Why bother with Google and search engines?

19 replies
Can it be that search engines, Google in particular, are after the most relevant content for users? Ideally, if this is the case, wouldn't the highest quality site eventually rise to the top of search results because of the way the site is structured in a user-friendly way, offers tons of high-quality and useful content, and is continually updated?

Building links that aren't voluntarily given seems not just tedious, but unethical at worst. Who can truthfully assert otherwise? And so, with that accepted, pay-per-click and possibly the use of marketing the high-quality content from the home website onto other related websites in order to out it in front of targeted audiences seems the best solution in navigating around a search-engine system that really has no quantifiable way of being able to know with any degree of certainty what is going to translate into high positions in the search results and how long these positions can possibly last.

Getting into an ongoing act of manipulating search engines is a game I don't think I'd get much satisfaction from.
#bother #engines #google #search
  • Profile picture of the author Asis Studios
    It is much more satisfying that you think. But yes, it is also a popularity contest in theory. The more "important" sites that are talking about your site gives you a lot of credit in the eyes of google.

    Ranking in the search engines also give you consistent traffic, where as social media is usually a burst.
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    • Profile picture of the author jason y
      Originally Posted by Asis Studios View Post

      It is much more satisfying that you think. But yes, it is also a popularity contest in theory. The more "important" sites that are talking about your site gives you a lot of credit in the eyes of google.

      Ranking in the search engines also give you consistent traffic, where as social media is usually a burst.
      Nice to know someone gathers satisfaction from trying to rank highly for search results. What about this process satisfies you? Or can it be the results of the process you were referring to?
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve L
    These days it's easier to simply focus on publishing quality content on your site, create that social link bait, and the search engines will come to you. This infographic shows how much social signals impact your search rankings.


    Originally Posted by jason y View Post

    Can it be that search engines, Google in particular, are after the most relevant content for users? Ideally, if this is the case, wouldn't the highest quality site eventually rise to the top of search results because of the way the site is structured in a user-friendly way, offers tons of high-quality and useful content, and is continually updated?

    Building links that aren't voluntarily given seems not just tedious, but unethical at worst. Who can truthfully assert otherwise? And so, with that accepted, pay-per-click and possibly the use of marketing the high-quality content from the home website onto other related websites in order to out it in front of targeted audiences seems the best solution in navigating around a search-engine system that really has no quantifiable way of being able to know with any degree of certainty what is going to translate into high positions in the search results and how long these positions can possibly last.

    Getting into an ongoing act of manipulating search engines is a game I don't think I'd get much satisfaction from.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cesar Sampaio
    An authority site takes a long time to gain traction and become respected by search engines.

    It is an amazing investment as authority site are worth their (virtual) weight in gold but the investment in time and money are high.
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    • Profile picture of the author jason y
      Originally Posted by Cesar Sampaio View Post

      An authority site takes a long time to gain traction and become respected by search engines.

      It is an amazing investment as authority site are worth their (virtual) weight in gold but the investment in time and money are high.
      Yes, this I agree with this. A site with many pages of excellent, user-friendly and useful content will eventually rank, I would hope. In the meantime, pay per click seems like the best way to get targeted traffic while waiting for the site to naturally grow and evolve.
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  • Profile picture of the author jeffonmission
    Quality content plus social media interaction is definitely the way to go. I used to work a lot with a company called HubSpot. They basically coined the term Inbound Marketing which basically just content marketing and social media combined together.

    They were able to become really successful because of their focus on content. However, you are right, for starting off in getting traffic, you definitely need PPC. The great thing about PPC is that you can find your "buying" keywords pretty quickly. You don't end up wasting your time bidding on keywords that don't turn into conversions. That logic isn't applied enough to SEO campaigns!
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    • Profile picture of the author jason y
      Originally Posted by jeffonmission View Post

      Quality content plus social media interaction is definitely the way to go. I used to work a lot with a company called HubSpot. They basically coined the term Inbound Marketing which basically just content marketing and social media combined together.

      They were able to become really successful because of their focus on content. However, you are right, for starting off in getting traffic, you definitely need PPC. The great thing about PPC is that you can find your "buying" keywords pretty quickly. You don't end up wasting your time bidding on keywords that don't turn into conversions. That logic isn't applied enough to SEO campaigns!

      I wasn't aware of what Hubspot does. I hadn't heard of the term Inbound Marketing and what that entails, either. I'll look into both. Thank you very much.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dariuszden
    There is no such thing as free traffic. You need to invest either time or money, and time= money so it depends on you how to spend the time. I never had much luck with social media, and don't plan to invest tons of time in it. On the other hand search engines had been kind to me, but that's because I'm learning how they work.

    To rank high you need good content that people will enjoy, but you also need to write it so that spiders are pleased as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author jason y
      Originally Posted by Dariuszden View Post


      To rank high you need good content that people will enjoy, but you also need to write it so that spiders are pleased as well.
      Don't you need a variety of backinks from related sites as well?

      Writing good content that is search engine friendly is something that can be learned fairly quickly. The trick of the matter (at least when it comes to ranking highly and consistently in search engines without paying for clicks) is deciding what efforts are worth it and what efforts may actually makes things worse.

      An example of this would be (if I had to choose between one of the two options) is it worth hounding a site owner in a niche related to mine in order to ask for a link in return for a well-written article, or would I rather focus on traffic I know I can control (ppc).
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  • Profile picture of the author thinkoutthebox
    Jason because today when you had a problem
    what did you turn to to find a solution

    ________

    Ok and then when someone phoned you
    asking for help and you couldn't think of
    the top of your dome, who did you advise
    them to use?

    _________

    That's why you should get your content
    indexed in Google.

    If you can play the SEO game

    Think of real phrases that come to mind
    and then do a search for those phrases.

    See what the other people sitting on the top
    of the page have written about.

    Then go in the same direction but give much
    clarity in where you feel there result didn't meet
    what the searcher would of needed.

    Use of Images

    Use of videos

    Use of Audios

    All these things especially the third one
    really do help, do not wait for Google to
    start saying use of audio greatly effects your rank

    Take it f5rom me a futuristic marketer and
    just provide content and in all the forms people
    take in information.

    For keywords you want to rank for that are hard.

    Stop thinking you would ever rank and stay in first
    position without any competition.

    To fight of the competition, rank for that main keyword/
    key-phrasein the many different ways people would search for it


    Example:

    How do I set up a business
    How do I set up a business online
    How would I go about setting up a business


    If you do a search for these phrases you will
    see major difference in these serps

    Some of the phrases have a lot of ads in the results
    some do not have any at all.

    Pick wisely, a phrase with no ads showing on it in the serps
    does not mean that the traffic will not be ripe!
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  • Profile picture of the author Asis Studios
    Nice to know someone gathers satisfaction from trying to rank highly for search results. What about this process satisfies you? Or can it be the results of the process you were referring to?
    It's enjoyable because you are winning. It's like playing a video game or a chess match or getting a gold medal. Winning feels good, beating everyone else is satisfactory. Especially when your new strategy and new domain starts beating out 7 year old domains, it's a great feeling.
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    • Profile picture of the author jason y
      Originally Posted by Asis Studios View Post

      It's enjoyable because you are winning. It's like playing a video game or a chess match or getting a gold medal. Winning feels good, beating everyone else is satisfactory. Especially when your new strategy and new domain starts beating out 7 year old domains, it's a great feeling.
      Yes, I see what you are saying. As long as dirty tactics are not used, the feeling has to be a good one knowing you have beaten however many other sites are competing for the top spots for competitive search terms.

      Yet when I check search results for competitive terms and still see thin and value-less sites ranking well simply because they have the domain name in the search term and have procured incoming links using tactics that appear questionable at best, ppc continues to show itself as a more palatable option while waiting for a site to mature, gain more content and natural inbound links from people who actually want to link to the site.
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  • Profile picture of the author ArcherWylde
    Originally Posted by jason y View Post

    Building links that aren't voluntarily given seems not just tedious, but unethical at worst. Who can truthfully assert otherwise?
    It's hard to argue this fact. The goal of linkbuilding now-a-days is to make everything look as "natural" as possible. Making your links look "natural" is obviously not "natural" lol

    I always have to argue the fact that, if all of your competition is achieving results and obtaining sales with this methodology...do you really want to be left in the dust because of a moral affliction with the process?
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    • Profile picture of the author jason y
      Originally Posted by ArcherWylde View Post

      It's hard to argue this fact. The goal of linkbuilding now-a-days is to make everything look as "natural" as possible. Making your links look "natural" is obviously not "natural" lol

      I always have to argue the fact that, if all of your competition is achieving results and obtaining sales with this methodology...do you really want to be left in the dust because of a moral affliction with the process?
      It really seems more of a matter of finding more value-driven ways to attract the kind of links and traffic from other sites that will increase sales. If I look at it from the that perspective, I don't have to think about questionable methods I'd feel uncomfortable using just because some or many site owners are having temporary success with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author TerranceCharles
    It all starts with CONTENT, the better the content the more other sites will link to you naturally. And, google love Social Media, so use these social networks to spread your website which builds back-links at the same time, but also helps your ranking
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  • Profile picture of the author greenowl123
    Good content is number 1... then build links in a slow, steady manner... not thousands of blog comments or Wiki links at one time. Not natural in any way....
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    • Profile picture of the author jason y
      Originally Posted by greenowl123 View Post

      Good content is number 1... then build links in a slow, steady manner... not thousands of blog comments or Wiki links at one time. Not natural in any way....
      Yes, having the best content possible on the site is the first priority.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    There's still good traffic to get from Google. If you're utterly disgusted with them... there's always Yahoo and Bing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan Grossman
    Just a few quick comments from someone who's gotten pretty good at this stuff...

    1) I agree with the sentiment in the OP. I also find attempting to directly manipulate search engines unethical and it's not something I would get any satisfaction from either.

    2) I disagree that ranking well or becoming an authority site takes a lot of time. If you publish something amazing, whether it's content/product/service, and through some real PR/marketing get people talking about and linking to it, you will rank well for the right searches pretty much immediately. These ranks will not fade after a few days, either. Age matters less than you think.

    3) I disagree that acquiring many links suddenly is a bad thing either. That's exactly how real links come about -- you write a new blog post, release a new product, upgrade a service, and all of a sudden there's something for publications to cover, bloggers to write about, people to share on social media, etc. Most links, even the most valuable ones, happen to come in bursts. This will not hurt your ranks.

    In the end, Google is going to win out over whatever tricks you think you're playing. You might win in the short-term, but only by devoting all your time to a tedious, unethical game of cat-and-mouse instead of devoting that time to building an actual business. You're not going to retire on affiliate sales from some temporary search ranks.
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