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SEO myth’s and fallacies; geek edition

By theGypsy | November 22, 2010

A.k.a Some shit you’d better get straight

The only reason I am not more active at this blog is because there just aren’t enough hours in the day for all the shit I have to do each week. That is not to be confused with the fact that there is any lack of utter bullshit out in the SEO space.

As such, from time to time, I just get sick of the fucktard dumb-ass brain dead bullshit I come across when wandering the space. Today we’re going to get into a few that have been under my skin over the last while.

SEO myths and fallacies; geek edition

Let’s Talk Testing

There is no such thing as definitive testing. All we can, or most people, do is nothing more than anecdotal evidence. Consider that;

In short, it would be a VERY hard an nearly impossible undertaking. I prefer to call it ‘research’ instead of ‘testing’.. Splitting hairs? Maybe… but it works for me.

 

Papers and Patents

As I have written about many times before, we cannot look at papers/patents and get some magical insight. Yes, it is a great thing to be doing. It is important to better understand how search engines work. BUT we can’t simply look at one paper/patent and proclaim; this is how they do it!

What most people seem to not do, is give context. We would have to look at ALL the papers/patents on a given topic from a search engine just to get close. After that? Well, it would need to be tested; see point #1 :0)

The Tool Obsession

Tools do NOT make the SEO. Yup, it’s another one I’ve written about before and it’s a fact. All too often SEOs peeps tend to be lead around by the latest shiny bobble. This is pure madness. And of course, NO TOOL can tell us exactly what the search engines are doing (see points 1&2).

We seek to use tools to further our goals. You create the SEO program, lay out the goals/needs. The need to data/tools should be driven by the campaign. The campaign should NEVER be driven by the tools. This is an all-to-common-mistake.

Rankings

Yes, I know, this is a long running one, but it does need to be said once more here on SEOBS. Rankings are no longer stable. Shit, they haven’t been for AGES now.

In the current world flux can be created from personalization, from geo-localization, universal, from query adaptations and the QDF… by a LOT of things. That being said, some of the ‘research’ we’ve done in the past does show top 3 are strong and even the top 10 will be relatively stable.

What’s it mean? It means rankings aren’t dead as some would believe, but are also not a stable target we can assert are going to be the same from data-center to data-center and person to person. This one is for both camps; those that think rankings are dead and those that still give clients ranking reports.

 

More muck to mire in….

And there we have it… I am feeling better now. Yes, there is every chance that you may not agree with my latest bitches, but hey, that’s what the comment box down there is for ok? Feel free to express your thoughts or even add a few of yer own gripes with the SEO world ….

Outties… chat ya later!

 

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  • SEO myths and fallacies; geek edition

Topics: Reality Check | 21 Comments »

Posted on 22 November 2010 by David Harry

Just a ranting and rambling search geek.... Web gypsy and renaissance man! When not losing what's left o' me mind here, I can be found blogging on the Fire Horse Trail and hanging wid me peeps at the SEO Training Dojo

has written 19 articles for SEO Bullshit

  • http://brettpringle.com Brett Pringle

    Stable first page SERPS… reminds me of the quote from Google’s Norvig

    http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/022660.html

  • http://twitter.com/badams Barry Adams

    Agreed, agreed, agreed, and agreed. Sorry man, you know I’d love to give you a proper argument, but I can’t disagree with anything you’re sayin’ here.

  • http://twitter.com/timwithers Tim Withers

    Nice post man. I’ve been watching this space like a hawk to see what you bullshitters would cook up next.

    Being my first post on here, I’d like it to have some more substance, but I honestly can’t say I disagree with any of your points. The Tool Obsession is one that resonates with me in particular. Most recently, the way people were wetting their pants over SEOMoz’s LDA was ridiculous.

  • http://www.rideboldly.org/ Julie K

    I was at a conference recently and I was trying to be good and shut up in other people’s sessions. Until I ended up at one by someone who was attempting to pass themselves off as an SEO expert, who was espousing spending real time on meta-keywords.

    Nearly got myself kicked out, except that my session was coming up and it would have been problematic. :)

  • http://twitter.com/DocSheldon DocSheldon

    No bullshit in that post, David! I agree 101% that “testing” is only valid, at BEST, for one particular site, at one particular moment in time, from one particular data center! That doesn’t make it worthless, by any means, but it doesn’t make it a “truth”, either.Add to that the fact that less than one in a thousand people seem to have ANY idea how a test should be structured, conducted and have its results analyzed… well, this is YOUR ranting platform, not mine! Let’s just say that actually seeing a valid test on ANYTHING these days is a rarity! ;)

  • http://www.huomah.com theGypsy

    Hey gang, thanks for jumping in. They were just a few bees in me bonnet that needed to be set free. The tools one? Yea, most deffo I get pretty tired of the current generation of SEOs that are addicted to data. I am as big a data geek as anyone, but there is a time to step back and look at the SERP ya know?

    Testing? Man, that obviously drives me nuts from the sheer ignorance of search engines. If they understood search engines, they’d understand how MASSIVE any realistic testing would need to be.

    Tim? Thanks for breakin’ yer cherry here on SEOBS, hope to see more from ya!

    Julie… I would have deffo found a way to work the jackass into the presentation. Shit, I’d have brought him on stage lol. As U can see, I don’t make many friends in the industry lol.

    Thanks again ya’ll for stopping in.

  • Pete Young

    Nice braindump David, and like Barry can’t really disagree with any points. Its just a shame there are so many people passing theory off as tested fact when as you have highlighted there are very few factors we can definitely say are fact – the rest as they say is theory…..

  • http://seoptimizacia.com/ Evgeni Yordanov

    Man… you make me laugh my ass off :) Although I believe that every bit of advice you give is spot on. It’s just so hilarious, man!

  • http://www.eknowwaytions.com/marketing/onlinemarketing/seo/why-you-should-stay-away-from-seo/ Sascha

    Right time for this post. I was in the ‘everything’s pissing me off’ mood for the whole week. So once more thx a lot for talking straight. Oh and next time don’t forget, SEO is dead ;-)

  • http://www.borisbenz.com Boris Benz Marketing

    Hi Gypsy,

    This is what I think about them “tests”, whoever “unveils” their “breakthrough test results” have a set of SEO tools to sell :)
    Google spits out updates faster than I can change my socks so, if a someone would perform an exhaustive testing or research or whatever… its value is highly questionable in the long run.

    Should we stop trying to determine the patterns in which SEs operate? Nope, the question is how much time we are willing to dedicate to SEO alchemy.

  • http://twitter.com/Nick_Eubanks Nick Eubanks

    I honestly just found SEOBS today… don’t ask me how I have missed this gem for so long, but happy im here now. Keep up the ranting – its a nice break from the BS. :)

  • Ronabop

    FWIW, some of us out here actually are working on the scale needed for this kind of testing… and yes, it requires testing across thousands of URL’s, data centers, origin IP addresses, personalized vs “cookieless” results, comparing results to background (control) for different variables, etc. It’s a huge pile of data, and as we refine/improve our experiments, we increase the amount of data gathered.

  • Eren Mckay

    Ok Sensei – I won’t “test” anymore.. I’ll research ..hee hee
    (as long as it helps me evaluate what’s working and what’s not)
    All the best,
    Eren

  • Anonymous

    Obsession is a tool that resonates with me in particular. More recently, as people wet their pants SEOmoz LDA was ridiculous.

    Motorcycle Accessories

  • http://surrey-webdesign.net CSSSEO

    Just found SEOBullshit, great post! I agree that SEO is intuitive and that the raft of supposed SEO tools out there aren’t actually much help in optimising a site per se, especially on-page stuff which is particularly inuitive, but have their place no less.

  • http://www.edtrialpack.com/ Trial Pack

    Oh and next time don’t forget, SEO is dead ;-)

  • Anonymous

    I get pretty tired of the current generation of SEOs that are addicted to data.
    Office Furniture

  • BuyGiftsItems

    I’d have brought him on stage lol. As U can see, I don’t make many friends in the industry lol.
    a deal a day

  • Anonymous

    It was attempting to pass themselves off as an SEO expert, who was espousing spending real time on meta-keywords.
    Plumber Service

  • http://www.frivmini.com/ friv

    I have read each and every point and found it very interesting, thank

  • http://www.londonremovals.net/page-removal-services.html Office Removals

    First encounter with a post of yours over here. You obviously know your ass from a hole in the ground. I will make sure i come back here on a regular basis.