A long time ago, I thought it would be a good idea to set up a blog. This result, quite a few years later is my acceptable compromise between what I thought I wanted to create, and what I now have time to create.
One of the ways to measure a successful piece of the internet is readership. However I already know exactly how many times when, where, and why my site is read, thanks to a very good friend of mine who runs a business providing just that kind of information on a very large scale. This is very much a quantity metric, more is better right? That’s not my goal. I’ve compromised remember.
Another way goal is engagement. This is where I get positive feedback that I am connected with people who are interested in what I have to say. I think of this as more a quality metric. I like quality. I am happy to protect it.
This brings me to the title of the post, SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. Ever since Google came up with the back links concept, then getting people to link to your site has been part of the war. I say a war because if you are interested in capturing people’s attention, and more likely a portion of their pockets, then you have two ways of winning that war against your competitors.
- You have the best product. In car terms, the equivalent of an environmentally friendly 4x4 with the highest build quality for the price of scooter. This is hard.
- Make sure everyone knows about your product instead of the better ones, because it might just be better in one way to some people. This is easier.
So begins the SEO war on the web, try and get links back to your product/site from every possible place there is. Of course nothing can beat quality, but that doesn’t stop people from trying.
Unfortunately this is at odds with my little corner of quality. I don’t want clutter. I don’t want adverts pretending to be comments. I don’t need trade links with you. Oh, and if you think you want to sell me anything SEO related maybe you should see my CV sometime. I’ll bet my rates are a lot higher than yours due to my experience, not just my ability to send emails offering vapourware.
As a result I feel it’s time to declare the rules of this site.
- All links on my site are declared nofollow. Sorry.
- Following your url back to your site, you have any of the following phrases on your home page gets the comment removed
- Any comment that doesn’t engage with my content gets deleted. By engage I mean, one that doesn’t even bother being relevant to the discussion.
- “Bookmarked your site” www.shopping4tat.con
- “That’s just what I was looking for” www.plasticsurgery4guys.con
If you feel this is unfair, then tell me. For this post only I won’t apply the above rule 2 as long your comment actually meets rules 3.