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Are You A Bill Clinton Webmaster?
by: David Leonhardt
One of the
most frequent questions I get asked about my
ebook, Don't Get Banned BY The Search
Engines, is whether I amended it to include
post-Florida Google. "Florida" is the code
name that search engine optimizer wizards
gave to a November, 2003, shakeup at Google
that left many webmasters covering
themselves up with makeshift fig leaves
while dangling upside down above the
proverbial crocodile moat.
I am tempted
to explain that, "No, I did not amend it,
because nothing has really changed." But
just try telling the world that Bill Clinton
did not have "sex" with Monica Lewinski.
Yeah, right.
So I take the
lazy way out and I just say, "Yes."
But the guilt
has been creeping up on me, grasping at my
skin, gnawing away at my bones, chewing on
my heart, mauling my conscience, and
spitting out my toenails one by one. So this
is confession time. Don't Get Banned By The
Search Engine has not been amended to
include post-Florida Google.
Is this
because I am peddling stale goods? Am I
leading people astray? Do I have a clue
what's going on? "No", "I hope so", and
"Maybe".
In fact,
nothing really has changed at Google, and
webmasters who have been following Google's
guidelines can just keep doing what they
have always been doing, just as Presidents
who follow public decency guidelines can
keep doing what they are doing (until we
vote them out of office for other reasons,
of course).
"But I
followed the guidelines, and I still took
bullets in several vital organs," I hear
many webmasters say. In fact, very few
webmasters have been following Google's
guidelines. Most have been following the
Clinton what-can-I-get-away-with fig leaf
guidelines.
Remember that
Bill Clinton never had "sex" with Monica
Lewinski. Technically. Honest, he did
nothing wrong. He followed the rules by not
having "sex" with Monica Lewinski. In fact,
he was seen in public not having sex with
Monica Lewinski on several occasions.
And webmasters
follow the rules by not linking to "link
farms" or "overoptimizing". Sure, they will
link to sites that have nothing to do with
their site's topic, but not to a "link
farm". And they will "exchange links", but
surely that does not violate Google's"
uniquely democratic nature of the web"
principle. As long as you are not actually
caught publicly stuffing the ballot box, how
could Google possibly suggest that you are
doing so?
So here are my
post-Florida rules:
You only link
to relevant sites, because that's what you
know Google and your visitors want. Keep
doing that.
You don't
exchange links, because that would be
stuffing Google's ballot box and that is NOT
something Google wants. Keep not doing that.
Your link does
not appear on many useless "links" pages,
where it has to share PageRank with dozens
of other web sites. Keep not doing that.
You accept
links only from relevant web pages, because
you know that's the only meaningful traffic
... and that's what Google wants. Keep doing
that.
Your links
look different on different web pages around
the Internet, because that's how a
democratic process would create your links.
Keep doing that.
You keep
adding relevant content to your web site,
because that's what you know Google and your
visitors want. Keep doing that.
See? No
change. And if there is a change, it simply
means that you were not following Google's
guidelines in the past. Oh sure, technically
you might have been following Google's
guidelines, but technically Bill Clinton
didn't have sex with Monika Lewinski.
Another round of fig leaves, anyone?
Google
implemented "stemming" along with the
Florida update, or more likely a few weeks
earlier. Since your inbound links are varied
and often unique, you probably already are
taking advantage of stemming, so it won't
bother you. And since you write meaningful
copy for your visitors, you probably already
have all the stemming you need right in your
copy. You are ready to really excel in
Post-Florida Google.
Google is also
implementing a "communities" factor. Since
your inbound links all come from relevant
web pages, you are already part of the
community. You are already well placed to
succeed in Post-Florida Google, right?
Google has
implemented "penalties" for some typically
overoptimized terms. Actually, I think
penalties is probably the wrong word, but
that is what most SEOs are using. Since you
write quality content, meaningful headers,
and don't cut and paste the same phrase over
and over in every possible place, you are
ready to conquer Mount Google.
In other
words, if you were following Google's
guidelines, not the Bill Clinton fig leaf
guidelines, just keep doing what you are
doing. For the rest of you, isn't it time
you dropped the fig leaf and wrapped
yourself up in something a little more
substantial that will weather the high winds
of Google's next big storm?
And, "No." I
did not amend Don't Get Banned BY The Search
Engines to include post-Florida Google
because I never advised people to follow the
Bill Clinton fig leaf guidelines in the
original edition.
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