Masters of Innovation, Technology, and Strategic Vision

THE WIRED 40 July 2003 edition
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/40main.html

Not a Google fan at all are you?

Well yes - I guess I am - since I only optimize for Google, and people pay me to do so ;)

Eggs...one basket...mistake....

Can you say Alta Vista?

not really... Google > Yahoo > AOL > Netscape

that's 80% of used search properties and a darn big basket!

Also DMOZ Dir > Google Dir > Altavista Dir > Lycos Dir > Excite Dir > HotBot Dir and about 100 half decent clones.

What suggested alternatives?

There's no faulting the logic there BUT...

although 20% sounds like small beans in comparison to the 80% if you aren't trying to optimize for 20% of searches you're ignoring a hefty number of the gazillions of searches conducted every day.

If, say, the new MSN proves to be a killer search engine and grabs 5% of the market (still a big number in terms of actual searches/searchers) would you disregard it if they used a different system to Google to rank pages?

Ok... I did not say pages don't get listed in all other search engines - what I said was "I optimize for Google".

What would you do differently?

You actually said "I ONLY optimize for Google" which seemed to indicate that you regard traffic from other engines as insignificant.

Optimizing for Google is the smart move, assuming it maintains it's current position, but what if this latest update had crashed and burned and another engine became dominant?

If you don't optimize for all the major engines to some degree, that leaves you with a hell of a lot of work to do when another engine becomes top dog (assuming you do this for multiple sites which, in your case, I imagine is true). It's happened before and it could again.

What I'd do differently is optimize for Google first then work on the other engines second. I'd call it insurance of sorts against the consequences of the above hypothetical becoming reality.

Didn't see any negative effects from any update recent on otherwise.

One reason for this - a don't actually do anything - I sit at forums, blogs, read new research papers, anslysis post results and experiment on dedicated servers to ensure clients maintain ranks, and always improve.

I take this info - make a professional judgement call - forward this on to sub-contractors, and get paid big bucks.



This still does not say much...

I don't add "doorways pages" (or a search engine specific page e.g. 1 for MSN, 1 for Altavista etc.). If you don't either - then I am completely lost - and you obviously know something I don't - please enlighten me?

I conclude by your reference to optimize for MSN you need to do something different (as you suggest - MSN does not like a page that is optimize for Google) therefore what's the "secret MSN optiming technique"?

The days of needing to different pages for different engines are long over. Google set the standard and others followed.

There may well be certain areas that are given more weight than others. Keyword meta tag springs to mind. You just optimize for google but instead of leaving out the keyword meta tag you include. Voila 1x optimized for inktomi web page ;-)
Ok, its not that simplistic but if you apply the seo required for Google you are going to get msn as well.

I also optimize just for Google, but that doesnt mean I ignore what other engines want to see as well.

I would certainly never consider engine specific doorway pages.

As I said re: MSN, a hypothetical. Nobody knows yet what the new MSN is about...does it follow Google's model...or not...who knows.

Google are still delivering fairly crap results from an update that seems to be motivated by recent shifts with competitors looking to or acquiring alternative sources for their results or developing their own.

Google's reaction has, to say the least, been smug, based on recent articles and interviews.

They may be justified in being so cocky or, maybe, they are worried that their monopoly is about to tumble or at least take a major hit. I'd bet on the latter.

I think we're seeing a major shift in power and Google will be the loser unless they stop assuming they are invincible.

AV made the same mistake and look at them now.

I think you're wrong. Google IMHO is the best SE yet - regardless of their smugness (if any at all) - I spend day and night analyzing Google results.

All sites continue to improve.

Big "G" reported recently that the good SEO firms will adapt -- I did.

I welcome your opinion - for me when MSN starts generating a great market share -- I will adapt but for now "Google is" where it's happening and if your seeing your results decline - the wrong direction IMHO is jumping ship and saying "remember AV" which isn't about to happen (today anyway).

Users love Google - because it provides the best results better than any other search engine - end of story. That results may or may not be your results but I am sorry to say just because you move to MSN does mean the market will follow your lead. ;)