Search engine optimization: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:56, 12 July 2010

Revision as of 22:07, 12 July 2010

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Page and Brin founded [[Google]] in 1998. Google attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design.<ref name="bbc-1">{{cite news|author=Thompson, Bill|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3334531.stm|title=Is Google good for you?|publisher=[[BBC News]]|date=December 19, 2003|accessdate=2007-05-16}}</ref> Off-page factors (such as PageRank and hyperlink analysis) were considered as well as on-page factors (such as keyword frequency, [[meta tags]], headings, links and site structure) to enable Google to avoid the kind of manipulation seen in search engines that only considered on-page factors for their rankings. Although PageRank was more difficult to game, webmasters had already developed link building tools and schemes to influence the [[Inktomi]] search engine, and these methods proved similarly applicable to gaming PageRank. Many sites focused on exchanging, buying, and selling links, often on a massive scale. Some of these schemes, or [[link farm]]s, involved the creation of thousands of sites for the sole purpose of [[spamdexing|link spamming]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Zoltan Gyongyi and Hector Garcia-Molina|url=http://infolab.stanford.edu/~zoltan/publications/gyongyi2005link.pdf| format = PDF | title=Link Spam Alliances|publisher=Proceedings of the 31st VLDB Conference, Trondheim, Norway|year=2005|accessdate=2007-05-09}}</ref>

By 2004, search engines had incorporated a wide range of undisclosed factors in their ranking algorithms to reduce the impact of link manipulation. Google says it ranks sites using more than 200 different signals.<ref name="nyt0607">{{cite news|publisher=[[New York Times]]|accessdate=2007-06-06|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/business/yourmoney/03google.html|title=Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine|date=June 3, 2007 | first=Saul | last=Hansell}}</ref> The leading search engines, Google and [[Yahoo]], do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank pages. Notable SEOsSEO service providers, such as Rand Fishkin, [[Barry Schwartz (technologist)|Barry Schwartz]], [[Aaron Wall]] and [[Jill Whalen]], have studied different approaches to search engine optimization, and have published their opinions in online [[Internet forum|forums]] and [[blog]]s.<ref>{{cite web|author=[[Danny Sullivan (technologist)|Danny Sullivan]]|url=http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050929-072711|title=Rundown On Search Ranking Factors|publisher=[[Search Engine Watch]]|date=September 29, 2005|accessdate=2007-05-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors|title=Search Engine Ranking Factors V2|publisher=SEOmoz.org|date=April 2, 2007|accessdate=2007-05-14}}</ref> SEO practitioners may also study patents held by various search engines to gain insight into the algorithms.<ref>{{cite web|author=Christine Churchill|url=http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3564261|title=Understanding Search Engine Patents|publisher=[[Search Engine Watch]]|date=November 23, 2005|accessdate=2007-05-08}}</ref>

In 2005 Google began personalizing search results for each user. Depending on their history of previous searches, Google crafted results for logged in users.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://searchenginewatch.com/3563036 |title=Google Personalized Search Leaves Google Labs - Search Engine Watch (SEW) |publisher=searchenginewatch.com |accessdate=2009-09-05 }}</ref> In 2008, [[Bruce Clay]] said that "ranking is dead" because of personalized search. It would become meaningless to discuss how a website ranked, because its rank would potentially be different for each user and each search.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/11/17/seo-about-to-get-turned-on-its-ear |title=Will Personal Search Turn SEO On Its Ear? | WebProNews |publisher=www.webpronews.com |accessdate=2009-09-05 }}</ref>

In 2007 Google announced a campaign against paid links that transfer PageRank.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.searchenginejournal.com/8-things-we-learned-about-google-pagerank/5897/ |title=8 Things We Learned About Google PageRank |publisher=www.searchenginejournal.com |accessdate=2009-08-17 }}</ref> On June 15, 2009, Google disclosed that they had taken measures to mitigate the effects of PageRank sculpting by use of the [[nofollow]] attribute on links. [[Matt Cutts]], a well-known software engineer at Google, announced that Google Bot would no longer treat nofollowed links in the same way, in order to prevent SEOsSEO service providers from using nofollow for PageRank sculpting<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/ |title=PageRank sculpting |publisher=Matt Cutts | accessdate=2010-01-12 }}</ref>. As a result of this change the usage of nofollow leads to evaporation of pagerank. In order to avoid the above, SEOsSEO engineers developed alternative techniques that replace nofollowed tags with obfuscated [[Javascript]] and thus permit PageRank sculpting. Additionally several solutions have been suggested that include the usage of [[iframe]]s, [[Flash animation|Flash]] and Javascript.

<ref>{{cite web |url=http://searchengineland.com/google-loses-backwards-compatibility-on-paid-link-blocking-pagerank-sculpting-20408 |title=Google Loses “Backwards Compatibility” On Paid Link Blocking & PageRank Sculpting |publisher=searchengineland.com |accessdate=2009-08-17 }}</ref>

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By 1997 search engines recognized that webmasters were making efforts to rank well in their search engines, and that some webmasters were even manipulating their rankings in search results by stuffing pages with excessive or irrelevant keywords. Early search engines, such as [[Infoseek]], adjusted their algorithms in an effort to prevent webmasters from manipulating rankings.<ref name="infoseeknyt">{{cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0DF123BF932A25752C1A960958260 |title=Desperately Seeking Surfers|author=Laurie J. Flynn|date=November 11, 1996|publisher=[[New York Times]]|accessdate=2007-05-09}}</ref>

Due to the high marketing value of targeted search results, there is potential for an adversarial relationship between search engines and SEOsSEO service providers. In 2005, an annual conference, AIRWeb, Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web,<ref name="airweb">{{cite web|url=http://airweb.cse.lehigh.edu/|title=AIRWeb|publisher=Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web, annual conference|accessdate=2007-05-09}}</ref> was created to discuss and minimize the damaging effects of aggressive web content providers.

SEO companies that employ overly aggressive techniques can get their client websites banned from the search results. In 2005, the [[Wall Street Journal]] reported on a company, [[Traffic Power]], which allegedly used high-risk techniques and failed to disclose those risks to its clients.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=''[[Wall Street Journal]]''|url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112714166978744925.html?apl=y&r=947596