No more SEO?

[Taylor J]

Saw this on another forum

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57...optimized-sites/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title


Seems that Google doesn't like SEO nuts either lol.

 

[mrGTB]

Just read you tweet about this. Seriously, people should just start creating sites "how they want them to be" and ignore anything Google says.

 

[Sador]

Is it me, or is it interesting to see how Google is using its power?

 

[Lucas]

Is it me, or is it interesting to see how Google is using its power?

It certainly is, and it's true that they have massive power in the web, specially since they are the #1 search engine provider. Plus a lot of services heavily used like gmail, google apps, chrome, etc. They can basically change trends in the internet and what not as they see fit.

 

[mrGTB]

It certainly is, and it's true that they have massive power in the web, specially since they are the #1 search engine provider. Plus a lot of services heavily used like gmail, google apps, chrome, etc. They can basically change trends in the internet and what not as they see fit.

It's very true and thought about this ages ago. They have the power to be very manipulative with people on the web.

 

[Forsaken]

It certainly is, and it's true that they have massive power in the web, specially since they are the #1 search engine provider. Plus a lot of services heavily used like gmail, google apps, chrome, etc. They can basically change trends in the internet and what not as they see fit.

This would be for the better, seeing as there are a ton of sites that just optimized their pages so they can get ad revenue, and really have no worthwhile content.

 

[rollthebones]

Google has done a lot of things over the years that have hinted the end of SEO, I'm hoping this finally does it. Rankings should be based on usefulness, not how manipulative the site owner happens to be.

 

[Lucas]

This would be for the better, seeing as there are a ton of sites that just optimized their pages so they can get ad revenue, and really have no worthwhile content.

Definitely, won't argue that. Was just talking about the power side of Google which I recently gave thought to.

 

[Carlos]

Here's the thing, even though that Google is aiming at making GoogleBot smarter... I feel like this will just cause even more trouble than just trying to "end SEO." Why? Because GoogleBot is well... a bot, a computer to put it lightly. Therefore, those websites that try to 'bank' on SEO will be mistaken for 'abusive use of SEO' and those who are trying to make a living end up losing revenue thanks to the deeds that those who abuse the Google ecosystem.

You heard it right here first: This will cause controversy not from abusers, but those website owners who use SEO to put them at top, and provide content. Since after all, they're publishers.

 

[ENF]

I've never been a diehard follower of "SEO" - we just provide good content and the people come, that is all.

Those sites that replicate information from one source to another aren't really providing new or innovative content, will likely see some changes. Also, a lot of sites that have the same target audience where the forum population is over saturated, will probably take a hit as well.

On the other hand, I'm dealing with a site that has ripped our public content, word-for-word except they changed the user names and even have some of the posting dates set for dates that haven't even happened yet. (i.e. April 2012) - The problem here is that they are now ranking right below our main site when you search for a common phrase that was unique to our site only. What will Google do with this? Only time will tell. They have been ripping similar sites and even places like Yahoo! Answers, wtf?

Ok, my main point, I think having your website/forum/blog/whatever well organized is very important. Keeping out the fat is important, but it shouldn't overshadow the original content quality of what you provide to the public internet.

 

[mrGTB]

So here's an interesting thought then. Does this now mean in the eyes of Google a forum using "vBulletin 3 + vBSEO" is no better than a stock vBulletin 3 install with no SEO trickery used at all. And if anything, your going to get penalised by Google for having an overly SEO'd community, your better off without it?

And if the SEO thing is more or less out the window with them, and seeing as Google is the only search engine that really matters to most site owners. Why now even choose forum software that has better SEO than another one? It's just become totally irrelevant and is sure going to cause concern for much further discussion!

 

[bambua]

If you have content it won't matter. All SEO ever did was show your information to google in a way that it could see it better. If you have good content you will still be fine even with good SEO.

That said I always thought vBSEO was a bit of voodoo...I've seen good rankings on forums with and without it. Not sure for me at least it was ever worth the money.

So here's an interesting thought then. Does this now mean in the eyes of Google a forum using "vBulletin 3 + vBSEO" is no better than a stock vBulletin 3 install without no SEO trickery used at all. And if anything, your going to get penalised by Google for having an overly SEO'd community, your better off without it?

And if the SEO thing is more or less out the window with them, and seeing as Google is the only search engine that really matters to most site owners? Why now even choose forum software that has better SEO than another one? It's just become totally irrelevant. This is sure going to cause concern for much further discussion!

 

[mrGTB]

If you have content it won't matter. All SEO ever did was show your information to google in a way that it could see it better. If you have good content you will still be fine even with good SEO.

That said I always thought vBSEO was a bit of voodoo...I've seen good rankings on forums with and without it. Not sure for me at least it was ever worth the money.

Google are indicating they'd sooner have sites with "better quality informative content posted" listed higher up in their search results, rather than another site using very good SEO methods pipping them at the top. Sites that don't deserve to be there ranked high due to poor quality content they have, but great SEO trickery used to get them listed higher. In short, they want to throw site SEO out the window and start ranking sites based on "quality of content" first and foremost, but more so now than before. Which in truth, is exactly how it should be.

Not talking about site SEO, as in good well formatted error free W3C HTML and CSS web validation standards. I think things like that will still play a part towards your site.

 

[Pereira]

I think the point they are making is that there's no point in optimising for example, a blog that talks about forums software. It only has one post however it has heavy SEO to include all the different brands of software in their key words etc.

I don't think this will do anything to highly active + rich content sites that are heavily optimised. They seem to be just cutting down on waste to me.

 

[bambua]

I think more the point of this is to remove all the garbage sites that end up at the top of search results, that are purely there because they provide their information in a way that's advantageous to the google bot. Rather than because they have good content. If that's what this will really do I'm all for it.

 

[Blue]

It's goes right back to the basic saying, Content is king.

 

[FredC]

hmm wonder how the crew at vBseo will spin this?

 

[mrGTB]

Yeah! They're probably scratching their heads over this one right about now? This news backs them into a corner really, because you could argue vBSEO does essentially "over optimize" vBulletin 3. They are past masters at spinning good PR though. Will be interesting to read what they say about it soon.

 

[Forsaken]

Yeah! They're probably scratching their heads over this one right about now? This news backs them into a corner really, because you could argue vBSEO does essentially "over optimize" vBulletin 3. They are past masters at spinning good PR though. Will be interesting to read what they say about it soon.

Certain things over-optimize, other things just fixed oversights.

Then there is a lot of crap that is completely useless and marketing FUD ("If you don't have this, your site will fail!!1").

 

[SilverCircle]

hmm wonder how the crew at vBseo will spin this?

They'll find new marketing bs to tell people how awesome it is and draw nice diagrams how their product actually works (based on data nobody can really verify, of course).

Fine, as long as people pay oversized amounts of money for over-optimizing their site in order to attract visitors, because they don't have the quality content that would normally attract visitors without spending lots of $$ for "snake oil solutions", the SEO gurus will happily stay in business.

But I can only applaud google for this step, should they really do it. Seriously, this SEO-madness needs to stop and nobody would care about the death of a few hundred millions useless sites with zero original content that only appear in the search results, because one clever SEO guy told them how to exploit search engine logics.