SEO rant
Since the stomach flu has hit my entire household, I've dragged myself to the computer just for a few minutes. I want to get this rant typed up and sent out so I can go back to bed and sleep in peace.
Webmasters, why do you refuse to see the value (or lack of value) of your site? Now, I'm not saying your site has no value at all. It might have lots of value. No, what I am referring to is the astonishment that some people have when told that their site doesn't have Top 10 value. Search engine value, that is.
C'mon, we don't have a copy of the any of the search engine algorithms, but we have a darn good idea of what aspects are valued most highly by search engines.
You have 5 backlinks, you say? And each of the top 10 has hundreds of thousands? Hmmm…
Your site has 50 pages of content? And each of the top 10 agan has hundreds of thousands of pages of content?
Don't get me wrong. The search engines often screw up and stick a large authority site in the top 10 just because they are a large authority site, but the result really isn't that relevant. I know that. But I'm talking about when major sites are placed in the top 10, where they belong. And a webmaster refuses to believe that he or she can actually compete with those sites without a lot of hard work or a lot of money.
Wait, you say! I thought DazzlinDonna was all for getting the small mom-and-pop sites to be able to compete! You betcha I am. But I'm realistic as well. Sometimes those sites have to compete for other phrases! Hello! You can't always go after the big money phrase if you are teeny-tiny, people. And if you do, then you'd better be prepared to either put in a lot of work, a lot of time, or a lot of money – or all three.
Hey, I've seen Google and all the other search engines make huge mistakes with their algo changes. They've even admitted to a few of them. But it's not always their fault. And you aren't always penalized. Sometimes, your site just isn't valuable enough – i.e. in comparison to other sites' "value".
When that is the case, you need to rethink your strategy. Give up – or try to rank for something else – or put in the time and money to be valuable enough. How you handle it is up to you. But please, take the blinders off.
Ok, maybe now that I've gotten that rant out of my head, I can go lay back down and wonder when this darned bug is going to go away. Wow, being sick really sucks.
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[...] Very apropos posting on SEO Scoop: SEO rant– Cmon, we dont have a copy of the any of the search engine algorithms, but we have a darn good idea of what aspects are valued most highly by search engines. [...]
My dear, you have truly spoken the good word.
You're absolutely right…SEO is leaning more toward the aspects of commercial reality than its original purely organic "everyone gets a chance" mentality. That means things like focusing on a site's overall quality, targeting niche keywords, and growing a website organically will be more important than they ever were.
Time to share this bad boy with some others.