. Much to his chagrin, however, I have remained relatively uninspired.
I rarely make time to read these daily newsletters as I am hampered by ringing phones, pressing emails, riveting discussions of the dictionary.com word of the day, and my treasured escapist smoke breaks.
Now, that is not to say that I have completely shirked this responsibility. That would make me a bad employee. I skim over the titles in my inbox and, when witty enough, I peruse the occasional article and one in particular has stuck with me.
In the March 9, 2006 issue of SEO-news Gary McHugh wrote a great article entitled "Stinking Linking Thinking". It's not the most refined piece of writing I've come across, but he makes an excellent point: the internet and its content should cater to people, not search engines, and the current obsession with page rank and site indexing is flawed.
Why? Because people, not algorithms, determine whether or not a site is good, and by good we mean successful. Algorithms are about as reliable as the weather but people, if given what they want, become loyal members and paying customers and that is the goal, is it not? Popularity is a means to an end, that end being profit, and while the two are closely linked they are not one and the same.
Gary also notes that "The advice from Google to link to "relevant" sites has always puzzled me. How useful would Google be if it followed its own advice and only linked to other search engines and those search engines only linked to other search engines? Does their advice make sense? Hell no!"
This statement amuses me more than I care to admit, but for the purpose of this post, I will elaborate. I have found myself confused by the concept of relevant links as well and I found my intellectual vanity challenged. I figured that if someone is in the market for a new car or a new website, could they not also be interested in travel, life insurance, or a new boat?
Alas, Google and my boss seem to think otherwise.
Perhaps my logic is flawed. It happens. Perhaps we should have seen this coming as I am the kind of girl who will type your name in Google Search and click I'm Feeling Lucky rather than research something useful. Perhaps I should read fewer "Harry Potter" novels and more SEM articles.
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