{"id":21685,"date":"2012-04-20T13:16:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T21:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/?p=21685"},"modified":"2012-04-20T13:54:27","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T21:54:27","slug":"seo-drama-overoptimization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/seo-drama-overoptimization\/","title":{"rendered":"SEOs \u2665 Drama: Why Our Industry Thrives on Gossip and How the Over-Optimization Issue is a Perfect Example"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
Estimated reading time:
\n<\/strong>6 minutes<\/small>
\nTop takeaways:<\/strong><\/small>
\n\u2022 The echo chamber in the SEO industry often fuels fires to the point of being too hot.<\/small>
\n\u2022 Taking things out of context is something we need to be careful of when trying to decipher information.<\/small>
\n\u2022 Sometimes it better serves us to refocus from things like the algorithm to the bigger picture.<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It\u2019s true; the SEO industry feeds off of the hearsay, the juicy gossip, the scandal of algorithm changes and their effects. But it\u2019s not our fault. The environment that we operate within \u2013 the constant feeling of never quite knowing whether or not we\u2019re playing by Google\u2019s rules creates a paranoid culture, where we\u2019re constantly seeking answers from one another, sometimes obsessing too much over the \u201cwhat if\u201d details we know nothing about.<\/p>\n

This gossip can escalate to the point of causing mass hysteria, but our little SEO society can\u2019t seem to get enough. We propagate it further by creating more and more content surrounding said topic because, hey, people want to read it. And the vicious cycle continues.<\/p>\n

As marketers, we\u2019d love to take a relaxed approach to SEO, casually siding with Google\u2019s stance about user experience as our guiding light; but in the same breath, our inquisitive (and sometimes-obsessive) personalities kick in, fanatically looking at every potential signal, trying to get our websites just right according to Google\u2019s algorithm, which seems like the very thing the search engine is trying to get us not<\/em> to do.<\/p>\n

But as SEOs, we walk the fine line between what the user wants and what Google wants, which is technically what the user wants, but also what the algorithm wants \u2013 head spinning yet?<\/p>\n

When we were students in school, we were taught very methodically. We knew that if we wanted to get an \u201cA,\u201d this is what we had to do to get there. The path was laid out and we could choose whether or not we wanted to be the best student we could be.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to a career in SEO, and it\u2019s not ever crystal clear what we need to be doing to stay afloat in Google. Everything is self-taught, based on data we uncover individually and collectively, our experiences and the user experience, and sifting through the mounds of statements that Google makes about its intentions.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s no wonder the SEO culture is the way it is. Especially when people are dealing with site-crushing penalties<\/a> that sometimes seem to have no clear explanation. Humans aren\u2019t perfect and neither are algorithms. I truly feel for those people who have tried to do everything the right way and still get hit. For most people, their sites are their livelihoods and it can be confusing and devastating when penalized.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the sandbox we play in, folks. And sometimes, I think we need to stop obsessing over the details, take a step back and look at the big picture.<\/p>\n

When Algorithm Changes Send SEOs into a Tailspin<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s take the soup du jour of the SEO industry, \u00a0Google\u2019s \u201cover-optimization penalty\u201d announced at SXSW this past March,\u00a0as an example of how we can take an issue and turn it into a complete freak out. Matt Cutts mentioned an upcoming initiative to target sites that are over-optimized, and all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As the story goes here in our industry, speculation<\/a> followed. Posts about best practices and things you should and should not do in SEO ensued \u2013 and this is all great. The people who do White Hat SEO as a profession need to continue to reiterate what they\u2019ve been saying for years about good SEO practices and methodologies.<\/p>\n

But the fact is, even after all the great advice people are giving, the unknown \u201cwhat ifs\u201d of this over-optimization penalty are still there. The algorithm is still a mystery.<\/p>\n

I like Vanessa Fox\u2019s level-headed approach to the issue. I tend to think this former Googler turned SEO happens to have a good understanding of what Google\u2019s intentions are. Her approach to the over-optimization topic<\/a> reminds us to look at the big picture and to not take things out of context.<\/p>\n

Context is important when trying to interpret something. For example, you hear someone say, \u201cI\u2019m so hungry I could die.\u201d When I<\/em> say this, it\u2019s just me being melodramatic. But, the same statement made by a person in a starving third-world community, well that\u2019s legit.<\/p>\n

Yes, over-the-top example, but my point is: you have to look at the big picture when trying to evaluate statements \u2013 how it was said, where it was said, who it was said to, what the context of the conversation was, what other things were said in addition to it, an understanding of the background of the issue and so on.<\/p>\n

In many cases, only snippets of Cutts\u2019 conversation with the crowd at SXSW were honed in on and discussed heavily. When you listen to the full audio recording<\/a>, there\u2019s all sorts of clues that this \u201cover-optimization penalty” is not meant to be doomsday for SEOs. Here\u2019s some quotable quips by Cutts at that session that gives more context around the issue:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut absolutely, there are some people who take it too far. And what we\u2019re mindful of is when someone says \u2018We\u2019re White Hat, we continue to do the right thing, and we see the Black Hats who are over-optimizing or going too far and they seem to be doing too well.<\/p>\n

And so, we\u2019ve been working on changes to try to make sure that if you\u2019re a white hat, or if you\u2019ve been doing very little SEO, that you\u2019re gonna not be affected by this change, but if you\u2019ve been going way far beyond the pale, then that\u2019s the sort of thing where your site might not rank as highly as it did before.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Going back to Fox\u2019s thoughts on the matter, and building on the idea of context, Fox says that depending on a person\u2019s definition of SEO, some people should<\/em> worry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, search engine optimization goes beyond making sure pages are as useful as possible for the target audience and that the site is crawlable and becomes a game of guess the algorithms.<\/p>\n

Anyone who\u2019s read or heard me before knows that I\u2019m not an advocate for algorithm chasing. Historically, I\u2019ve had this view because I don\u2019t find it productive. Algorithms change hundreds of times a year. Signals differ for individual queries. The goal is always to extract all of the data on the web and show the very best page for searchers. So why not just invest time in making sure all of your content is extractable and are in fact the very best pages?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As usual, this issue, like many prior, are a \u201cwait and see\u201d event. But when we focus less on the algorithm signals and more on what we know to be good SEO practices for the end user and the search engine, the changes Google makes every day seem less scary.<\/p>\n

And all too often, I think we get sucked into playing a game of \u201cTelephone\u201d that snowballs out of control; where we hear only what we want, where the meaning gets lost in translation or perhaps where we just thrive on the gossip of it all.<\/p>\n

The SEO community can sometimes be its own worst enemy. And in such a tight-knit community, the echo chamber can be deafening.<\/p>\n

Do you agree with me when I say the over-optimization issue is an example of where the industry can often take an issue, morph it into something bigger or different than perhaps it needs to be at the moment? Do you totally disagree with this stance? Weigh in with a comment below!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s true; the SEO industry feeds off of the hearsay, the juicy gossip, the scandal of algorithm changes and their effects. But it\u2019s not our fault. The environment that we operate within \u2013 the constant feeling of never quite knowing whether or not we\u2019re playing by Google\u2019s rules creates a paranoid culture, where we\u2019re constantly seeking answers from one another, sometimes obsessing too much over the \u201cwhat if\u201d details we know nothing about.<\/p>\n

This gossip can escalate to the point of causing mass hysteria, but our little SEO society can\u2019t seem to get enough. We propagate it further by creating more and more content surrounding said topic because, hey, people want to read it. And the vicious cycle continues.<\/p>\n

Read more of SEOs <3 Drama: Why Our Industry Thrives on Gossip and How the Over-Optimization Issue is a Perfect Example <\/A>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"SEOs \u2665 Drama: Why Our Industry Thrives on Gossip and How the Over-Optimization Issue is a Perfect Example - Bruce Clay, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/seo-drama-overoptimization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SEOs \u2665 Drama: Why Our Industry Thrives on Gossip and How the Over-Optimization Issue is a Perfect Example - Bruce Clay, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s true; the SEO industry feeds off of the hearsay, the juicy gossip, the scandal of algorithm changes and their effects. But it\u2019s not our fault. The environment that we operate within \u2013 the constant feeling of never quite knowing whether or not we\u2019re playing by Google\u2019s rules creates a paranoid culture, where we\u2019re constantly seeking answers from one another, sometimes obsessing too much over the \u201cwhat if\u201d details we know nothing about. This gossip can escalate to the point of causing mass hysteria, but our little SEO society can\u2019t seem to get enough. We propagate it further by creating more and more content surrounding said topic because, hey, people want to read it. And the vicious cycle continues. 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