The Social Elements of Relevancy
Since
many of you who have bought will not read all of it, I need to make sure I
deliver great value in the first few pages to ensure you get your money’s
worth.
Relevancy
is never static. Due to commercial market forces, search is CONSTANTLY broken.
Thus, if you think of this e-book as a literal guide, it too will always be
broken. Instead of thinking of the web and search in terms of algorithms it
helps to think of the web as a large social network. Ask yourself questions
like
•
What are people talking about?
•
What stories are spreading?
•
Why are they spreading?
•
Who is spreading them?
•
How are they spreading them?
The
reason search relies so heavily on the social elements is that page content and
site structure are so easy to manipulate. It takes a mind well-tuned into
marketing to be able to influence or manipulate people directly.
There
are ways to fake authority, and when you are new it may make sense to push the
envelope on some fronts. But invariably, anything that is widely manipulated is
not a strong signal of authority.
Google wants to count real
editorial votes. Consider the following:
•
It is not common for news sites to link section-wide to an online
bingo site.
•
Most of the ads are irrelevant to the content of the pages.
•
There are a large number of paid links right next to each other.
•
The site has amazing authority.
Given
all the above, it makes sense that Google would not want to count those links.
When I posted about how overt that PageRank selling was, Matt Cutts, a leading
Google engineer, hinted that Google had already taken care of not counting
those links.
And
since UPI is a slow moving, 100 year-old company, the fact that they are
selling PageRank should also tell you that Google’s relevancy algorithms have
moved far beyond just considering PageRank. I have PageRank 5 sites that get
100 times the traffic that some of my PageRank 7 sites do, because they have
better content and a more natural link profile.
If
you do buy links, think of the page as though you were an editor for a search
engineer. Does the link look like it is a natural part of the page? Or is it an
obviously purchased link?
What
if instead of thinking of ways to try to create false authority, you looked at
the web in terms of a social network, where the best ideas and the best
marketed ideas spread? Now that might get you somewhere.
What if you are starting with
nothing? Can you still compete? Of course you can.
At
the end of 2002, I got kicked out of the military for using drugs. At that
point, I was experiencing a number of things:
•
Suicidal depression
•
Financial bankruptcy, living on credit cards
•
Social isolation
•
Ignorance to the web, SEO, and marketing (slightly less serious, I
know)
Within
4 years, I had pulled myself out of this emotional and psychological slump, and
had achieved success:
•
I was fairly knowledgeable about the web, SEO, and marketing.
•
I had made lots of friends.
•
I was getting mentioned in the Wall Street Journal (and
many other newspapers).
•
I was speaking at colleges about SEO (one college even
wanted to hire me to become a professor).
•
I had venture capitalists offering to invest in this site.
•
I had a mainstream publisher offer to publish this book.
•
I got married to the most wonderful woman in the world
What
did I have that allowed me to do well? I had a passion for learning. That
passion helped me attract great friends who took me under their wing and helped
me far more than I could have ever expected. It takes time to do well, but if
you keep pushing, keep learning, keep sharing, and are trying to help others,
eventually you will do well on the web.
Many
true web authorities started out as topical hubs. People who had no intent of
creating a business would just freely talk about a subject they loved, and
linked out to related websites they found useful. Every web marketer should
read this post:
You become a
platform worthy of attention by talking about others who are worthy of
attention. Getting people to pay attention is a real cost. You have to get
people to pay attention before you can extract value from your work.
To most
people, the single most relevant and important thing in the world is themselves.
Here is a quote from Radiohead’s Meeting People is Easy:
If you have
been rejected many times in your life, then one more rejection isn't going to
make much difference. If you're rejected, don't automatically assume it's your
fault. The other person may have several reasons for not doing what you are
asking her to do: none of it may have anything to do with you. Perhaps the
person is busy or not feeling well or genuinely not interested in spending time
with you. Rejections are part of everyday life. Don't let them bother you. Keep
reaching out to others. When you begin to receive positive responses then you
are on the right track. It's all a matter of numbers. Count the positive
responses and forget about the rejections.
You are not
always going to be able to predict what will work and what doesn’t, but the
more you keep learning and the more things you try the better the odds are that
something will stick. Internet marketing is just like offline marketing, but
cheaper, faster, and more scalable.
Social
scientists have studied why things become popular, and many things are popular only because they are already popular.
In Is Justin Timberlake a Product of Cumulative Advantage Duncan J. Watts
wrote about how groups tended to like the
same things, but random different things in each group. Even if success is
random and unpredictable there is a self reinforcing effect to marketing.
If you
keep reaching out to people you will be successful. It might take 3 months. It
might take 5 years. But eventually it will happen.
