3 ms·

> ethical SEO optimizations Genuine question - what are some examples of these? I am very aware that my aversion to any form of SEO or growth-hacking is both u

by scubbo 6y ago

> ethical SEO optimizations Genuine question - what are some examples of these? I am very aware that my aversion to any form of SEO or growth-hacking is both unreasonable and immature, and I'd like to train myself out of it by being exposed to what are (in your opinion) perfectly reasonable and non-malicious practices.

etempleton 6y ago
Well, it is a slippery slope to be sure, and in an ideal world SEO would not be a thing, however with search, and Google Search being the primary source of web traffic for almost every website it is a reality. Let’s say you have an e-commerce website that specializes in selling product category X. Because you specialize you can offer a competitive price and perhaps better customer service in some ways. The problem is when you search Google for “Product Category X” all that comes up for that product is Amazon and other big retailers. Why is this? Well there are many factors some known and other inferred. And the biggest ones you can’t control. However there are on page optimizations that you might not be aware of that Google has determined is a measure of page quality. If you are unaware of them you are giving your competitor more page visits and you less. Some of them are just measures of a good web page, but what if you decided to have product pages that was mostly visual and because of that you had less than 500 words on some product pages and Google’s algorithm penalized you for that? Your page might look great and really help the consumer with lots of product photos, but you have to make sure Google thinks your website looks good too. When you sell product X and you optimize your website so that Google sees you as being a good source for product X, you are doing it ethically. If you sell product X, but product Y is kind of close so you decide to optimize for people searching for that too that is where you are crossing the line in my book.

by scubbo 6y ago

etempleton 6y ago

Well, it is a slippery slope to be sure, and in an ideal world SEO would not be a thing, however with search, and Google Search being the primary source of web traffic for almost every website it is a reality. Let’s say you have an e-commerce website that specializes in selling product category X. Because you specialize you can offer a competitive price and perhaps better customer service in some ways. The problem is when you search Google for “Product Category X” all that comes up for that product is Amazon and other big retailers. Why is this? Well there are many factors some known and other inferred. And the biggest ones you can’t control. However there are on page optimizations that you might not be aware of that Google has determined is a measure of page quality. If you are unaware of them you are giving your competitor more page visits and you less. Some of them are just measures of a good web page, but what if you decided to have product pages that was mostly visual and because of that you had less than 500 words on some product pages and Google’s algorithm penalized you for that? Your page might look great and really help the consumer with lots of product photos, but you have to make sure Google thinks your website looks good too. When you sell product X and you optimize your website so that Google sees you as being a good source for product X, you are doing it ethically. If you sell product X, but product Y is kind of close so you decide to optimize for people searching for that too that is where you are crossing the line in my book.