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Search Engine Rage
While the Search Engines do their best to ensure the end
user receives relevant search results, you should do your part
to protect against marketing bullies.
These inconsiderate marketers have difficulty positioning their
sites properly so they turn to techniques, tricks and tactics
that have been banned or prohibited by the prominent and popular
Search Engines.
Only a few years ago Highway Patrol units and Police departments
began profiling our roadways for "aggressive" drivers
in an attempt to curb the phenomenon of Road Rage. More than a
few drivers take out the stress of their daily lives on the roadways
causing hazards to all other drivers. The connection between Road
Rage and overly aggressive marketing are related in their common
lack of regard for other individuals.
Road rage has moved to the Internet as certain Guerrilla Marketers
have shown little regard for legitimate marketers who follow the
rules prescribed by the Search Engines. Website marketers are
throwing down the gloves and showing aggression in their haste
to catalyze their Search Engine ranking processes. Much like in
the situation of Road Rage this new anomaly of Rank Rage has potential
risks to the initiator of unscrupulous marketing techniques as
well as to ethical marketers such as you and I who do play by
the rules.
Definition
Rank Rage can be defined as aggressive marketing that circumvents
common and prevalent Search Engine requirements in order to gain
an advantage in the Search Engine ranking process.
Origin
The adult and gambling industries have pioneered, dominated
and essentially destroyed the opportunity to circumvent the rules
and regulations of the major Search Engines. It was not too many
years ago that a doorway page you thought would lead to a page
on 4 Head Hi-Fi VCRs actually led you to the front page of an
adult site. Redirect pages and doorway pages were the first incarnation
of Search Engine Spam.
The problem
Rule conscious marketers lose business to less legitimate
marketers looking to gain an unfair advantage and to make a quick
dollar through the use of prohibited Search Engine ranking techniques.
Analogous to being broadsided by a truck at an intersection, the
work of an unethical Search Engine Marketer can leave you with
a mess to clean up. The reason that you are not ranked as well
as you should be may not be entirely your fault.
The practice of Search Engine Marketing/Search Engine Optimization
(SEM/SEO) has lately become a function of what not to do as much
as it is a function of installing the proper components of factual
information into a site to create positioning. In defence of the
honest business person who simply wants to have a fair advantage
in the online marketing game, the major Search Engines have offered
"Dos and Don'ts" and general rules of conduct in order
to position well within their indices.
Google states that they can and will manually remove violators
of their stringent requirements. Once removed there is no guarantee
of being included again in the index even if the site is cleaned
of violating factors. As a marketer, the cost of not being top
ranked in Google can be devastating. A recent study states that
Google now controls over 50% of the Search Engine market. To lose
your chance of reaching such a large portion of the Search Engine
market is not a worthwhile risk.
Whether it be through the use of generic doorway pages, user invisible
text, link farming or cloaking, certain marketers find it more
important to obtain results than worry about the risk of being
removed from indices.
Recently, I have noticed that firms within the SEM/SEO industry
now have 0/10 or "current page is not ranked by Google"
messages. This is unfortunate and should send a red flag to potential
customers that there is more than just a slight chance that rules
have not been adhered to in order to obtain positioning.
As a marketer being disadvantaged by the lack of adherence to
the rules, you will perhaps have legal footholds in the future
with which to retaliate against those that unfairly steal business.
Recognizing overly aggressive
marketing
While SEM/SEO has been viewed by many as the ultimate tool
for guerilla marketers, the environment of SEM/SEO is now more
mature and requires attention to detail and consideration of others
seeking to use this medium for business promotion. In fact and
theory this has been true throughout the history of online marketing.
In the past 2 years the Search Engines have taken great strides
to ensure relevant search results by establishing rules of entry
into the major databases.
Spam in the email world typically refers to UCE (Unsolicited Commercial
Email). In the Search Engine world Spam refers to any separation
from strict adherence to the rules of positioning set forth by
the Search Engine. Fortunately, legitimate marketers and SEM/SEO
firms recognize what to do and what NOT to do. The practices which
had worked and had been state of the art even a year ago may not
be so today and understanding the rules which you need to follow
in order to maintain proper positioning may be best handled by
a professional Search Engine marketing firm.
Choose Web Informers©
as your Internet Marketing Partners.
Helpful Resources
When making marketing decisions always err on the side
of caution and closely adhere to the rules set forth by the engines
on which you desire positioning. Below are a few resources that
are worth paying mind to in your optimization process or, if you
do have a professional firm conducting this work for you, insist
that they follow these rules.
Google
http://www.google.com/webmasters/index.html
AltaVista
http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new#rls
Fast/AllTheWeb
http://www.alltheweb.com/info/about/spam_policy.html
Inktomi
http://www.inktomi.com/products/web_search/websearch9.html#user
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