I remember when I first started in the online marketing world, all the rage was this 4 letter acronym, NSEO. This stood for Natural Search Engine Optimization. As I was walking around the Barnes and Noble in the Internet Marketing section, I noticed that all the books were focused on SEO, Search Engine Optimization. My curiosity got the best of me, so naturally I went online next. Amazon has 1,511 books that are returned when searching for SEO, in addition to that, there are even 39 for the Kindle. Only 59 books were returned in the search for NSEO.
Most SEO firms, Internet Marketing Companies and even in-house experts have shifted the focus from the real world to the ones and zeros (computer) world, and in the process lost the N. I have observed recently that the tactics are becoming more brute force, technology based and more focused on trying to trick or fool a computer algorithm. I often get questions like; “How can I trick Google to rank me higher?”, “What can I do to fool the search engines into seeing my site?” and my personal favorite, “I need to be on page 1 by next week”.
Remember, Google is king of search, you may be able trick them. However, your result will not last long and your penalty will be long and harsh. Picture yourself standing in the middle of Giants Stadium filled to capacity with all eyes on you, now picture yourself invisible. That is a small taste of what it feels like to be penalized by Google.
You will never out think a computer that is trying to think like a person. The focus should always be producing a well made site that speaks to a topic and is routinely maintained. There are many advanced tactics which should be used at some point in your search engine optimization, however make sure you have the basics done exceedingly well first. I will be writing on those advanced tactics in the near future.
I am personally lobbying to bring back the Natural in NSEO. Feel free to post a comment if you have seen the N or have ideas on where it went.