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Search Engine Changes Blur Lines Between Myth and Reality
By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor,
StepForth Placement Inc. (http://www.stepforth.com)

Much has changed since last year in the world of search engine
marketing. These changes have widened the knowledge gaps between
the SEM sector, our clients and the general public. A knowledge
gap separating professional experience and general interest is
natural in any industry, as a quick peek under any newer model
car hood will demonstrate.

In a field as user-dependent and re-evolutionary as the search
industry, knowledge gaps can lead to expensive chaos for
consumers, advertisers and web-masters. Many common assumptions
about search engine marketing have been made obsolete or require
a different way of thinking. Many erroneous assumptions continue
to be proliferated in hundreds of forum posts, emails and
marketing articles.

Search is the most important facet of the Web and the fastest
growing part of the tech world. In an almost fully globalized
world, search provides the unifying medium. In other words,
search is the starting point of everything in accessible
mass-communication. There are a number of myths surrounding the
search marketing industry. On one hand, recent changes at the
major search engines have made a number of long-held truths into
newly minted myths. On the other hand, some long-held but
mistaken beliefs simply refuse to go away.

Due to the rapidity of change and the proliferation of
information, the knowledge gaps inherent to the search sector
are exceptionally fluid. For example, last week the Big3 agreed
on a new link-attribute called the NOFOLLOW tag. Answers I would
give to questions about this tag if asked today are very
different than the ones I would have volunteered last week. Over
the past five days, a number of unique exploits have been
devised, shared and posted to SEO themed forums and for good or
for ill, some SEOs have a new tool at their fingertips.

Most online business owners think about search engines
frequently. Similarly, many web site designers and hosting firms
have studied SEO techniques in order to incorporate them into
site design and hosting packages. Judging by the emails I
receive, many tech-firms offering SEM as a side-service simply
don't have the time to absorb the volumes of information
necessary to fully understand the environment as it evolves.

These gaps exist within the full-time SEM industry as well.
Aside from the fly-by-night operations that have refined every
type of sp@m describable, there are some shops that are
practicing SEO like it was still 1999. It's not that they all
intend to be malicious. Few humans have the ability to run a
business, read everything ever written, experiment with
different techniques and service client concerns, all at the
same time. The necessity to share a growing number of tasks is
the biggest reason most older SEO firms are hiring more staff
each year.

Here are some of the recent myths I'd like to see slain:

Myth #1

Some SEOs and SEMs can make special agreements with Google,
Yahoo, or MSN.

This is a marketing myth that simply is not true.

One can gain accreditation from Google. One can manage massive
accounts and receive a personal live-support agent who can
answer questions. One can even take full advantage of every
offer a search firm makes but one cannot make a sweetheart deal
with the paid-advertising arms of the search engines. The SEM
sector brings advertisers to the table but there are no special
deals offered to individual SEMs aside from the occasional round
of free drinks at conventions.

As for SEO firms who claim a special relationship, no one who
manipulates search engine rankings for a living is going to be
offered a welcome mat by the search engines. The SEO sector is
tolerated as long as it doesn't egregiously make a mess. The
closest it gets to "special" is personal relationships that
develop between people who work together.

The only folks who can make special agreements with a reputable
search engine are those offering the search engine something
they don't already have, like new technologies or expertise. If
an SEO or SEM firm tells you they have a special arrangement
with search engines, ask for proof and follow up on it before
spending.

Myth #2

Organic Optimization is always cheap.

I guess this myth is subject to what any individual feels is
expensive. Organic placements must rank among the least costly
ways to advertise, however costs in the sector are rising fairly
rapidly, especially among established SEO firms. The amount of
work necessary to optimize a site has increased, as has the time
commitment in fostering and monitoring placements. Search
engines are one of the primary information sources for consumers
both at work and at home. As search becomes more important to
society, search engine optimization services become more
important for advertisers thus driving up demand and in turn,
costs. The growth in demand continues to outstrip the number of
SEO practitioners thus driving costs even further. Even with
increased costs, for the size of the audience available, SEO is
still cheaper than a printed directory listing and much cheaper
than any other form of electronic media.

Myth #3

Submission services are a necessary part of search engine
marketing.

I hate to blow anyone's business bubble but submission services
gasped their last useful breaths last year when every major
search engine moved away from paid-submission indexing and moved
to automated spidering. The one sure way to get into the
databases of the major search engines is to get a link from an
established site or a search directory like DMOZ, Joe Ant or Web
Atlas. Once these links are established, the spiders will come.
There are still a lot of businesses drawing supplemental income
from search engine submissions and unfortunately, those
businesses are not doing their clients a great service. A wise
solution for businesses who can't give up the income from
submission services is to market SEO services to their clients
by learning the techniques or by reselling the services of an
established firm.

Myth #4

My rankings dropped. Google must be penalizing me.

Search engine rankings will fluctuate. It is very rare an
unmonitored placement will remain in the Top10 forever. Even
sites with Top10 placements that are monitored and maintained by
SEO firms will lose ranking from time to time. More often than
not, the problem can be quickly traced back to one of three
areas; on-site issues, hosting issues or link-issues. The search
engines are in the promotion business, not in the penalization
business. You really have to work hard at being bad (or pay
someone to be bad for you) to get an actual penalty applied
against your site. Historically, when Google decides enough is
enough, the punishment is harsh, widespread and very apparent.
800 lb gorillas are not known for subtly.

Myth #5

Doorway pages are necessary to get placements on all search
engines under multiple keyword phrases.

Speaking of stuff that will get Google to penalize placements,
doorway pages appear to be making a comeback. A doorway page is
a replica of an existing page designed to rank under a unique
phrase at a specific search engine. By creating doorway pages,
what started as a 10-page site turns into a 100-page site bulked
up by 90 pages of relatively duplicate content. Titles, meta
tags, word densities and keyword targets may vary from doorway
page to doorway page but the content is basically the same.

Back in the 90's, doorway pages were very common as there were a
much wider variety of search options using wildly different
ranking algorithms. When Google became the only major dominant
search engine in early 2001, the days of doorway pages were
numbered. When Google stated that duplicate content would get
penalized, the technique should have died. Google however,
neglected to dole out effective sanctions and the practice
persisted.

Today, two factors are driving the return of the doorway page.
The first is that ecommerce sites have grown much larger and
with the development of shared product databases, much more
competitive. The second factor is the return of a multi-engine
search universe with both Yahoo and MSN maintaining their own
databases. This is a long-term favorite trick of the affiliate
marketing sector and is making a comeback under the new
marketing tool name, Landing Pages.

In reality, the Big 3 search engines all work pretty much the
same way. It is possible to optimize for all three at the same
time without risking placements. You can also optimize a full
site for multiple keyword phrases however; expectations of 2500+
unique product placements are somewhat unrealistic. A wise
guideline is, if you think you need to make a series of doorway
pages, chances are your website is trying to represent too many
different topics and should be redesigned into several different
websites each focused on a unique topic or similar topics.

If these five myths die this year, the sector will be a cleaner
place to work in. Advertisers will be less likely to be scammed
into believing their SEO has a special relationship with the
search firms. They will also have a more realistic view of the
long-term commitment it takes to run a successful organic
placement campaign and will be able to better budget for
services. People would stop obsessing over submissions,
penalizations, and other irrelevancies and get on with the
business of producing great websites. Lastly, if the final myth
about the value of doorway pages is undone, consumers would see
stronger SERPs and some advertisers would save a lot money and
the eventual heartache of displaced rankings.

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Jim Hedger is a writer, speaker and search engine marketing
expert based in Victoria BC. Jim works with a limited group of
clients and provides consultancy services to StepForth Search
Engine Placement (http://www.stepforth.com). He has worked as an
SEO for over 5 years and welcomes the opportunity to share his
experience through interviews, articles and speaking
engagements. Other articles by Jim Hedger can be found at
http://news.stepforth.com
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