Mark Jaquith gets it…and SEO’s should too.
February 12, 2010
With this post, I could really get into the technical nitty gritty of “how” some people do their SEO. I could get into link injection, spinning content with Markov generators, sneaking code (read: links ) into every possible crevice of someone else’s WordPress site through surreptitious means. But I won’t.
Doing these things is not right. Period.
I read this morning Mark Jaquith’s post about what is and is not acceptable in the way of WordPress plugins staying in the directory. I could not agree more. Somebody that does SEO agrees with that? ABSO-doggone-lutely. Every word. Especially the part about credit links being by default turned off.
HERE’S WHY:
In 2007 I wrote a post about online communities needing to have clear rules and lots of police. WordPress is a community not AT ALL unlike the real estate communities that I mentioned. Anytime you facilitate letting people write on your site OR you facilitate (via plugins) the ability for people to (possibly) write on other people’s sites as well, clear rules and good enforcement are CRUCIAL.
I applaud Mark for clearly stating what the rules of the road are. I agree with them. Even if I did not agree with them, they are his rules because they are WordPress’s road, and WordPress is apparently taking these steps to manage the rules of participation in their community, the same way that the folks at Real Estate Webmasters take seriously the conditions of when and how they will let people write on their site. Clear rules build communities. I said it in 2007 and I still believe it today.
BUT I AGREE w/ Mark FULLY ANYWAY. The entire value of links is the extent to which they are an accurate measurement of a site’s true authority on a given subject. That is why search engines use it as a factor. That is why the BEST search engine optimization efforts are long term TRUE AUTHORITY building efforts and not the trickery.
This means if you want to optimize really effectively, form long lasting and solid relationships with lots of reputable people in an industry. Make sure that the search engines can SEE the relationships you have formed, and you will over time build a SOLID online presence that is truly an asset.
This does not happen by surreptitiously playing “hide the link” sausage with as many other folks as you can. Seriously.
WordPress has developed into a powerhouse blogging platform / website platform / CMS. Those who develop plugins can either choose to develop them for the community (or not). If they are developed under GPLv2, then (in my opinion) they should not turn links on by default.
There are so many ways for folks to build true authority out there, why resort to less than “Do unto others” level of business? I will admit that I have not ALWAYS done everything that I would put into that category, but I can tell you without hesitation, that is my goal and it has been my goal for quite some time.
Good works. Seriously. It does.
For those who disagree with my take on this, that is fine. Either way, clarity as to the rules of the road is commendable. Kudos Mark for taking this one on head on.
You know, I’m with you here. I’m fellow SEO firm, and we do the exact same thing for our clients and the part of the marketing and SEO community that we inhabit. It only helps optimization. Austin SEO’s got probably the largest daily comment count than any other SEO firm out there, and proportionate size of the market. It’s ’cause of campaigns and initiatives like these─our RSS newsletter for one, our free consults as another instance─that keep our clients with us. Over 75% of our clients have been actively doing business with us for over 3 years. Most that shop around after their first deal with us, do come back, and I think it’s ’cause of our newsletters.
Raul-
I approved your comment (after removing the gratuitous link at the end…there is already one on the comment) that folks can find if people are impressed with your ability to self promote. I think you are probably a good guy, but we disagree ENTIRELY on how to build authority. I do NOT advocate throwing self promo comments out there. I also do not comment on behalf of others. That is something that they need to do for themselves.
SEO is about relationships. REAL ones.
I do recommend and endorse the practice of writing REAL comments that have a take on something and help one to establish SOLID relationships with fellow bloggers and others online. If you would like that sort of a relationship…feel free to ping me or simply comment about the post. Otherwise, your comments will be deleted with the other 65,476 spam comments that have been to date.
Ack…just saw that your link was not appearing there…for those who want to check out Raul’s services it is AustinSearchEngineOptimization(dot)net.
Good to meet you!
Eric