SEO – Sandwiched between Conception and Misconception
Published June 12th, 2007 in Online Marketing, Search Engines, Web 2.0Tags: seo, seo marketing, seo myths.
Shari Throw is one of my favorite writers. And this time she has really brought up an interesting issue about all the SEO Misconceptions around.
And I think she is right on the money. According to her, there are lots of SEO Professionals which are carrying some myths and misconceptions from a long time. Some of those are
- High Spidering Frequency equals High Rankings
- Giving preference to CSS-formatted Text over Graphics Images
She is absolutely right here, as if people start blogging or posting articles about those misleading information this can really destroy the trust in the industry.
More and more people are pushing towards this Industry and articles, forums and blogs are only available resources which many people refer for.
Lets digg into those misconceptions.
Misconception1: High Spidering Frequency equals High Rankings
Is it really true that high Spidering makes your site more favorable in SE’s? Does addition of blogs and forums would result in improved rankings?
My answer is Yes and No. We need to be sure as to what we want to achieve and what’s the reason behind doing it. If you are working for Bots then I must say you should start packing our bags. I have also read many articles which suggested changing their content every three to five days to achieve higher rankings. This is absolute mess. As, changing the content won’t help if it lacks quality and orientation.
Crawl frequency has nothing to do with the rankings. You will also find many websites doing well in SE without having a high crawl frequency. The ideal condition would be – update your site’s content when you feel it needs updation.
Misconception2: Giving preference to CSS-formatted Text over Graphics Images
It may sound good, but how practical it is. We can’t go ahead and implement something. You need to understand what your business needs. For example, if a site is composed of many graphics and images, then modifying those will certainly make your site more search engine friendly.
For me this is not as accurate as it looks. Search engines want what users want. On many situations I think SE would definitely prefer more images over CSS-formatted text. I think we can get the better insight by carrying out a Site Usability Test. Infact; I am also planning to have one on my website. I am in Travel domain, and I don’t see a replacement of images out here. But just for the information, my site is among the top ones in the airline booking industry. The idea is to work with all the required inputs (images or css-formatted text).
Debatable Issue: Web 2.0 sites rank better than non-2.0 sites
Is this really true…I am also not very sure about it as Web 2.0 sites still have a long way to go to prove their metal. The question is - Are they consistent? We need more data and time to see as how they perform in the long run.
I would love to have some inputs from the experts.
Thanks again to Shari Thurow 
seo, seo marketing, seo myths
4 Responses to “SEO – Sandwiched between Conception and Misconception”
- 1 Pingback on Jun 25th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Well I agree with all the points that are mentioned there. But would like to add some other Points also.
Having table less design does help because the page renders fast which will help in improving your user experience which will affect your SE rankings.
I think web2.0 site are good when compared to non 2.0 sites. Making your site interactive is always good. Through this you will get some idea what your users want. I support web2.0
Moreover I dont think crawl rate has any effect on site rankings. I am working on site which is visited by MSN bots everyday but we are not even indexed in MSN.
Hi there-
I’m going to take this bait. A lot of people don’t know this. There have been 4 passings in my family in the last 5 months. It’s been a rough ride for everyone in my family, including me.
Look, everyone talks about this mysterious user experience. And every person on the planet honestly believes he/she knows what the user experience really is. Well, guess what? Do you usability test? Do you actually gather a representative group of users that fit a profile or persona and actually observe them? Are you a facilitar or an observer? People who build their own sites should never be a facilitator when usability testing their own sites.
What I hear are people who say, “tableless designs are better for the user experience because of the faster download time.” Okay prove it. Don’t quote Jakob Nielsen, Jared Spool or any other usability professional. Did you do what I briefly described in the previous paragraph? If you did not, and do not follow this procedure continuously throughout the evolution of your site, then your opinion is not valid. Perceived download time is a more accurate measure of user satisfaction than actual download time.
Yeah, I’m quoting Jared Spool on that previous statement. The difference is that I actually usability test. I don’t quote others and pretend I am a usability professional. I do it.
So no, I do not agree with the previous blog post. I have tested tableless designs and actually found that many of them do not yield as positive results as a combination table/CSS design.
Regarding Web 2.0 sites, it doesn’t matter what your opinion is. I know that sounds harsh; it is only my frustration. You are not selling to you. You are selling to a group of people who do not think the same way you do or do things the same ways you do. Usability is not about what people think. It’s about what they do. So what if someone thinks my site is cool. Do they add to cart, sign up for my newsletter, etc. Do they take the desired calls to action? If not, why don’t they? What people say and what they do are very, very different. And you don’t know what they do until you actually usability test. Web analytics do not provide the data that usability tests do.
Certainly, I am not saying to not use Web analytics or focus groups as they do provide useful data. But they are not usability tests.
SEO professionals and Web developers delude themselves into believing that they understand the elusive user experience. I speak from personal experience. I used to be that person. But now I test and have done so for years. What an eye opener.
Great! Straight from the Writer….
Yeah Shari,
We are on the same page….You would be surprised to know that I was discussing the same thing with few of my juniors - are they seem to be living with the same misconception….
Its all hapening because of all such vague articles on the web…they read..