For some unfortunate
souls SEO is simply the learning of
tricks and techniques that, according to
their understanding, should propel their
site into the top rankings on the major
search engines. This understanding of
the way SEO works can be effective for a
time however it contains one basic flaw
... the rules change. Search engines are
in a constant state of evolution in
order to keep up with the SEO's in much
the same way that Norton, McAfee, AVG or
any of the other anti-virus software
companies are constantly trying to keep
up with the virus writers.
Basing your entire websites future on one
simple set of rules (read: tricks) about how the search
engines will rank your site contains an additional flaw,
there are more factors being considered than any SEO is
aware of and can confirm. That's right, I will freely
admit that there are factors at work that I may not be
aware of and even those that I am aware of I cannot with
100% accuracy give you the exact weight they are given
in the overall algorithm. Even if I could, the algorithm
would change a few weeks later and what's more, hold
your hats for this one; there is more than one search
engine.
So if we cannot base our optimization on
a set of hard-and-fast rules what can we do? The key my
friends, is not to understand the tricks but rather what
they accomplish. Reflecting back on my high school math
teach Mr. Barry Nicholl I recall a silly story that had
a great impact. One weekend he had the entire class
watch Dumbo The Flying Elephant (there was actually
going to be a question about it on our test). Why? The
lesson we were to get from it is that formulas (like
tricks) are the feather in the story. They are
unnecessary and yet we hold on to them in the false
belief that it is the feather that works and not the
logic. Indeed, the tricks and techniques are not what
works but rather the logic they follow and that is their
shortcoming.
And So What Is Necessary?
To rank a website highly and keep it
ranking over time one must optimize it with one primary
understanding, that a search engine is a living thing.
Obviously this is not to say that search engines have
brains, I will leave those tales to Orson Scott Card and
other science fiction writers, however their very nature
results in a lifelike being with far more storage
capacity.
If we consider for a moment how a search
engine functions; it goes out into the world, follows
the road signs and paths to get where it's going, and
collects all of the information in its path. From this
point, the information is sent back to a group of
servers where algorithms are applied in order to
determine the importance of specific documents. How are
these algorithms generated? They are created by human
beings who have a great deal of experience in
understanding the fundamentals of the Internet and the
documents it contains and who also have the capacity to
learn from their mistakes, and update the algorithms
accordingly. Essentially we have an entity that collects
data, stores it, and then sorts through it to determine
what's important which it's happy to share with others
and what's unimportant which it keeps tucked away.
So Let's Break It Down ...
To gain a true understanding of what a
search engine is, it's simple enough to compare it to
the human anatomy as, though not breathing, it contains
many of the same core functions required for life. And
these are:
The Lungs & Other Vital
Organs - The lungs
of a search engine and indeed the vast majority of vital
organs are contained within the datacenters in which
they are housed. Be it in the form of power, Internet
connectivity, etc. As with the human body, we do not
generally consider these important in defining who we
are, however we're certainly grateful to have them and
need them all to function properly.
The Arms & Legs
- Think of the links from the engine itself as the arms
and legs. These are the vehicles by which we get where
we need to go and retrieve what needs to be accessed.
While we don't commonly think of these as functions when
we're considering SEO these are the purpose of the
entire thing. Much as the human body is designed
primarily to keep you mobile and able to access other
things, so too is the entire search engine designed
primarily to access the outside world.
The Eyes
- The eyes of the search engine are the spiders (AKA
robots or crawlers). These are the 1s and 0s that the
search engines send out over the Internet to retrieve
documents. In the case of all the major search engines
the spiders crawl from one page to another following the
links, as you would look down various paths along your
way. Fortunately for the spiders they are traveling
mainly over fiber optic connections and so their ability
to travel at light speed enables them to visit all the
paths they come across whereas we as mere humans have to
be a bit more selective.
The Brain
- The brain of a search engine, like the human brain, is
the most complex of its functions and components. The
brain must have instinct, must know, and must learn in
order to function properly. A search engine (and by
search engine we mean the natural listings of the major
engines) must also include these critical three
components in order to survive.
The Instinct
- The instinct of a search engines is defined in
it's core functions, that is the crawling of sites
and either the inability to read specific types of
data, or the programmed response to ignore files
meeting a specific criteria. Even the programmed
responses become automated by the engines and thus
fall under the category of instinct much the same as
the westernized human instinct to jump from a large
spider is learned. An infant would probably watch
the spider or even eat it meaning this is not an
automatic human reaction.
The instinct of a search engines is
important to understand however once one understands
what can and cannot be read and how the spiders will
crawl a site this will become instinct for you too
and can then safely be stored in the "autopilot"
part of your brain.
The Knowing
- Search engines know by crawling. What they know
goes far beyond what is commonly perceived by most
users, webmasters and SEOs. While the vast
storehouse we call the Internet provides billions
upon billions of pages of data for the search
engines to know they also pick up more than that.
Search engines know a number of different methods
for storing data, presenting data, prioritizing data
and of course, way of tricking the engines
themselves.
While the search engine spiders are
crawling the web they are grabbing the stores of
data that exist and sending it back to the
datacenters, where that information is processed
through existing algorithms and
sp@m filters where it will
attain a ranking based on the engine's current
understanding of the way the Internet and the
documents contained within it work.
Similar to the way we process an
article from a newspaper based on our current
understanding of the world, the search engines
process and rank documents based on what they
understand to be true in the way documents are
organized on the Internet.
The Learning
- Once it is understood that search engines rank
documents based on a specific understanding of the
way the Internet functions, it then follows that in
order to insure that new document types and
technologies are able to be read and that the
algorithm be changed as new understandings of the
functionality of the Internet are uncovered a search
engine must have the ability to "learn".
Aside from a search engine needing
the ability to properly spider documents stored in
newer technologies, search engines must also have
the ability to detect and accurately penalize
sp@m and as well as
accurately rank websites based on new understandings
of the way documents are organized and links
arranged. Examples of areas where search engines
must learn in an ongoing basis include but are most
certainly not limited to:
-
Understanding the relevancy of
the content between sites where a link is found
-
Attaining the ability to view the
content on documents contained within new
technologies such as database types, Flash, etc.
-
Understanding the various methods
used to hide text, links, etc. in order to
penalize sites engaging in these tactics
-
Learning from current results and
any shortcoming in them, what tweaks to current
algorithms or what additional considerations
must be taken into account to improve the
relevancy of the results in the future.
The learning of a search engine
generally comes from the uber-geeks hired by and the
users of the search engines. Once a factor is taken
into account and programmed into the algorithm it
them moves into the "knowing" category until the
next round of updates.
How This Helps in SEO
This is the point at which you may be
asking yourself, "This is all well-and-good but exactly
how does this help ME?" An understanding of how search
engines function, how they learn, and how they live is
one of the most important understandings you can have in
optimizing a website. This understanding will insure
that you don't simply apply random tricks in hopes that
you've listened to the right person in the forums that
day but rather that you consider what is the search
engine trying to do and does this tactic fit with the
long term goals of the engine.
For a while keyword density
sp@mming was all the rage
among the less ethical SEOs as was building networks of
websites to link together in order to boost link
popularity. Neither of these tactics work today and why?
They do not fit with the long-term goals of the search
engine. Search engines, like humans, want to survive. If
the results they provide are poor then the engine will
die a slow but steady death and so they evolve.
When considering any tactic you must
consider, does this fit with the long-term goals of the
engine? Does this tactic in general serve to provide
better results for the largest number of searches? If
the answer is yes then the tactic is sound.
For example, the overall relevancy of
your website (i.e. does the majority of your content
focus on a single subject) has become more important
over the past year or so. Does this help the searcher?
The searcher will find more content on the subject they
have searched on larger sites with larger amounts of
related content and thus this shift does help the
searcher overall. A tactic that includes the addition of
more content to your site is thus a solid one as it
helps build the overall relevancy of your website and
gives the visitor more and updated information at their
disposal once they get there.
Another example would be in link
building. Reciprocal links are becoming less relevant
and reciprocal-links between unrelated sites are
virtually irrelevant. If you are engaging in reciprocal
link building insure that the sites you link to are
related to your site's content. As a search engine I
would want to know that a site in my results also
provided links to other related sites thus increasing
the chance that the searcher was going to find the
information that they are looking for one way or another
without having to switch to a different search engine.
In Short
In short, think ahead. Understand that
search engines are organic beings that will continue to
evolve. Help feed them when they visit your site and
they will return often and reward your efforts. Use
unethical tactics and you may hold a good position for a
while but in the end, if you do not use tactics that
provide for good overall results, you will not hold your
position for long. They will learn.
About The Author
Dave Davies is the CEO of
Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning. He has been
optimizing and ranking websites for over four years and
has a solid history of success. Beanstalk is happy to
offer
guaranteed search engine positioning services
to its clients.
