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Liane - 6:26 am on Mar 23, 2006 (gmt 0)
Aging of Authority Sites and the Putrification Factor As the internet ages, so do established websites. The unfortunate part is that there's a lot of old, very old information rotting on the vine and putrefying the web. The information contained on some very old sites is long past being useful. Site owners who may have moved on to bigger and better things or who do not have the time or inclination to update the info, just keep throwing money at the registrar in order to keep the URL live because it happens to be a great URL and they may have plans to sell the URL or intentions of updating the info “someday”. In their day, these so called “authority sites” were very useful and therefore had many, many inbound links which they have managed to keep because human beings are inherently lazy. Very few webmasters delete links to old sites. Along comes a web author looking for authority sites in a specific field, about which they plan to write. They take a cursory look at the sites which pop up in their keyword searches and because they don’t know beans about the topic (and because they are too lazy to go past page one of the search results) they erroneously make the assumption that because a particular site comes up for many different keyword searches, that it must be “the” authority site for that particular topic. After writing their article (including old or erroneous information) they gleaned from the very outdated site(s) they used as reference, they proceed to link to them, perpetuating the myth that this particular site is “the authority"! ... And the Rich get Richer! It is infuriating to work your butt off, writing a truly content rich site which is clearly head and shoulders above the old, "established" sites ... only to have it beaten consistently by these outdated sites containing erroneous information, broken links and photos which no longer represent the person, place or thing to which they are referring. In my sector, some so called “authority sites” need only mention the the keyword or phrase in order to come up number one in the search engines! My site on the other hand may have 15 pages of in depth information, photos, data and links for a specific topic ... yet it is relegated to fourth or fifth place (or even further down the list) for certain keyword searches behind these very old sites with virtually no content at all. I am in the travel industry and own a niche site for a very small country. There is no question (in anyone’s mind) that my site contains much more information than any other site (including the Tourist Board, other government sites and other more established sites) for this particular little bit of the world. Yet older, so called "authority" sites and sites with keyword targeted URL's and not much else to offer, often beat me in the search results. URL Utopia Years ago, another site in my little area, had the foresight to buy “THE” perfect URL ... even before the government ever dreamt of having their own website. Very smart indeed. Years ago, it contained some very useful information and attained many, many inbound links. This was back in the day when webmasters actually willingly “gave away” links to any sites they deemed useful. But times have changed! This site (with the perfect URL) called itself a "directory" and claimed that it represented every company in the country. That was a flat out lie. The truth is that they charged $400.00 annually for all outbound links and represented less than 20% of the companies in the country. It too was allowed to rot on the vine for many years with little or no new content of consequence. It was a cash cow! Yet another "authority" site is currently charging $1,700.00 per annum for a link from its PR7 site! This site belongs to an official organization to which my company belongs and to which I pay annual membership fees. Sorry, but their site has WAY less information than my site does ... and I simply refuse to pay them for a link! How to Compete if Yours is the New Site on the block? So ... along comes a small business owner (me), desperately trying to do business on the web. I can’t afford to pay the outrageous amounts some “authority sites” are demanding in return for a link. What to do? I was told by those in the know here at WebMaster World to “build content and they will come”. And its true! A good content provider will be recognized in time ... lots and lots of time! The search engines slowly but surely began to discover my site and listed it “somewhere” in the SERPS. Respectable ranks were achieved (in time) and my “new site” began to receive traffic and a modicum of recognition from other webmasters. Mostly though, it received a lot of attention from travellers on travel forums looking for information. I thought that was great and expected the site to soar in the rankings ... but it never really happened because forums are too easy to spam and the search engines know it. I am just guessing here, but I think links from forums are not deemed terribly important by the search engines ... and therein lies the tragedy! The very people you are targeting are "voting" for your site by linking to it, but the search engines do not give those links any sort of "real" value because forums are too damned easy to spam. Sigh! My site has never seemed to measure up to the “big boys on the block”, in regards to ranking. Why? Because the web has changed and webmasters expect something in return for a link or choose to steal your content. Its a vicious circle! Now what should I do if I still can't afford to or do not wish to buy links? Build more content of course! And away I go ... writing fiendishly, spending months doing research, spending thousands on camera equipment, trying to learn as much as possible about photography, spending more money travelling to various places to take photos, hiring planes and helicopters to take aerial photos ... more writing, more research, interviews with people, travellers and other business owners, locals who have lived in the area for 50 years or more ... and so on, adding content, lots of original content. Now surely, my site will be recognized as an “authority site”? Well ... maybe not! Inbound and Outbound Links I link to all sites in the territory for free because I still believe we should all be looking out for the greater good and we (webmasters) should link "freely" to anyone and everyone with content which our readers and potential clients may find useful. Despite what Google or any other search engine thinks, I even link to sites which have been deemed "bad neighbourhoods". Where I live, very few business owners are webmasters, nor do they understand the first thing about search engine rules and penalties. As a result, they are subject to mistakes made by their webmasters ... through no fault of their own. I will link to anyone who is deserving of a mention on my site. Full stop. I don't care what the search engines think about this practice. I only care about what my potential clients and readers think. Once again, I live in a very small country and the people here are not necessarily very worldly or educated in the ways of the internet. It is unforgivable to penalize them for something their webmasters (who are not very internet savvy themselves) for breaking some unwritten rule of which they are completely unaware! Call me silly or stupid if you wish, but I will continue to do what I think is right and fair in this regard and if my site gets penalized for doing so, then so be it! In a perfect world The truth of the matter is that ranking a website based on inbound links is an outdated premise which must be abandoned. In theory, and in a perfect world, it should work ... but what the search engines did not take into account (back in the day) was that the world is not perfect and human beings are flawed. We are greedy and (to a degree) morally corrupt. If that weren’t true ... there would be no need for organized religion or laws of any kind. So of course, as soon as webmasters began to understand the value of an incoming link ... it became a type of currency which could be bought, sold or traded. The true value of the website being linked to often doesn’t even come into consideration when webmasters choose to link or not to link. It is not the fault of the search engines that my site and hundreds of thousands of other deserving sites do not achieve the recognition they deserve. It is the fault of lazy and/or greedy and/or corrupt webmasters! Stealing content creates a mathematical nightmare for search engines (who use logic) to determine which site owns the content and which site is just regurgitating the original content. One thing I have found is that I can write content, and two years later, someone steals it. I then update my page and "some" search engines suddenly "assume" that because my page is newer than the other ... the site with the oldest date must be the original owner! This is really annoying. Google on the other hand assumes that the site with the most inbound links should be recognized above the original owner! This is particularly infuriating! The End User Because the world wide web is the single largest entity containing an almost infinite amount of information, the challenge posed to any search engine is to be able to determine (algorithmically) which site is more deserving to be recognized as an "authority" than another. In fairness to all search engines and taking into account that human beings are inherently greedy, this is pretty much an impossible task. The best any search engine can ever hope to do is "come close" to delivering that for which a surfer is wanting to find. That's why there are often millions of results for any given keyword or phrase. It is up to the searcher to determine which sites they want to look at. So how do searchers determine which sites to look at within all those sites being presented? The search engines can only "suggest" which sites their algorithm has determined to be the most relevant based on their limited, mathematical ability to make such a determination determination. Right? ... right. The various elements included with each listing are intended to help a searcher determine which site they'd like to visit. Those elements are: But once again, searchers (being people instead of machines) are inherently lazy and they will almost always click on the first result regardless of the elements contained in the search results being offered. As a result, if they don't find what they want immediately, they may look at the next few results or eventually refine their keywords out of frustration. Each element is important (to a degree) and are pretty much self explanatory. Title One would "hope" that the webmaster responsible for creating the page will carefully craft his/her title in order to describe in 7 words or less, the key factors a particular page is about. Note: 7 words is debateable ... but let's assume that this is the magic number for the sake of argument rather than getting into a discussion about how many words work best on which engine. OK? Snippet Many believe that meta tag "descriptions" are useless and outdated. I disagree. Most of my descriptions are used on all search engines. It is intended to be an accurate synopsis of what the surfer will find on a given page. URL I happen to use URL's like www.mysite.com/photos_this_topic.html or www.mysite.com/information_this_topic.html These are key elements used by google to help determine what a page is about and they do factor into search results ... though I don't know what weight they are given. Similar Pages This is where Google falls flat on its face! If you are searching for something which may not have to do with the main topic of a site but the site happens to contain very relevant info for the topic you searched ... if you click on "similar pages" you will likely find absolutely nothing about the topic you searched for! This is because your site has been "classified" with your main topic through various other web resources including DMOZ and other directories. This is a very basic and immense flaw in the current system which I have been waiting years for Google to address! If you own a website which sells car parts, but you write the absolute best and very detailed history of the automobile ever written ... you may never achieve your goal of being recognized as the best and most authoritative website on the internet in regards to the history of the automobile simply because your site is classified under "car parts". The "similar pages" link is where Google and all search engines and directories are really lacking in "intuitive or smart" cross categorization for medium to large sites with exceptional content. In Defense of Google I am a widget broker. I built my own web site (with the help of the folks here at WebMasterWorld) because I could no longer afford to pay webmasters to do it for me and was within days of becoming homeless when my website tanked on Inktomi. Back then, Ink was "the" force within the search engine industry. The following are assumptions on my part based upon my very limited and possibly flawed understanding of how search engines work ... so please take that into consideration prior to slagging me off for defending Google. For some time, they (Google) have been grasping at straws, trying to prevent outside manipulation of search results (by unfair means) by implementing penalties, filters, etc. We all know that (so far) humans can still outdo any machine in determining the true value of a website by simply surfing to it and reading the content. But it doesn't matter how big and wealthy a search engine becomes, there is no way they can hire enough humans to do the job! No company on earth could afford to do that! It must be done through an algorithm and that's a pretty lofty goal! However, human beings are (as already noted) ... inherently flawed. We are greedy and not always morally concerned when it comes to money! So my assumption is that Google's goal and newest algorithm/infrastructure will be based upon many and varied factors including many of those things a human being (given sufficient data) would be able to detect or take into account if intimately familiar with a given topic and reviewing a website. Those things would include: Much of the above is related to guerrilla marketing techniques intended to manipulate search results. Ultimately Google wants to put a stop to the manipulation of their algorithm so that they can level the playing field for all available "content" versus those who choose to steal, manipulate and ultimately control any given field of information. I for one applaud Google's efforts and although many have suffered tremendously throughout the growing pains, Google and other search engines have supplied many of us many years worth of free traffic. They have all undergone massive changes over the years and from time to time, there are those of us who think Google, Inktomi, Yahoo or MSN just plain suck ... and you are entitled to your opinion just as much as I am entitled to mine. I don't think any of the search engines suck because all of them send me the traffic I need to make a living. Some send more than others and some drive me crazy because I just can't figure out what they want ... but the fact of the matter is, this is how I make my living and I accept the fact that I will just have to do my best to figure it out the best I can! I think the folks at Google are the most incredibly focused group of people on the planet who have one goal ... and that is to gather all the written information in the entire world, categorize it and deliver the most relevent search results possible for any specific search term. If you think about that for even five minutes, anyone will realize what a monumentally impossible task that really is. Kudos to the people at Google for even making such an attempt ... and many thanks for the free traffic you deliver to my site daily! It is greatly appreciated. If my traffic ever dries up (again) ... I promise, I will not be slagging Google (or any other search engine) off as I once did. I "get it" now ... and am in awe of what they are all attempting to do. I hope that eventually, they are each able to stop outside, biased and greed driven manipulation of the search results. Even if my website should suffer throughout all the growing pains, I believe in what they are doing and will accept that they have to do what they have to do to achieve their goals! I hope at least some of you will agree ... but even if you don't, that's OK with me. I'm used to my opinions being quite some distance from the accepted norm. Now ... if Google or any other search engine were to require payment to be considered for a listing in their search results, I would not be nearly as idealistic. I would paid whatever fee was required and then I would employ every guerrilla marketing tactic available to man in order to fight and claw my way to the top! The way I look at doing business on the internet I work very hard to provide the content the search engines like to use (for free) and for their own profit to supply their surfers with the answers they are looking for. I don't charge the search engines to spider my site and in fact I welcome them! In return, the search engines send me the traffic I need to make a living. We (the search engines and myself) enjoy a symbiotic relationship. There are no short cuts to being successful (free of charge) on the internet which I find acceptable. Provide the content and you will be rewarded with free traffic. Try to cheat me out of the traffic I have worked so hard to cultivate by working hand in hand with the search engines ... and I will report you through any means possible! I am sick to death of content thieves and will take any and all infringers to task! Surfers want what they want and I do my best to deliver it for my specified field. I get traffic in return from the search engines. What I do with the free traffic rec'd from search engines is up to me and hopefully, once I get an inquiry, I will perform my job well enough to convert surfers to buyers! Jeeze I'm tired now! :) [edited by: trillianjedi at 5:25 pm (utc) on Mar. 24, 2006]
One of the biggest challenges a webmaster faces is to build and maintain an “up-to-date”, content rich site ... and achieve the recognition the site deserves as an authority site.
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