Meaning the quotes from Webmaster World? (My pages don't equal your pages.)
I skimmed thru the thread, and others like it elsewhere. "BakedJake" also explained how we need to completely understand the sandbox in order to beat it. Perhaps it's only me, but that sounds more manipulative than anything else.
But I will reluctantly agree with the idea that the sandbox may be related to Google's recent corporate evolution. I certainly don't like the idea, but I've seen similar. Can't count the number of times a former workplace would put the skids on updates and the like, simply to level the financials during a buyout/buyin discussion or some such.
I don't miss it.
So in that regard ghergich, I'll say that it may be commercially motivated. Not in regards to ad space, but in regards to the IPO and all that. The idea has more credibility now, I think, as Google's been crawling to beat all.
But really, I wouldn't be too disgruntled about the lack of intense sandbox discussion going on with this thread. I think most of us realize that, considering we don't own Google, work for Google, or have an inside with Google, there's really little we can do other than discuss product placement in film.
Quick comment on SEO as spam, before Jill hits me with something.
I've never looked at SEO as spam. I see what can be perceived as spam by the SEs, what is spam, etc, but the idea that proper SEO is simply manipulation of search engine results isn't accurate or justified, imo.
What does a search engine want to do? It wants to learn what your site is about, so that it can determine if it's relevant for a SERP page against someone's search criteria.
Why isn't it reasonable to expect someone to want to make it
easier for a search engine to do this?
It's like inviting company over.
I clean house, obviously, before company arrives. (The wife would shoot me otherwise.) I make sure my tags are in order, HTML is cleaned up, everything is organized as it should be, etc.
I do my best to show them around when they arrive. A tour of the house, as it were. I make sure we're not tripping over the furniture to do so, that walkways are clear, etc.
And, in Google's case, since my visiting company won't take my word as to directions in reaching my home, I have friends and family tell them instead.
I do what I can so that, when company arrives, everything is good to go.
If I've done my job well enough, they'll leave with favorable thoughts as to the visit. If not, my ratings will suffer.
If my ratings aren't what they should be, I shampoo the carpets, I knock out a few walls to make things easier to navigate, I add a few rooms with additional content. I do what I can do to ensure the next time I have company over, they'll be impressed a bit more.
SEO is about being the good host.
The bad host, in the meantime, berates the company into visiting by having everyone and their grandmother give directions, by using tricks and mirrors to make the home look larger than it really is, by sweeping the dust under the carpet, by slapping a "Kick Me" sign on the company's back on the way out, etc.
In keeping with the sandbox theory, wouldn't it get a little tiring to be slammed with 3rd party invites whenever you walked around town? Wouldn't you think it odd? You'd likely put off the visit for quite a while.
IMO.
Jeff Bogumil
This topic is locked
