Are you ready for this? I am absolutely sick of idiots and so called amazing gurus commenting on other peoples articles, voicing opinions based on something they have read on the internet. What the hell?
It is even worse when I visit the link they have left and they actually have a dodgy SEO company website. I could slam up one of those websites up in five minutes and claim that I am a SEO expert. I can even hang out on SEOmoz or guest post on any of the top SEO blogs.
WOW that does not impress me at all because I live SEO every day. I am in the trenches of SEO and my way clearly works so why should I change my ways?
Here is some of the crap the SEO sheep say:
- Oh so and so said that SEO was dead, why are you saying it is alive?
- Oh that sounds like reciprocal linking to me, didn’t you know that was banned?
- I heard that Google will ban you for that.
- Matt Cutts says we shouldn’t do that.
I seriously wish people would form their own opinions from experiences they have instead of what someone says.
Check out this persons comment after reading this post about the Google SEO guide. I won’t expose his name because he thinks he is a Guru and it seems that he wanted to show his authority. I would have agreed that he had some authority (probably because I respect others work), but when I read this comment I changed my mind. Leaders in the field educate and help people, not belittle them.
If he wanted to disagree with me, he could have showed a bit more tact, as he is definitely not the only one that knows SEO. In fact I feel sorry for this person for thinking that there is only one way to perform SEO. Actually it seems it is his way or the highway!
Here is my response:
Why get worked up about something like that? (Ha ha I am worked up now) The title and meta description, along with the tags are included in nearly all WordPress themes. Tags are also used in WordPress as a type of categorization and also help you focus on your topic because you know what keywords you should be mentioning to cover your information.
But the question again is, why get so worked up about something that is so completely harmless? Is this to prove some authority in SEO? I wonder?
I did not say to mass create links to your site or buy auto commenting software. I said that you should not neglect tags. But wait a minute, Google said not to bother with tags, although they still read them, but don’t take any notice. Oh shit my bad!
Google is Not God
First thing you have to realize is that there are other ways to get traffic without using Google, therefore not all SEO stems from what Matt Cutts says. I am not bagging Matt out here though, as his videos are very helpful. The problem is that idiots are interpreting what he says and others that just see it as GOSPEL. He tries to be very diplomatic and I can see that Google itself does not want be called a one man band, or a complete dominator, but people see them as the one and only.
When he says Google are not taking any notice of tags does it really matter?
Here is a video where Matt says that nofollow links might not be great for search engine optimization but they DO have other uses besides being useful for Google.
Well I’ll be? Maybe there is a world after Google? At least Matt can see that there are other uses for the actions we take, besides having to please Google. Well derr!
What Does Google Really Want?
Warning: this is my opinion and you are most welcome to have yours in the comment section below.
The truth is really that Google is just looking for properly formed websites that provide their customers, the people that type queries into the search box, with the most accurate information to answer their query. Google is not out to penalise people on purpose, they just want to serve the best results to their customers. This is not rocket science and if you are a business person, to do the right thing all you have to do is think about your customers. Isn’t that what normal business people do?
If you think Google has a conspiracy going on you are wrong. If you think a website will not succeed without the help of Google you are also wrong. Google just wants to serve the right results. End of story.
Is Google going to penalize me for putting meta keyword tags in, no way! Is Google going to penalise me for doing reciprocal linking, are you kidding? Is Google going to punish me for having broken links, definitely YES.
Does anyone see where I am going with this?
What I Think about SEO?
To me SEO is about more than ranking in the search engines. It is also about strategically placing links and keywords around the internet that will attract a click from a real customer. It is about optimizing my content to give it the best chance to get some of that free search engine traffic. SEO is about relationships too. Every time I think I am performing search engine optimisation, I actually building more relationships online.
How does this happen?
- I publish an awesome article on my blog and another blogger links back to it. I send them an e-mail to say thank you.
- I publish an awesome article on my blog and people enjoy my content and comment at the bottom. I reply and we become friends.
- I publish an article on another blog. I become friends with that blogger.
- I publish an article on another blog and gain new followers from that audience and build more relationships.
- I leave a link in a forum, along with some fantastic information, and I get an e-mail from a stranger saying thank you.
So I thought I was getting around the Internet and building links for my site, when in fact I was really building relationships. And when some idiot comes along and says that reciprocal linking is not good for search engine optimisation, I say I do not care because it is good for relationships.
The strategies I use add up to real sales and not just rankings. To think of search engine optimisation as simply link building and ranking in the search engines is a very closed off point of view.
My Advice to Any So Called SEO Gurus
Firstly, stop chatting about SEO and do some.
You cannot learn SEO from the google SEO Guide (although it might help) and you cannot learn SEO from random’s posting well written articles on the internet. The only way to learn SEO is to look at the SEO under the hood of your website and get your hands dirty. You need to make your own mistakes to know what you can and can’t do. Yes I have learned my lessons over the years, and the main one is not to listen to all the bullshit on the internet.
I form my own opinions and SEO rules THAT WORK and I believe that the proof is in the pudding. Make up your own mind about what Google wants when it comes to SEO and make sure you let your conscience guide you.