I've talked before about how trying to get your website found online successfully, easily, and regularly, to convert to actual traffic, then sales, is about as frustrating as trying to nail Jell-O to a tree. Google interprets links being exchanged between websites/pages as votes between them or even sort of endorsements. But it's more about how important your site/page is that counts in your vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily ... and therefore are chosen by Google to appear higher in the search results than others.
"...And though we may run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can buy a particular or higher placement). A Google search provides an easy and effective way to find high-quality websites that contain information relevant to your search. " - Google [1]
Once Google pointed out and made it public that a) they do have a way of organizing search results and b) the way they do it is by making one website more of an "authority" or is more "important" than another because of one factor, which is link popularity--once the world had caught wind of this--people started to get ideas.
This was not very long ago. Once these people who got "ideas" started sharing them with others. We learned that not only were people doing lots of the kind of human tampering that Google seemed to warn us about, but people were catching on quickly and it seemed clear that the race was on.
It's still going. Actually, now it's a full-on-war and there seems to be no end in sight. All sorts of people, from actual bad guys to the average small business owner, have read countless books and websites about how to "mess with the system" or have thrown their hands up in despair and hired someone to "mess" with their website and or linking/marketing.
People with plenty of money to throw around have thrown around lots of money. People with lots of time on their hands have donated all of it to try doing pretty much anything short of murder to get the greatest page rank/traffic as can humanly be possible. The one with the most valueable links and GPR (Google Page Rank) wins. [2]
It's ridiculous.
The thing people need to understand is that Google's rules, algorithms, robots, crawling, link popularity technology, etc., really was not meant for human tampering. Ask them yourself. They'll tell you the same thing. So all of these people who are running tricks and tactics to do this and that on their site to try to follow Google's guidelines, are really treading a thin wire.
Because ya know, there's this thing called black hat that people talk about which means an illegal or dirty tactic (you know, it goes back to the old "bad guys wear black hats, good guys wear white hats" thing), well, search engine optimization (SEO) is kind of a grey hat thing. Meaning sort of illegal in Google's eyes. Which, by practicing certain tactics or doing seo tricks in a manner that gets you caught "messing with the system"--may get you banned from Google. Simple as that.
"Usually, a black hat is a person who uses their knowledge of vulnerabilities and exploits for private gain, rather than revealing them either to the general public or the manufacturer for correction. Many black hats hack networks and web pages solely for financial gain. Black hats may seek to expand holes ... prevent others from also" -Quote from Wikipedia (condensed) [3]
It's kind of like an old silly western movie, where the good cowboys are playing shoot-em-up with the big bad ol' robbers, and trying to save the bank from gettin' robbed while at the same time trying to wind up gittin' the gal in the end.
Now when I say illegal, it's really not serious like you're going to jail or it's the end of the world or anything... unless if you're like me, you are very serious about your hard-earned website traffic! In which case, I guess banning me from Google would be a pretty sad and desperate situation.
Just a minute ago, all I could think of while writing up this article today, was Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry, when he said, "Do you feel lucky, punk?".
When I thought of that it made me remember that Google has a "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. Wonder what inspired them to do that?
Sometimes I wonder what "the powers that be" over at Google Land really think about all this. I wonder if they're sitting over there watching all of us. Like we're on The Truman Show. I wonder if they are falling off their chairs laughing at us trying so hard to spin our wheels and win this hamster race/cowboy vs. robber fight/shootin' match?
I think we'll wonder forever.
Bobbi Jo Woods, CEO/Fanatic
B. Woods Design - Steering Professional Managed Websites for Business
© Bobbi Jo Woods - B. Woods Design
(edited to fix a typo in the body and title)
