Posted on: December 28, 2007 by Syzlak
One thing that I have desperately tried to in my life is quash injustice. That’s a lie, but I’m not a fan. Which is why I was very upset to see that the Rubber Chicken Awards have decided to ignore fairness in order to pander to the same tired search crowd.
The injustice that caught my ire? The inclusion of posts from the same site. However, maybe that’s because in every list there has to be 3 from SEOmoz. For good measure, let’s throw in 2 from Sebastian’s Pamphlets so people don’t notice. While both are fine blogs, I think it is horribly unfair to the other nominations to be kicked out of the running by multiple posts from the same blog.
Am I upset that SEOHack’s posts were not considered? Sure, JDog from BlackBookData nominated the Worst SEO Blog Ever very early on in the competition. So was Streko! Funny fucking guy that Streko! Some of the posts were actually informative with hints of humor, or what my English teachers used to refer as ‘voice,’ rather than being simply “Bizarre, Funny and/or otherwise Irrelevant (or Irreverent)” as the rules had originally requested. Was Mystery Guest’s post on things to do when Rand’s at a conference very funny? Not really. It reminded me of those “40 things” lists (irritate roommate, you’d like to say at work, only happen in movies, ways to skin a unicorn, etc). Funnier would have been the ‘Things overheard at PubCon’ post by Rebecca…but I digress.
In the comments for nominees I saw maybe 20 links to unique websites, and maybe at most 30 links total. So obviously Mike had to work pretty hard to narrow the list down to the 10 finalists. Well, wrong again, as instead of doing the honorable and just act of creating a FAIR contest, we see that there are 15 finalists! Kudos for omitting your own submission, but un-Kudos (is that the opposite of Kudos?) for taking the easy route and going with 15 posts from 11 sites and ignoring the rest of the bloggers that work hard at creating irreverent posts to make our lives as SEOers just that much more fun.
Posted on: December 21, 2007 by Syzlak
The face of search is constantly changing. Though search engines are supposedly helping SEOers: we see reps from the engines at our conferences, read their blogs, know their cats names, etc. In reality, the engines do not care about us SEOers, they have fed us a lie.
Google claims to be for users first attempting to make information easily accessible. Remember “don’t be evil?”
Focus on the user and all else will follow.
From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible. While many companies claim to put their customers first, few are able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder value. Google has steadfastly refused to make any change that does not offer a benefit to the users who come to the site:
- The interface is clear and simple.
- Pages load instantly.
- Placement in search results is never sold to anyone.
- Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a distraction.
By always placing the interests of the user first, Google has built the most loyal audience on the web. And that growth has come not through TV ad campaigns, but through word of mouth from one satisfied user to another.
Now, while I am in no way saying that Google is trying to hinder the user experience, cheat those that use their engine, or generally “be evil;” it has recently become much harder to see the defining line of good and evil.
Case in point, in 2003 (2004?) Google looked much like it had for years. Listings down the page, ads on the right. Then 2005 came around, and on some searches the listings were pushed lower by placing 2-3 ads in their place. Then in 2006, maps, pictures, albums, answers, products, etc. all moving the organic search listings further down the page.
Enquiro Research has done studies showing the general eye patterns of users, indicating where search engine users focus and engage in activity on the SERPs. What resulted was the famed “Golden Triangle” of search displayed below:
Were they right? Yes. Many SEM companies based their strategies off of these studies, and were quite successful for themselves and their clients. To this day, the overall strategy of anyone in the business is to land within the “Golden Triangle.” It has become a great visual to explain user activity to search marketing newcomers, and a legitimate goal for the industry.
Which explains why Google decided to take all the real estate. While I know I’m saying nothing new here, I think it needs to be revisited once in awhile. Remember the aforementioned changes to Google? Let’s look at them visually.
On the left is the classic Google SERP, the middle is a SERP today with ads, the right SERP with local listings. Whereas a few years ago, one could hope to land a majority of user interest with the top organic search listing, today the top listing falls within the zone of growing disinterest. On Enquiro Research’s eye pattern screenshot, the tapering area with a somewhat orange area (or listings 3-5) are where today’s top listings are showing.
While the local listings may indeed be more useful for many users, it is important to note that sponsored listings and many local listings (with many more to come) are sources of income for Google.
- Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a distraction.
While for the most part the advertising is relevant (except for smarter.com ads) and the local search can be highly relevant, it can be a bit of a distraction. Could it not be argued that by placing more Google sponsored listings at the top of search, that Google is indeed unable to “resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder value?” If everything within the “Golden Triangle” is owned by Google and turned for a profit, then they are pandering to their shareholders.
Now, with the advent of KNOL, Google is trying once again to own more real estate on the SERPs by manipulating their own quality control system (nofollow links). With KNOL, an online user generated encyclopedia (Wikipedia clone), Google will be able to garner many links to their a external site. This site will have AdSense, video ads, etc. and feature nofollow external links. So, if we all remember how PageRank works…
KNOL should be able to capture the top organic search spot for many topics within a short period of time (bets on a year?). This will push “true” organic search further down the page, and allow Google to continue raking in the dough.
The search engines don’t care about SEO nearly as much as they care about their own bottom line. On the other hand, why should they? Google doesn’t make any money off of us manipulating their algorithm in order to get our fake feces site to the top position. My only problem is that they do it under the guise of user friendliness and SEO cooperation…which is a bit of a lie
Posted on: December 19, 2007 by Syzlak
After watching Zero Punctuation review 3-4 games and then t-bagging my lips (note: I’m drinking peppermint tea to sooth my sore throat…nasty nasty reader), I had a revelation.
How many of us SEMers were at one point in time gamers?
I can really only speak for myself here and admit that I definitely was a fan of the 80s arcades and Nintendo Entertainment System. For a spell, I grew up in the suburbs of Portland and had a neighbor who fixed arcade games for a living. Keeping them in his garage, all the neighborhood boys and girls had a virtual arcade at their disposal. Nothing equals happiness when you’re 6 like free video games. So while I honed my skills on Donkey Kong, Tron, and Millipede, I imagine I was also slowly sculpting my future to be focused on the tech industry in some way.
Now, while I realize that some of us are inherently tech savvy, others are very adept at language or math and see programming as the union of these traits; however, all of us were turned to this field in some way. My first job out of college was at TrafficLeader. I had heard what my friend did for a living, and it made sense…somehow. I began on the paid search side of SEM (definition debates to ensue) and was very comfortable within a couple short months. While I had been “surfing the web” since ‘92, there was really no reason (proficiency in math? bah!) that I would be as successful in learning search as I was.
Or was there? Perhaps my former life as a gamer combined with my familiarity with the web made it easier for me to embrace new technology, software, analysis, etc.
Talking to my friends and colleagues today, I notice just how many of us play games online. Orisinal, Desktop Tower Defense, Chain Factor, none of these games are that different from the arcade games (or early Nintendo games) of old. They rely on simplicity and re-playability. So, if many of us now play these simple games in order to take our minds off of the immense workload (@ work or home) we face, I wonder where all of us developed these inclinations.
For me, Mr. Shore’s garage. What was it for you?
Posted on: December 14, 2007 by Syzlak
Ok, so I haven’t had a post in awhile. Fair enough, I did have a gig this week and get food poisoning, but shit who cares about what happens to me? As long as the blog survives then you’re happy.
So, although I have a queue of 4 stellar posts to be made over the next week (hopefully), I’ll take one that has been on my mind for ages now.
Hey Microsoft program developers! Did you ever think to make an “undo save” button? There have been countless times in my life where I am either putting together a feed, report, RFP, etc. only to have hit that fucking save button out of instinct before I should have. Whether it just be the need have saved this file under a different name, or that I needed to undo the action before the save (this happens to be the most frequent mistake, as I am a notorious user of excel for my extensive use of either cell conditioning/formatting or with formulas…and sometimes, well, I forget to check to make sure whether or not I’ve actually done the calculation accurately across 10 rows and 300 columns).
I would save so much time, and cost so many fewer lives if I had this function.
All right, I’m dizzy and listening to the Nintendo Sound Team albums is starting to drive me batty.
Posted on: December 7, 2007 by Syzlak
Today Hilker studied the differences between blogs and social networks. I like his graph, and I think it’s pretty accurate. It is odd to think that 7 years ago, my friend Brian had a LiveJournal account. I thought he was crazy, using the web as a journal and sharing with people! Now, blogs are, as Hilker said, ’soapboxes’ or somewhat corporate propaganda; whereas Facebook and MySpace are hardly web journals and more accurately web souls where dignity slowly dies…and to think, I used to fight for social conscientiousness and fight against being a cog. As more of us join MySpace and Facebook (which I don’t actually oppose) are we not mitigating our privacy, individuality and existence?
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