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I'm new to webmasterworld but from what I've read the past few weeks, you guys are the real thing. I would appreciate any suggestions and sources.
Thanks.
I'm curious, are you limiting the course to just Google?
1) Websites with loads of flash pages
2) Big file sizes and slow load times.
3) Very dynamic pages with tons of cgi.
4) Lots of keywords repeated all over the place
Oh, and remind them not to check if it works in netscape.....
That will make our job easier :)
For teaching marketing, I'd suggest dividing the focus within 2 general categories; spidering engines and directories. Obvious sub-categories would be free vs paid inclusion. Google, AlltheWeb, Altavista, Yahoo, and ODP would be the examples I'd include.
And just because Google is dominate today, is no assurance they will be next year, six months from now, or six weeks from now. We've watched se after se rise and fall and some rise again. It's a story that rivals the Roman empire. Google could fall faster than it has rising.
Optimizating and marketing are radically different today than they were two years ago, and it's an entirely different industry from what it was just 4 years ago. 1998 is a distant memory.
What you have to teach students about se's will more-than-likely not be relevant two years from now. Teach them the process of how search engines currently work, but leave out the specifics and the brand names.
Most of us here enjoy using Google but are very worried about our dependence upon them as site owners. As I said, Google could fall as fast as it has rising:
- They could IPO. That would make it a different company over night. We can't know exactly what they do with when such forces would come to play upon the management, but the quest for cash would change the service radically.
- They could lose the Overture patent lawsuit and be required to remove their advertising system as it is currently used.
- A powerful competitor could rise. Imagine the day that Bill Gates decides he wants a search engine.
- The vc's that set on the board could decide they need cash asap.
The web is a fickle place where brand loyalty is defined as what have you done for me today? We've watched numerous se's make bad decisions that had lethal effect and good decisions that had no effect.
This whole philosophy that things change in a heartbeat is probably a good share of our success here. Webmasters come here to make sure they are keeping up with the changes.
So I am not being factitious when I say, if you want students to be succesfull at seo marketing long term, give them our URL. Staying current on the day-to-day and month-to-month trends is the only way to be long term viable in net marketing.
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 5:17 pm (utc) on July 18, 2002]
Concentrate more on the aspects of how search engines and technology evolves.. not just what is going on today.
The WHY of the crash and burn of the importance Meta tags, for example, in favor of reading text off the page and link analysis.
Why not mention brand names? That tells you who is evolving, who isn't, and from where new technologies might be coming. For instance, are we likely to see anything of value in the future from AV? Doubtful. Why? They blew it and might well die.
A comprehensive course of value I think ought to include all the above with an admonition that "What I am saying to you this morning is subject to change by 4pm."
That sudden changes occur frequently on the web won't be news to anybody taking that course, anyway. Just my 2 cents.
I agree. Also types of ranking methods might be more important than the nitty-gritty. An overview of link popularity, the PageRank method, Teoma's approach to theming and Brett's Search Engine Theme Pyramids [searchengineworld.com] article should all have a place, IMO.
A general overview of spam penalties might be useful, making reference to how search engines try harder and harder to combat hidden text, near-duplicates, link manipulation, etc.
In fact, I believe rather than focusing on historical cases as I originally considered, I believe they would learn much more by summarizing discussions of the different topics in this forum. It would be relevant, current, and definitely encourage dynamic thinking.
You guys wouldn't mind being the subject of study for future webmasters would you?
