Search Conference Vindicates SEO Basics, Exposes Bad Boy SEO

The 2004 "World of Search" conference at Las VegasConvention Center began Tuesday, November 15, with a short welcome andconference kudos and credits from WebMasterWorld.com (WMW) head BrettTabke.

A first session, titled "Big Site Promotion" provided aglimpse into search engine gambits employed by the SE strategists forthe big boys at Autobytel.com (Joe Morin of Boost Search Marketing),About.com (Marshall Simmonds, Primedia Search Director) and IBM (BillHunt of GlobalStrategies.com).

"Big Site Promotion" turned out to be a vindication of thestandard SEO rallying cry, "Content and relevancy are King!" BothSimmonds (About.com) and Morin (Autobytel.com) told tales of basic SEOissues. Both work in a change-resistant corporate culture whereadoption is slow and "proof of concept" is often necessary beforemultiple division heads will sign-off. Where multiple division headsmust agree to page templates changes, even when those changes are wellrecognized necessities of SEO.

Other issues pointed to were on-page javascript and inlineCSS as barriers to search engine robots crawling thousands of pages. Anextreme example was given of a corporate home page that ran to 21printed pages of jscript and CSS - BEFORE any visible page text wasfinally reached! Reference those javascript and CSS files offpagefolks!

In the same session, we heard from IBM SEO Bill Hunt with astory of finding and removing rogue robots.txt files that kept SEspiders out of literally thousands of pages. Quizzing audience memberson the issue he got only a sprinkling of upraised hands when he askedhow many thought that problem might be significant.

Hunt warned them that they'd better take it seriously whenpages are not being indexed and look for unknown robots.txt files thatmay be found lurking on client servers of monstrous corporate sites. Henoted that the starting point for large site SEO is often the bareessentials (the standard Title, Heading and Metadata) on globaltemplates, followed by resolving "barriers to crawling" like dynamicURL's, cookies and session ID's in visible URL's through URL rewrites.

The after lunch "SEO Super Session" served mostly to frightenand anger any honest and ethical SEO's when a panel discussion exposedthe so-called "Black Hat" SEO techniques as common, acceptable androutine for at least one panelist and some audience members, who shareda laugh over illicit ranking techniques. Even though one panelistpointed out the presence of Google's Matt Cutts in the back of theroom, the panelist grinned through his "do what works" justificationfor even more black hat techniques and said, to more laughs, "You'renot a true SEO until you've been banned at least once!"

I beg to differ on that point and hope the friendly chucklespassed around that session aren't a true reflection of the majority ofthis audience so accepting of underhanded black hat trickery. Iliterally got physically ill over the spamming techniques and cloakingskullduggery so easily accepted in the name of "client advocacy" bymany SEO's. Panelist members mentioned that they'd been surprised atthe number of people at SEO conferences who refuse to offer a name andoccupation when greeted because they don't want to be identified as oneof those bad boy SEO's. I'm proud of my occupation and refuse to usequestionable "algo-busting" trickery readily acccepted with a wink bysome.

The latest widespread dirty trick is done using IP deliveryruse which forwards recognized search engine spiders to a higher rankedsite trhrough a "301 page moved", inheriting the forwarded site'sPageRank, while showing other visitors the true pages. Although Isuppose I'll be seen as a naive and gullible-SEO-prude opposed using"brute force" techniques to manipulate the search engines, I'll acceptthe inevitable ribbing and sleep well at niight.

An audience member wondered out loud why Google hasn't donesomething to correct this latest underhanded IP delivery technique.Panelists had no answer, but suggested attendees corner search enginerepresentatives present from Google (Matt Cutts) and Yahoo (Tim Mayer)to see what they had to say on the subject.

Though I've lost clients to those willing to employ rottenegg techniques that attract visitors like maggots, I don't have toreturn later and clean up the mess left by the buzzing bugs crawlingover the stench left when techniques die suddenly, are discovered andbanned. I've earned substantial money doing the cleanup for previous,banned SEO's. I hated that work and the extensive cleanup of rottingdoorway pages, stinky cloaked pages and endless putrid piles ofdeteriorating mirror sites.

I just this week lost a job to a black hat SEO team. Thework I bid on and lost was from a substantial company seeking to coverup bad press that is ranking in top spots, right below their salessite. The clear honest solution is to displace those bad press resultswith high ranking and legitimate press releases, FAQ's, glossary ofterms and relevant contextual sites that rank above them. I will, inthe future, refuse the inevitable job of cleaning up the mess left bythe black hat winner of that contract.

Though more sessions capped the first day agenda, none couldhold my attention after a stomach turning black hat techniquediscussion - I had to flee to my hotel room to my illness in private.Damn! I hope some good announcements or innovative ideas emerge fromdays two and three of the "WebMaster World of Search #7" so I can getover that upset stomach brought on by the bad boys of search. I knowthere will always be those willing to cheat, lie and steal as long asthere is money to be made. I also know I won't be one of them.

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