Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottJ
I think you will find that in return for what is a free service (Google) many average users are prepared to put up with some noise and for the most part get what they want.
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SOME noise would be fair enough... Personally I'm finding many searches produce so much chaff that it's becoming obstructive. And I do know others that feel similarly. The search I just mentioned is not unusual...
Try typing these into either Yahoo or Google...
rolex dealers in edinburgh
computer components livingston
welding supplies west lothian
Plenty of results... How many are relevant? How many take you directly to sites that can give you the information you need?? And those three strings actually provide relatively strong results... Gift Horse or not Google isn't really producing the goods. And that's bad for everyone.
Is this the result of the current obsession with
SEO I wonder?
To an extent I'm playing Devil's advocate here. I'm not anti-
SEO or anything like that. And for certain types of site
SEO is really the only practical option as far a driving traffic to the site is concerned.
But, as a user the inconsistencies of the search engines do worry me, and cause me to question the value of
SEO to my business. Personally; I do
have a business to run, and have neither the time, inclination or particularly the skills to become buried in
SEO myself. And that's where the 'black art' perspective comes into play.
If
SEO were as simple and consistent as providing good content then my search for porsche parts would have produced porsche parts and not fake rolex viagra nonsense... Or even many whole cars.....
Likewise were it not a constantly shifting bed of sand then constant attention would be unnecessary. Similarly the inbound links issue (I'm not unaware of why these are important BTW). As a user, I care not how many inbound links a site or page has... I simply want to find it no matter how unpopular, isolated or unique ...I just want to find it; and the search engines don't particularly help me do that....
In the words of Shirley Conran life (truly)
is too short to stuff a mushroom. And from that perspective perhaps the most useful 'keywords' we might use are those we exchange in a forum such as this, or by good ol' fashioned knocking on doors. Ironically perhaps I've found the most consistent search engine results were obtained by selecting an handful of fairly obvious keywords, lobbing them in and simply forgetting about the whole issue....