Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals | Stacey Morgan Smith

As I left Northern Virginia one weekend, I was in an SEO mindset, and even a road trip reminded me of search engine optimization.

I should first say that I’m a very conservative driver. I’d rather take my time getting to my destination than risk the fees and anxiety associated with a speeding ticket.

A few miles into the trip to Southwest Virginia, I found myself to be part of a pack of cars. We tended to stick to the center lane, moving over only to pass or be passed, and we were moving about the same speed. We stuck close to the speed limit, used our turn signals, turned on our wipers in the rain, and we left a safe following distance.

Through the ebb and flow of the long trip, we changed position. Sometimes the Sienna led the pack, and sometimes the Acura moved to the front. Even the Nova got a turn.

As I hit Central Virginia, a sports car blew by so fast on I-64 that I felt a rumble and was buffeted by the wind. I just shook my head, secretly wishing a police officer was around. This car was breaking all the rules — driving fast, changing lanes recklessly, tailgating. It irked me that this driver cut corners to get ahead and left me in the dust.

Around Lexington, still driving in a bit of a convoy with a few safe drivers from Northern Virginia (some had left, some had joined along the way), I saw flashing blue lights on the side of the road. There was the little yellow sports car, pulled to the side, and a police officer was walking up to the car. The safe drivers moved to the left lane, passed the scene, and then, blinkers flashing, moved back to the right. With my background, analogies just seem to jump out to me, and that yellow car and blue lights reminded me of so-called blackhat SEOers.

Blackhatters know how to get to to the first page of Google, or Yahoo! — at least that’s what some of them guarantee — and they will use any trick to do it. Keyword spamming, cloaking, link farming all may work in the short term, but in the end, a search engine is going to find the sites playing games and not just drop the sites in ranking but drop the sites entirely from the index!

What about gaming the algorithm – finding an element that seems to gain more traction when targeted and propels a page to the top of the rankings? Well, spam teams have made it obvious that the search engines notice and automatically adjust when they detect an anomaly.

I have some respect for blackhat SEOers, just like I have a little respect for the person in the fast car — they know what they want and are willing to go for it, no holds barred; However, just like that driver loses time and money, cheating the system can lose web presence and customers.

Me? I was raised to be honest to a fault, and I’d rather take my time, follow the rules, and reach my goal then rush to the finish and risk losing it all.

– Stacey Morgan Smith