Why are Search Engines a bad source of traffic to Market for?

This is the average reaction from a rank checker:

Rankings fluctuate, thus rendering rank checking a useless practice. Besides, they don’t always mean targeted traffic and conversion rates (which are (or should be) the most common goals for commercialized websites).

Google uses many datacenters to return search results to end users. Plus, Google’s (along with every other major Search Engine’s) algorithm is ever-changing, so, factors level themselves out. For example, one day, Google may place a heavy importance on the date the post was created, then the next day, word count becomes a major factor. It’s impossible to tell what portion gives weight in accordance to others. So then you’ll ask something like this:

BUUT James, How else AM I suppozed too Get Traffic LOL?!?!

Pretend that the Search Engines do NOT exist!

Don’t believe me? Just imagine for a moment Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, or all the other search engines have never existed. Pretend that it is 1993, the web is just beginning to explode on the internet. Many possibilities await you (Not to mention all the tools you have at your disposal in the present). Some immediate examples include:

• Community Partaking = Some places, such as discussion forums, allow you to interact with similar-minded people. If you constantly give worthy advice, people will want to hear what you have to say (on your own site).
• Word-of-Mouth = If you have something interesting, why not let others do the marketing for you?
• Direct Traffic = If you have a good website, and people have already seen it once, chances are they’ll bookmark it and return to read or interact with it again and again.

This is the mind set you have to have if you want to market your website properly.

You can find this Kool-Aid in many flavors such as PR, Alexa, and Link Exchange. And there’s also the primary Kool-Aid stores to avoid consider (Digital Point, V7n, etc.).

If you don’t believe me, allow me to debunk the flavors for you:

PageRank is NOT Important

Alexa Stats are Useless

Link Exchanges are NOT Important

Now that you’ve read these pages, and considering the fact that most SEO’s still follow this logic, what do you have to say about it?

For me? I’m personally conflicted on the subject. One the one hand you have Marketing wannabes selling their scammy services to guarantee number one search rank positions and the like. But on the other, website owners actually spend money on this stuff, believing the SEO Experts are actually telling the truth. So it’s a toss up to me.

Why not make your voice heard? And respond to the poll

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

First, download some software

For example, either A Lead Soft or Search Maker Pro will do fine for the purpose of this exercise. Follow the instructions on these applications to get your script to function properly, these will vary depending on the software you chose to use.

Next, Install your Script onto a Domain, Web Server, etc.

Once your Search Engine has been created, it’s time to market it and get some sites indexed. Start learning some tips by reading my “How to Break Free….” Post.

I’d recommend making your search engine unique. For example, you could create a Music Search Engine, which only indexes pages that have to do with bands, albums, etc. You could even include an audio search as it’s primary focus on organizing mp3s and the like, if you wish.

And Finally, adjust the Search Algorithm to your liking

Now that you have it running and some sites are now indexed, it’s time to adjust just what ranks where. You can choose as many factors as you want, like the age of the web page, how many links are pointing to it, etc.

And at long Last, you can finally make a legitimate claim at considering to be an SEO expert, as you have full authority as to what page ranks where and how your spiderbots crawl different sites with ease.

Search Engines like Google still seem to index the very sites that are out there teaching webmasters how to manipulate them.

The reasons I can think of why they would choose NOT to ban them include the fact that they are not human-run, and that the Search Engine Companies still feel that it would be bad business to put those sites on the shelf.

But even if this were true, wouldn’t it be better for them in the long run? As the SE’s wouldn’t have to change their algorithms as often; and they’d be making money in a cleaner way. Well, actually whether money is “clean” or not doesn’t really matter in the business field much, IMO.

Interesting food for thought.

I’ll help you optimize your website for only the high quality directories that exist on the internet to day. I have a foolproof system that works just as you need it to:

1. First name your website with the letter “A”. We all know directories rank their site listings in alphabetical order, so this should be the easy part.
2. Make your website as broad as possible. Since directories often have many categories, having a general website will give you more options to spam their categories with, thus gaining more backlinks in the process.
   
3. One final tip I have for fellow webmasters is to Pay the directories you submit to. The more you pay, the better chance you have to be on the their “Featured Websites” list. And as everyone already knows, more and more backlinks = Tons of PR juice.

Always remember folks, Directories are a HUGE part of the web today, I mean it’s not like there’s some other great technology out there that allows us to organize and find information we are looking for.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at:

1-800-WEB-FOOL

or by email: DSOE@invisiblelocation.com

Regards,
James Lewitzke

DSO Expert

(NOTE: For those of you that haven’t noticed, this post is filed under “Satire”)

Webmaster-Talk and the IHelpYou Forums are the Jedi Temples of the Internet (The Galaxy), unlike Digital Point, which is a Sith Shrine, subservient to the Dark Side of the Force (spam) who use their TIE Fighters (splogs) and droids (spambots) to spew their ideas.

Their latest assignment to invade the planet Coruscant (Google) will fail miserably, as it has already been protected by a shield generator (PageRank) and the Planetary high council (Sergey Brin, Matt Cutts et. al.) are already developing new ways to defend themselves (constant search algorithm changes).

Here are some of the prominent Lighthat Force Practitioners:

• Force Overlord Steven Bradley
• Jedi Master Adam Senour
• Jedi Master Forrest Croce
• Jedi Master Doug Heil
• Jedi Watchman Connie Shelton
• Jedi Knight John Alexander
• Jedi Knight Daniel Price
• and of course, Jedi Counselor James Lewitzke

Along with Force Adepts recently being taken on for training:

• Jedi Padawan Dustin

Remember that the Dark Side of the Force tempts us all with false prophecies (“Get-Rich-Quick” and “Achieving #1 Rankings as fast as possible”) and we must resist as much as possible.

Want to help join the fight? (Or you feel your name should be added to the list?) Comment below and let us know

1. Sit down (preferably in a nice comfy chair) and ask yourself the following questions:

• How much time have I spent on these activities?
• Could I be spending my time doing things more productive for my website and / or business?
• How far has my website come since focusing on these tactics?
• Do my site visitors receive any benefit at all?
• Has anything *really* been accomplished, participating in these sorts of programs?

2. Throw everything you “think” about SEO out the door

I never have, and never will, claim to be an “SEO Expert”, but there are some things about Search Engine Optimization that are not true, for example:

Myth #1: PageRank is a determination of my web site’s /page’s worth.

Fact #1: PageRank is determined by just ONE Search Engine, Google, and is affected by links and only links, and it doesn’t make ANY difference whether they are “related” or not. Some pages can have PR without any content on them whatsoever.

Myth #2: Submitting to Directories, Exchanging links, and inserting META keywords into pages is important and will boost my site’s rankings.

Fact #2: Totally False, “good” content doesn’t need link exchanges and directory programs to thrive. And Meta Keyword Tags are of absolutely NO use to SE’s.

Myth #3: It is possible to be guaranteed top 10 positions in the Search Engines.

Fact #3: Again, False. Google uses thousands of datacenters to calculate their SERP’s, rankings change every minute. Plus, Search Engines send FREE traffic, look for other sources.

3. Know that there’s a big difference between “Networking” and “Manipulating”

Social Networking Sites are communities (See an earlier post I made). There is nothing wrong with stumbling or digging pages you like. But try to avoid submitting your own content as much as possible.

Ask yourself this: If you submit your own content, how are you able to objectively calculate its value?

4. So what Can I do?

If I were to give you advice (which I kind of already am, by you reading this page), here’s what I think you should do:

• Create a unique website with great content
• Build an online reputation through discussion forums, networking communities such as Stumbleupon, or promote yourself through blog carnivals (as it states in the post, be careful not to spam them), for example.
• And Finally: Stop worrying about SEO Tactics and focus on providing value to your visitors, no matter how large or small your audience may currently be.

One possible idea may be that the webmasters who implement these techniques are just too lazy to create something good and are impatient to increase their site ranking. It usually takes months, and probably years, for most websites to flourish and grow naturally.

The blackhatters believe that with their latest link scheme or search engine manipulation, they are already a step ahead of the competition, and their site can grow more quickly, thus also earning money faster in the process. But does spamdexing run deeper than that? Could the entire purpose of creating splogs, keyword stuffing, etc. be because they think they are better than the search engines in some fashion? (Which leads to my second hypothesis.)

Or reason #2, they’re just dumb.

I believe that if you create content worthy of natural links and traffic, the need for Blackhat SEO goes right out the door.

To put it plainly……………….No

What’s the point in trying to *get* a good ranking, worrying about SERP’s every other moment, how many links I can get, or whether or not someone like Google is going to “penalize” my website for whatever reason?

Like I really want to waste my time writing content for search engines that *might * rank my pages high one day and low the next. A search engine, such as Google, is NOT the boss of my blog, and they can’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do with it.

I want to strongly emphasize that *I* choose what *I* want to write about, and I do it to either please or inform my readers, or on occasion inflate my ego. And if the Search Engines don’t like it, well then ……………………….tough break, they can go to Hell.