Search techniques, old and new

SEO techniques are typically based on the following principles, according to Web SEO Analytics:

1. Spiders are stupid: Help them parse your site. Use the tools you have efficiently.
2. Spiders are clever: Create quality content and they will find you and rank you well. Do not use black hat techniques because you risk getting banned.
3. Focus on the user experience: Design the websites mainly (but not only) for users and give them what they need. This is how you will get links and receive more traffic.

But there are additions and changes to these principles that have made past developments in the industry obsolete as SEO has changed, technology has gotten better, and users’ needs have been re-defined. For example, the Web SEO analytics post references the practice of submitting sites to directories:

“Submitting a site in as many directories as possible was a very popular method to boost the rankings of a site in the past. Even Google had a guideline in the webmaster quality guidelines page, which suggested that submitting a site in quality Directories (DMOZ and Yahoo Directory) is something that can be very helpful. Recently Google removed that guidelinebecause, according to Matt Cutts, ‘People got obsessed with it.’”

And, as things change, people come up with new ways to judge their rankings and analyze their standings against other sites. Marketing Tech Blog talks about the confusion that can arise with personalized search and checking your rankings while using it.

“Based on your search history, your results will differ. If you’re checking your own sites’ ranking, you’ll probably find that they’ve all significantly improved. However, they probably only improved for you and no one else. To truly check your rank, you’ll need to turn off the personalized search results.”

The post goes on to explain how exactly to do this, but once you do, you’ll be able to see the results as they truly stand. Of course, it might vary for your customers who have a different search history and have their personalized search still turned on.

Another feature Google released recently: Real time search. SEOMoz offers their opinion, saying that it “sucks” because it leaves the engine more vulnerable to spam:

“There’s no denying that search engines have always been prone to spam. However, I am probably not alone in thinking Google historically has done a pretty good job of combating spam and that their search results are much more relevant this year than they were five years ago. That being said, in just the past few months I have noticed that a lot of “hacked” websites in addition to other low-quality sites were starting to rank very well for popular trending keyword phrases.”

Since spammy sites target trending keywords, they can rank higher ~ it remains to be seen how this will play out in the long term.