(There really deserves to be a bigger, harder, longer pun in this one, but I’m hard pushed for time and this keyboard is really stiff)
Neil McIntosh has been blogging about recent reports on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – and there’s an article by Shane Richmond in The Telegraph and not one, but two hilarious Guardian columns playing along – and, without free drugs to boost my memory, it brought back to my mind the time, before the credit crunch, I saw a company try to boost web ranking by inserting the phrase women’s car insurance into a release.
A release about a car crash.
And that was how it read.
It was so bad, it was a cock up and a balls up. It had lines like “The driver, who did not have women’s car insurance was unhurt after the incident” and “the drivers of the other cars, who did not have women’s car insurance – some because they were male” and “drivers are reminded that women’s car insurance is a must”.
It was awful. You can say it was trying to sex up a routine car crash, but it was worse than a piece of Harry Potter sex fanfic. I would like to think we’ve moved on from that, but for some, I don’t think we have…It’s almost as bad as the SEO firms that think online PR starts and ends with free PR release sites (though, as you’ll see from above, I’ve started handing out PR tips for free. iPhones – old style and iPhone 3G should be able to access it and it should be viewable on the Wii and PS3 browsers as well. For free.).
(And the company who had the naked cheek to write that release aren’t anywhere near the top Google rankings for women’s car insurance or SEO strategy I’m pleased to say.)
9 responses to “The Joys of SEO”
And yes, I’m at it with this one. I know it’s horribly written as one person just emailed me to tell me. Consider it a free how not to do PR and SEO. (though I’d be a liar if I didn’t say that writing this way is contagious). Just adding in buzz words and links do not make a SEO strategy for top Google rankings. If only it did…
Ouch! Well, I guess that agency had it coming. You know, there’s a real dark side to fooling around with computers. I have seen some “search engine optimized” press releases that aren’t all that bad. You know, if they stick to terms that relate to the story (assuming there IS a story in there somewhere). On the other hand … This isn’t exactly SEO. But I was looking through a web site on foreign exchange investing, options, futures, various forms of speculation, those kinds of things. The web site had this little box of news stories about “foreign exchange” that was being generated and updated by software running on a computer somewhere. Over a long, three day weekend, one of the major stories was about two “FOREIGN EXCHANGE” students from Germany giving their impressions of San Francisco.
Oops! Don’t look behind that curtain, little girl, I am the incredible Wizard of Oz. Oh, now you’ve done it.
REG CROWDER
Freelance Financial and Investment Writer
http://www.utalkmarketing.com/Blogs/UserBlogs.aspx?UserID=6304
http://www.journalistdirectory.com/journalist/TgTQ/REG-CROWDER
Utah SEO…
Great Post! I always enjoy the content on this site….
Reg Crowder, good points made there – but I was wondering how all the mentions of foreign exchange are working out in your posts across the place to boost your Google ranking – especially given that you are a financial writer (going to be good times ahead for you I would imagine!)
Two problems with the SEO obsession – 1) it homogenises all websites into the same look and style, and strips out their character or uniqueness. 2) What happens when all the main websites are all SEO compliant? I’ve ranted more about this elsewhere.
Fair point Iain. As I mentioned after your good posting on this, I think there should be a rise in good sub-headings that include the perfect paper punnery.
Nice topic you have started.
Craig,
Oops! I blew it again. I don’t KNOW anything about foreign exchange. All I understand is equities. This foreign exchange stuff turns my brain to dust.
REG CROWDER
http://knol.google.com/k/reg-crowder/international-investing/6dyptd3yjxyq/2
sometimes seo is a joy, when you see the results happen.