Jack Spirko has published an open letter to Google explaining why SEO’s should not be treated as enemies of the Google state :
Sometimes it seems that despite owning one of the biggest SEO Companies in the world that Google has it in for all of us. They have waged war on buying links, crippled paid blogging services by nuking their networks page rank and have even banned web sites of major corporations. They constantly seem to push a covert mantra that all SEOs are spammers unless they just create content and let the system work or some version there of. Personally I think it is getting old! So on behalf of my fellow SEOs here is my direct letter of truce to Google, lets see if anyone cares.
The thesis of the letter : “To be blunt every time a person runs a search and cant find something they are looking for it is not because some evil SEO have optimized spam web pages. Often it is a failure of Google to return a relevant result and it is also at times a searcher who is, well, not capable of running a proper web search.”
12 comments to the letter already and Doug Heil has stepped in to lend his opinion on the subject. Give Jack’s letter a read : SEO’s to Google – We’re Your BEst Friends, Stop Treating Us Like Enemies
Thanks for posting this at SEJ! I know many people agree with me on this and many disagree. Such topics anger some but I think it is good for us to have discussions like this.
That’s pretty wild, because other SEOs are seeing more communication and warming happening than in past years. Here’s a recent (two days ago) post from an WMW veteran, for example:
http://www.searchenginegenie.com/seo-blog/2008/04/search-engines-love-webmasters-and.html
@Matt,
Thanks for considering this worth commenting on. Just so you know there was some clear satire in this post that many people did not seem to get.
My real issue is that when ever you post anything about SEO in any social website you always get some person claiming either
“All SEOs are spammers”
“SEOs are ruining Google”
Etc.
For example this post was featured on Mixx and look at Sxles comment,
http://tinyurl.com/3phg3w
One example but it always happens. Where do they get this stuff? It isn’t from us. (grin)
The reality is I think SEOs and Google together make the web a better place. The disagreement I spoke of above what really between SEOs. Some of us seem to feel that if you do any link building that is evil, black hat and spamming. Others think it is a valid part of optimization. I am not speaking directly about selling/buying links just any link building at all.
Depending on what official statements we look at from Google, a case for either side could be made.
Hey Jack, sorry if I missed some of the satire. You’ve got to sprinkle more smiley faces in your post. :) I left a comment on your blog taking your open letter as a straightforward letter.
I’m happy to say that in my opinion as Google’s webspam team leader, there are great ways to build links without spamming, just like there there are great ways to do SEO without spamming. Just last month I did a post that talked about some great ways to build links for example: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-getting-links/
I do think SEO can improve the quality of the web. On our official page about SEOs, we say “Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted.”
@Matt,
You said, “I’m happy to say that in my opinion as Google’s webspam team leader, there are great ways to build links without spamming”
Thank you for saying that! If you would take just one second to repeat that on my blog I would be deeply in your debt.
And yea, I could have put in some smilies etc, may be that would have helped.
Absolutely, Jack. I posted the last couple paragraphs from that comment over on your blog.
Thanks Matt, make sure to look me up at the next conference, I owe you a beer or two at the least.
Google no longer treats SEOs as enemies.
The controversial, popular and tenacious postings by SearchEnginesWEB on a certain blog changed all that.
Their algos are much different due to those postings. The algos are more SEO friendly and no longer penalize for tactics that were once filtered out.
This was all do to those postings and nothing else. No open letters nor anyone or anything else had an impact.
It was the attention getting style, the fearless and persistent drive and the entertainment value that was the catalyst for change and empathy.
The effect can also be seen on Yahoo, who were influenced by those posts over the past two years
It is truly a horror story that SearchEnginesWeb is not given the credit deserved for changing the face of SearchEngines.
Don’t you agree??????????
Of course you do!!!!!
I’ve got to disagree with Jack.
Without Google changing the terrain every so often SEO would become bereft of challenge and very boring.
Goog has fun being the enemy of M$… those of us in SEO have to have a powerful enemy to battle against – it’s part of the fun.
:)
And in my opinion I do believe we are blamed by the SE’s for their issues. It isn’t our fault that one will rank for some unrelated key term if you point enough links at it. If you call yourself an SEO and don’t build links distinctively to drive rankings you are only fooling yourself.
@Mercy,
And ain’t that the simple truth? I have said so many times the SEs are the ones who took the link thing to such a high level of importance. They are the one that made it where you can point enough links that say “purple elephant” at a picture of a pink mouse and get it to rank for the linked term.
This is not a blank check for an excuse for us to all go out link spamming. It does however, clearly require us to be “creative” with our link building to rank all but the most non competitive terms.
Hi Jack; I didn’t see that SEJ had chimed in on your blog post.
Very good, as I my comments won’t be deleted in here as some comments mysteriously disappeared on your blog.
You wrote this:
“Just so you know there was some clear satire in this post that many people did not seem to get.”
I read your blog post about 4 times. I was trying to find the “clear satire” in it as you said was there. Sorry Jack; I couldn’t find it. No humor. No satire whatsover.
The problem with your post is not as much directly related to your post, but is related to SEO blogs out there in general. If something is just not good stuff, and does not move our industry forward, I consider it bad stuff and so does many others in this industry. If we cannot disagree with SEO blogs out there by making comments directly to that blog, then what good is there to have thousands of SEO blogs out there?
I disagree with you on just about everything related to SEO and our industry. I can voice my disagreement with you and everyone else as well. I should be able to do that.
If I wrote an article that you disagreed with, I would expect you and anyone else to comment in the thread on your disagreement.
It seems our industry is more concerned with putting out article after article and not concerned with how the general public might view that article. Many out there are not knowledgeable about SEO. If SEO’s cannot disagree with other SEO’s by posting as such directly to the blog article who wrote it, our industry will get no where fast.
I see many more bad articles coming from SEO blogs out there than there are good ones. The ratio is astoundingly high. SEO’s seem to only want to “gain friends” within the industry with almost no regard to the quality of those articles.
I disagreed with you at your blog, and I am disagreeing with you in this one as well. If you think I’m arrogant, so be it. I’m simply being as honest as I can be. I cannot sugarcoat things and have no desire to sugarcoat. Being so damn diplomatic is what is hurting our industry more than anything else. I’ve never claimed to be on a short list from the US Secretary of State to be the next US Ambassador to North Korea. :D Diplomacy is not my strong suit, nor do I wish it to be.
Doug I removed ONE set of your comments and only one. I did so because you did nothing but continue to repeat what you had already said, it looked in fact like you had cut and pasted your last statements.
I am happy to allow open dialog on my blog and I let you say plenty there as anyone looking at it can see. However, at the point when you are creating “duplicate content” I removed it, that is proper SEO you know.
I also would not speak to you as though you were an idiot the way you did to me. I can disagree with you with out acting like a spoiled child and with out insulting you knowledge.
You can pretend not to understand what THE OTHER POSTER, not I, said about your comments but we both I do think know better. Is that sufficiently non diplomatic for you?
Maybe it’s because of your article Jack. I don’t know about anyone else, but I did not find anything of use to the industry or to the general public after reading your article.
Matter of fact; I started this same topic in my own forums so I know that none of the comments made in the thread will not be deleted. I can tell you for another fact that many reading your comments in your blog, in here, and elsewhere see you as the arrogant one. I KNOW I can be arrogant. Don’t throw around words like that unless you know darn well it doesn’t pertain to yourself.
I can be lots of things Jack; including a jerk. At least I can admit it. You won’t find me writing crappy and BS articles though. I can assure you of that fact. No one has ever claimed me to be anything but a straight shooter.
Doug & Jack
With respect to both of you – you’re both far more experienced at SEO than I am… but out of respect for SEJ and yourselves – take the argument elsewhere and follow polite protocol of not linking every comment; it’s just plane rude.
Inane argument does nothing for anybody least of all your own reputations.
Hey I am done arguing. You know the old saying about pearls and swine right?
:)
I didn’t see the new guidelines for SEO blogs in not linking but only one time. :) Sorry. Usually I never use my url in comments made.
This is what I mean by the industry being too sensitive. I can’t disagree with an article without someone out there being offended. lol Even though SEJ posted this new thread about another article…..
I can’t remember caring what other SEO’s thought of me either. :-)
In Jack’s letter its a war of words between Jack and Doug.
I have not read the letter yet, but i am looking forward to it! Thanks for repersenting the SEOers! True SEO Theory calls for Usability and relevancy…..what else should a website be about?