There are many prevalent myths that never seem to quite die out when it comes to search engine marketing. Although most of the seasoned industry experts are quick to debunk these theories, no one can remember quite how they started or how to stop them from infecting newbies.
Isos has uncovered an informant ( referred to as “Deep Scoot” for his own protection) who was employed by Alta Vista “back in the day” and has shared some disturbing information with us.
“Alta Vista liked to screw with webmaster’s heads” said Deep Scoot with a laugh. “I was in charge of the Office of Disinformation, and my job was to come up with believeable sounding bullsh1t and feed it to the public. I gotta say, I was really good at my job and I’ve never enjoyed a job more.”
When pushed for specifics, Deep Scoot pointed out one of his favorite “releases.”
“I gotta say, this one has lasted longer than any other myth I created,” Deep Scoot related, beaming with pride.
Back in the year 2000, there was an article on AltaVista describing how the keyword meta tag was rated by the search engine spider. The document mentioned that the words in the keyword meta tag has the same value as the other words on the web page itself, except for one very important case: if your meta keyword tag contains keywords that do not occur in your main web page, your page will be penalized. The document went on to say that your ranking may improve if you use both the title tag and relevant first few lines in your web page without any meta keyword tag.
~How to Improve Your AltaVista Search Engine Ranking
“I mean look at it, it’s pure genius! By putting it out there, then removing it we created reasonable doubt that we ever said it in the first place!” Deep Scoot chortled. “We created a paranoia surrounding meta keywords that lasts to this day! Use ‘em, get better results or penalized, don’t use ‘em and be safe but miss out on a real SEO advantage. It’s a paradox that still troubles newbies to this day… and that was over 6 years ago!!”
That’s only the tip of the iceburg when it comes to the smoke and mirrors that was Alta Vista… and a legacy of confusion and conspiracy theories.
We asked industry guru Matt Cutts of Google about the idea that a search engine would deliberately leak incorrect information, but his secretary said he was “in a meeting” and couldn’t come to the phone. (Just to set the record straight, we heard him in the background saying “Hey, watch what happens when I do this!” followed by gales of maniacal laughter… )
Next article… more common myths traced to the Office of Disinformation at Alta Vista. Stay tuned…
February 6th, 2006
At ISoS, we are nothing if not Badwagon jumpers. Seemed like SEO blogs are big, we thought, so we got one. Keyword research looks big, so we built a tool. Linking strategies are huge, so we created one. We even wrote two eBooks after we learnt what they were, and are even thinking of renaming the blog ISoS Web 2.0: In Search of the Long Tail.
Recently, we found ourselves falling behind. We had noticed a small trend, a micro trend if you will, emanating from our insidious and evil Blog competition. That trend was Interviews with people involved in search. A veritable spate of the blighters keep pounding my RSS reader with frightening consistency.
Never above stealing quality ideas when we see them, nor for being terribly frightened of being left behind, ISoS set about ripping this idea off. Our search for someone to interview thus begun.
First, we thought “lets get someone who knows stuff and people respect, like Matt Cutts”. Alas, he refused to return our pleading emails (something about the colour coding not matching or some bunkum). Anyway, turns out the traitor spoke to Aaron Wall instead. His loss.
Then we thought, no worries, lets go to the competition: Yahoo. Our emails bounced.
No worries. There is always Ask Jeeves. No love. Our emails got through this time, but they just wouldn’t talk to us.
Even MSN, so very desperate to promote their new crawler, and to keep Bill from having to talk about Google again, even MSN gave us the cold shoulder.
Hell, we got so desperate we even considered LookSmart. LookSmart. After picking oursleves up from a laughing fit on the floor, we dusted ourselves off and finally thought we had a lead. We received an email from a guy who claimed to have a mate who was the Janitor at the Googleplex. Alas, it all turned out to be a cruel Hoax.
Then we had what recovering addicts refer to as a moment of clarity: lets interview the one person no one has yet dared interiew: Joe Searcher. IN YOUR FACES SEO bloggers!!!! Try topping THAT. You can take your Matt Cutts-es and your Sergey Brins-es and choke on ‘em. We got the real deal right here folks!!
ISoS: Welcome Joe, and thanx for giving ISoS your time. Can you give our readers a bit of background?
Joe: Sure. I work locally, I have two kids, I am in my “late thirties’ and I like Sport. Here is a picture of me: (Editor’s Note: Face does not really look like this).
How often do you use the Internet and Search engines?
Well, I use the Internet and Google stuff just about every day at work.
Excellent, that pretty much makes you an average Search engine user. In fact, it may over qualify you! So what search engine do you use, Joe, and what do you like to search for?
Well, I like Google. It’s pretty cool, as I can find free porn without trying too hard at all. And after that nastiness a few months back, I now know to never click an email. When I see a product I want to try these days, I Google it instead. These patches don’t seem to be working though… um… by the way, who is going to be reading this interview? My wife won’t see it, will she? Or the guys at the office…
No, it will be totally anonymous.
Cool. I also like to find stories about stuff I like, like sports and stuff. By the way, did you know if you Google [failure] and hit “I’m Feeling Lucky” that you end up at President Bush’s site? That made us all laugh at the office. Except for Max. He thought it was a disgrace. But then Max is always upset at stuff like that.
Speaking of Google Bombs and porn, there has been a lot of talk recently about Search Engine Spam. What are your feelings about spam on Search Engines?
I like spam. When my wife is out of town, I fry it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She doesn’t like canned meats. She likes canned tuna though, so go figure. I don’t search for it spam. I usually just buy it at the grocery store. Why, are there good deals for spam online?
Um… Sometimes. So how do you feel about paid ads on search engines?
There are paid ads on search engines?
Yes. The ones on the rigth and in Blue at the top labelled “Sponsored”. You never noticed them before?
OH THOSE - I get those popping up all the time, not just on search engines. They are paid you say? Who knew? They are alright I guess. A bit annoying.
What are your thoughts on SEO?
Is that that new football league where the has beens go? I’m all for more sports. Anything that reduces the percentage of home improvement shows on air is great in my book.
Do you use any search engines besides Google?
There are other search engines? Oh, right, of course, you mean AOL… my mom has AOL, and I use that when I am there.
Don’t you live with her now though?
Look, I’m just helping her out for a while is all. She doesn’t get around like she used to, OK? And besides, when my wife gets over that whole finding-porn-on-the-computer thing, I’ll be going go back home. Hey, now that I think about it, it’s Google’s fault I got kicked out. Damn that Google! If they didn’t make it so easy to find that stuff, my wife would have never caught me looking at porn, and she wouldn’t have found those pictures of me and my girlfriend out on the boat either! Damn Google Desktop!
Apart from ruining your marriage, what else has Google done for you?
Well, it helped me to find Kitty (my girlfriend) but it also helped Kitty find some other guy, so I guess isn’t all beer and skittles.
Do you usually find what you are looking for?
Mostly. Sometimes I get upset because they don’t have what I want. Like the other day. I was looking for [Lawyers that make wives get nothing], and I just couldn’t find one. No [nasty vengeful lawyers] either. Not even a [psycho, hates to lose lawyer]… nothing! I was very annoyed, and the end I just had to settle for a [cheap divorce lawyer]. I was gutted…
Anything else frustrate you about Search Engines?
Actually, yeh. The lack of the right information. Like the other day when I was looking for information about inheritance laws. Like under what circumstances a son doesn’t inherit his mother’s house. You know, fire, burglary, murder, that kinda stuff…. Cause mum is like sick. Yeh, right, she is sick. Um… anyway, I got all these sites aweful government sites and boring college professor pages, but none of them had the information I wanted.
We’ve been on a real journey here, Joe. One of hurt, of healing, of new love found, of old love lost and, in end, new love lost as well. Any final thoughts for us on search?
Yeah - put the car keys in the same place all the time, and you don’t have to search as much. (That’s what mom says every morning.) And I just learned about that “clear history” thing - they should tell more people about that.. it could like save your marriage and your job, dude…
Joe, Thank you for your time.
October 14th, 2005
