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The Donald Rumsfeld Manifesto and Search Engine Optimization
When clients ask my partner Robert about search engine
optimization (SEO), he likes to quote former Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, who Robert claims is highly relevant to search
engine marketing. Mr. Rumsfeld was quoted as saying, "There are
known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know
there are known unknowns, that is to say we know there are some
things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the
ones we don't know we don't know."
Then he tells the client that is how SEO works, whether Google,
Yahoo!, MSN or any other engine. Search engines seem to more
closely to the world of TV Star Trek than the real world. The
engines have nonlinear boundaries, appear to operate in multiple
dimensions, somehow contain all the information known to man and
have unwritten rules that frequently change, without warning.
"THERE ARE KNOWN KNOWNS; THERE ARE THINGS WE KNOW WE KNOW."
Here is what we know... If you want to be found on the internet
you need to be found in the databases of Google, Yahoo! and MSN.
Other engines are nice to be found in as well, but these three
will account for 98% of traffic.
"WE ALSO KNOW THERE ARE KNOWN UNKNOWNS, THAT IS TO SAY WE
KNOW THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE DO NOT KNOW."
Matt Cutts is a Google employee who states on his web site "Hi,
I joined Google as a software engineer in January 2000. I'm
currently the head of the Google's Webspam team. I sometimes
blog about things, but please bear in mind my disclaimer that
the views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those
of my employer."
Here are some comments from MattCutts.com on some "known
unknowns" about Google and ranking.
URL NAMING: Using dashes over underscores to delimit
words in URLs is better. In example, MortgagePromote.com/mortgage-leads.html
is better than MortgagePromote.com/mortgage_leads.html
SPAM STRATEGY: Overall Google's strategy is to not spend
time on correcting individual spam cases, but to concentrate on
creating a better algorithm which takes into account spamming.
Having said that, Google will take action on specific cases of
spam.
SITE MAPS: A site map won't necessarily get your site
crawled. It is more important to have good quality links to your
site to achieve a higher degree of full site indexing.
SELLING LINKS: In order to artificially create a sense of
high quality links, many sites buy links to their own sites. If
you sell links, you should mark them with the nofollow tag. Not
doing so can affect your reputation in Google. Earned-links are
earned and given by choice. Google does consider buying text
links for PageRank purposes to be outside our quality
guidelines. Google's is against selling/buying links, and Matt
indicates they are good at spotting them - both algorithmically
and manually. Sites that sell links can lose their trust in
search engines.
EGO AND SPLASH PAGES: It's not only Googlebot who doesn't
watch a 20 second video load before the home page comes into
view. A lot of users don't either. Splash pages can negatively
impact your Google indexing.
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FLASH VS. HTML: If you use Flash, you create a HTML
version as well. HTML is easier to index and improves your
chances of getting indexed.
META TITLES: Each pages should have its own unique and
descriptive <title> tag and headings for every page. In example,
if your company is called Mortgage Promote, then Mortgage
Promote should not be the meta title on every page. Titles
should reflect the page substance. If you page is about San
Diego Home Loans, then that should be the meta title.
SAY WHAT YOU MEAN: If your site is about "San Diego home
loans" but the visible content of your site says "Get your
mortgage loan with us," you won't be found for San Diego home
loans" because those words aren't visible to the visitor.
"BUT THERE ARE ALSO UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS - THE ONES WE DON'T KNOW
WE DON'T KNOW."
RANKING PARAMETERS: Factors such as "Page Rank (Google
tool bar)" and "inbound links (more is better)" and "trusted
sites (colleges and major corporations)" and "age of domain
(older is better)" and "keywords embedded in URL (ie
HomeLoans.com vs JohnsonAssociatesAgency.com)" and "ownership
(do you own too many similar type domains?)" and a plethora of
other unknown unknowns all impact where your site appears in the
Google rankings.
GOOGLE UPDATES: Google updates everything all at the same
time, typically every three or six months. This is what causes
massive changes in rankings.
CLICK FRAUD: Many people want to know how Google prevents
click fraud, but Google isn't telling. Google's priority is to
protect advertisers, so that means not disclosing any
proprietary methods which would allow click fraud perpetrators
to reverse-engineer our systems.
THE RIGHT STUFF
Achieving success is not about doing a few things 100% right, it
is about doing hundreds of things, many of which you don't even
know, 100% right. As you can see, Rumsfeld was in a can't win
situation. He had do everything right, he even had to be right
in things he didn't know about. He couldn't and that is how he
lost his top ranking.
Maybe we should update Rumsfeld's quote to reflect the
uncertainty of the search engines. "There are right rights;
there are things we know we do right. We also know there are
wrong rights, that is to say we know there are some things we
should not do if they are not right. But there are also unknown
right and wrongs - the ones we don't know we don't know if they
are right, or wrong."
Now if that makes sense... you can do the right thing and get
your site highly ranked in the search engines.
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MortgagePromote.com is a leading Internet marketing web site
that provides hundreds of articles & information tips on web
site promotion, search engine marketing and search engine
optimization; to help loan officers & mortgage companies
increase their online sales. Aries and Farris has been providing
nationwide mortgage leads & Internet marketing services since
1998. Web site: MortgagePromote.com
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