wolverine - 3:39 am on May 2, 2002 (gmt 0)

>>Google is designed to benefit sites that are created around the way people think. To create a site with the target audience in mind from the start isn't SEO, its common sense. If its necessary to resort to spam techniques the site probably needs a re-design with the help of a common sense consultant.

Minor disagreement. Google seems to reward simple, linear site designs. The use of tables can enhance the visual aesthetic of a site in addition to making it more useful to the user. In the case of say three vertical tables, Google will prioritize content in the first table, top to bottom, relegating content at the top of table three as less important than content in the bottom of table one. Also, a link analysis of simple html sites versus sites of jsp pages shows that Google finds and catalogs simple html pages easier and more often and thus enhances the linking component of the algo. And (opinions welcome here) a literal interpretation of the cloaking clause would lead one to believe that if the nature of the content that is cloaked resides somewhere on the website, it is within their acceptable boundaries. Interpreted another way, this shows clear intent to penalize sites that might cloak the word "sex" on a site to drive traffic when it really sells baby products. Cloaking the names of baby products that are represented deeper in the site should be ok. As for a one SE world, "there is nothing that corrupts so absolutely as absolute power." As power will intoxicate the once fair-minded individual, so it will the beloved SE.