SEO Temptations

'The trouble with Google PageRank," said the fellow who had designed the website I was consulting on, explaining why he was resisting the idea of installing Google Analytics, "is that it tempts people to write stilted, unnatural stuff on their websites."

It's true that people are tempted to write stilted, unnatural stuff on their websites. Some even give in to the temptation. One of the local web design companies here where I live has a homepage that says something like, "If your Fayetteville business needs a website for Fayetteville business or any surrounding Fayetteville area business..." It does sound stilted. Stupid, even.

Other firms react to the temptation in other ways. One of the competitors of Fargo web design firm Onsharp has a bizarre paragraph that goes sort of like this: "If you want to find our website, you can find it by going to your favorite search engine and typing in 'Fargo web design, Fargo web designers, Fargo web firm, Fargo...'" This is a more creative version of the above, but no less stilted and no more natural.

Does this have anything to do with PageRank? It has never been suggested that keyword stuffing (that's what you call that kind of content) improves PageRank. Google has never recommended keyword stuffing. Installing Google Analytics doesn't lead to keyword stuffing.

Good web content is written with the search engines in mind. We have to remember that they are robots, and not able to interpret complex allusive stuff. They need to have the keywords -- the things humans will type when looking for your page -- right up there where they can see them and understand them with their robot brains.

We also have to remember that the search engines don't shop with us. When humans come to your page, they don't want to see stilted language. Even if they have never heard of keyword stuffing, they're going to notice that something odd is going on at your page if you're doing it. If they have heard of keyword stuffing, they'll recognize it and know that there's something shady going on.

This is true, but again, it has nothing to do with Google. It has to do with shady practices. Some people are tempted to indulge in shady practices. Since Google's PageRank is a measure of trustworthiness, there's no reason to suppose that shady practices will improve your PageRank. People who take up keyword stuffing can't honestly say that Google tempted them to do so.

What does the picture at the top of this post have to do with SEO? Nothing. Keyword stuffing also has nothing to do with good SEO practices. If you're considering hiring a web firm that uses this tactic, resist that temptation.


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