The Weakness of Traditional Search Engine Optimization

It’s easy to spot the weakness of traditional SEO- it focused too much on trying to crack the system rather than work with it.

If you’re not familiar how Google, for example, gives split-second results to your every keyword inquiry, the method is actually more science than the infamous “I am feeling lucky” button.

As you know (I’m assuming because you read this blog), every search engine formulates and guards their own secret algorithms that determines the relevance and weight of your web pages relative to various search queries (or keywords). Those algorithms are so complex they involve all kinds of metrics from your obvious traffic count, to RSS subscribers, and yes, even as trivial as the site speed of your site (don’t panic though Matt Cutts clarified that’s just a teeny-tiny part).

Traditional SEO is so keen on figuring out the best way to crack the system. A year or two ago, I’ve even heard of seo specialists whose job are to crack down those algorithms in hopes of advancing the ranks of their client sites.

Well, is there any need in the first place to run after those algorithms?

If you’re an seo newbie, or even if you’re a specialist yourself, my take is this- don’t kill yourself trying to.

For two simple reasons:

  1. Algorithms constantly and unpredictably change. You can never keep the pace up with the system engineers that are monitoring operations 24/7 and are frequently revising every section of their magic equation to make their results better than ever.
  2. You have to remember that search engines, in the first place, are not villains here. They are never against you. Unless of course you violet their Webmasters Terms and Conditions (see Google’s for example) directly like buying links and sending fake traffic. Don’t take it against the bots if your site isn’t that visible. The system is purely meritocratic after all- you are most likely to deserve whatever your spot is (whether it’s rank one or in some position on the 9th page).

The Most Repeated SEO Mistake

…is to be traditional. If you still think there’s a secret backdoor somewhere, if you still think you can through a big budget and set up a team of specialists to run after the algorithms, if you still think you’re on a contest to beat the bots… then might as well forget about it.

Reevaluate your main purpose. Actually, if you think about it, your goal isn’t as different as the search engines’ goal- to be able to deliver the most relevant and reliant information for human benefit.

Now, wouldn’t it be much better if you go along search engines? Your answer should be yes, and for that, you should definitely keep tabs on what SEOCopyblogger is going to post from now on 😉

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Sean Si

About Sean

is a Filipino motivational speaker and a Leadership Speaker in the Philippines. He is the head honcho and editor-in-chief of SEO Hacker. He does SEO Services for companies in the Philippines and Abroad. Connect with him at Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Check out his new project, Aquascape Philippines.