"Why Search Engine Marketing is the Internet's Classic Battle
Between Street Smarts and Book Smarts".
 
eBizBlogBytes "This Weeks Top eCommerce Commentary" by
Kamau Austin
 
In this Article...
 
- Search Engine Marketing the Internet's Classic Battle Between
  Street Smarts and Book Smarts.
 
- Does Google Filter Sites for Good Grammar and Spelling?
 
- Is Google Beginning to Devalue Directory Linking?
 

As more webmasters learn the advantages of search engine
marketing, the search engines (SEs) will respond to discern
which are the true sites deserving of top organic rankings.
Despite what some Internet Gurus claim, ironically search
engines will not always pick the best sites for their audience.
This is because although Internet searchers are their target
audience, their customers ironically are really Internet
advertisers -- that pay the bills.
 
Google, MSN and Yahoo are publicly traded companies with
responsibilities to their shareholders to make a profit. In this
regard it is in their interest to have a large pool of
advertisers buying space on their digital properties. It really
isn't in the SE's interest to have organic search engine
optimization (SEO) elevating the fortunes of websites for free.
The major SEs would rather eCommerce sites become advertisers
in their grand scheme of things.
 
This constant struggle for top rankings online has caused a
continuous and contentious classic battle between street smarts
and book smarts online.
 
Because of the Internet's growing popularity, business without
borders, low barrier to entry, and gold rush hype the world's
smartest marketers are dueling with the worlds top techies over
control of the Internet economy or "eCom-nomy" valued at close
to a trillion dollars!
 
While many of the world's top Internet marketers have advanced
degrees, like Dr. Ralph Wilson, Dr. Ken Evoy, and Dr. Kevin
Nunley (just to mention a few) from fields unrelated to
technology, the majority are gutsy street-smart marketers.
Contrast them with Googleplex's best and brightest programming
and data research "digerati".
 
With billions of people in the future online all over the world
the stakes couldn't be higher. Search Engine Optimizers (SEOs)
use inside information and downright common sense to reverse
engineer the algorithms of the search engines.
 
While on the other hand the search engines employ the worlds
top PhDs and top programmers to keep SEOs from topping out
their results and providing adequate and helpful listings to
Internet searchers. For instance it is obvious to SEO's that
Google is giving a good amount of preference to news, .gov and
.org sites.
 
Despite the fact that these sites are authority sites at first
glance, many government and nonprofit sites are not as up to
date on their information as commercial sites. Have you ever
tried to read some of the information on government sites about
marketing and the Internet? These sites many times are just not
as up to date in their information as one might need.
 
Increasingly search engines are penalizing optimized sites for
their proactive marketing with a host of delay filters and
penalties. If you want to learn how to optimize your site and
avoid penalties recently there were two excellent articles on:
Google penalties and Yahoo! and MSN penalties below:
 
- For Tips to Avoid Google Penalties
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3524751
 
- For Tips to Avoid Yahoo and MSN Penalties
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3525086
 

"Does Google Filter Sites for Good Grammar and Spelling?"
 
Recently a Grammar and English expert wrote an article in which
he opined how he noticed top ranking sites consistently seem to
have well written content as a feature in common. He elaborated
that top ranking sites seem to have few spelling and
grammatical errors. Then he suggested many SEO obsessions like
PageRank™, and Keyword density just didn't hold up as
priorities in SEO.
 
I concur with him on his most salient points like Google
doesn't obviously pay much attention to PageRank™ anymore and
Keyword density isn't as much of a concern either. His most
important espoused point is a truism in my humble opinion, in
that good grammar and spelling is important to the
professionalism of a site.
 
Misspelled words and bad grammar is a good indication that you
don't give attention to detail in your business. Many potential
customers will also shy away from a site replete with spelling
errors and terrible grammar. I don't know if Google has a
spelling and grammar filter, perhaps they should - and this
writer has given them a good idea to go along with their
current crop of Killer SEO Filters.
 
I certainly think, in the very least, you should run your
written content through a spell and grammar checker, is if
Google has this filter already in place. It is the least you
can do for your site visitors.
 

Is Google Beginning to Devalue Directory Linking?
 
Directory linking has been a mainstay of link campaigns for a
while. Especially since reciprocal linking is not as effective
as it once was. This is why "one-way" linking from Internet
directories has gained a lot in popularity over the last couple
of years. Now Google is beginning to take away PageRank™ from
DMOZ categories for Internet directories.
 
If you have a website that uses a lot of directory links for
search engine optimization and you noticed your site has lost
ground in the last few weeks -- this may be why. I will look
more into this development and get back to you on this latest
algorithm change. 

Kamau Austin Helps Small Businesses make more money by using
search engines as marketing and sales channels to increase
their business. He also publishes http://www.eInfoNEWS.com. 
For more search engine news visit His New Jersey based site
http://www.SearchEnginePlan.com .