
How My Mom Thinks Search Engines Work - treester
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-my-mom-thinks-search-engines-work
======
guelo
If you were running a SEO shop, how would you try and get to the front page of
Google? "I’d write lengthy fluffy articles that, even though they didn't say
anything interesting, they used the word SEO a lot and made SEO people feel
special somehow so that it got linked from other sites that SEO people visit.
Maybe I would even semi-attack a popular site like Hacker News in order to
link-bait the site into linking to the articles."

~~~
sharkweek
OP here -- ahh the infamous top comment on HN; always good for a great mood
killer to an article that was, simply put, really fun to write

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geon
You wouldn't believe the flaming I got for writing an easily digested (pun
intended) article on password encryption. Apparently that is for Bruce
Schneier only.

You have to agree the comment was funny though.

~~~
soult
There are many people with different interests on HN. Startup people, web
developers, and even some hardcore cryptographers. While the former will find
you article interesting and probably don't already know too much about
encryption, the latter will find the article boring and too simple. They
probably will complain (maybe even thinking they could have written it
better), while the startup people and web devs don't write anything, since HN
discourages comments that only state "Good article" or similar.

That's how you end up with an article with lots of upvotes (from the people
who liked your artcile) and some rude comments (from the people who didn't
like your article).

~~~
hkmurakami
I remember pg posting something along the lines of: if I wanted to write a
bullet proof article it would be so long and involved that no one would want
to read it and I wouldn't want to write it. I agree, and hence we'll always be
nitpicked, especially if we write for a relatively broad, naive audience.

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run4yourlives
Everyone should "Take a non x out for coffee and ask them what they think x's
do".

I've had two/three different careers (dependent on definition) in my life, and
each one of is immersed in its own echo chamber 99% of the time. This is one
of the major reasons industry leaders can't innovate worth a damn.

~~~
matt_brushlabs
Somewhat relevant, but a friend of mine had a weekly cup of coffee with
someone she didn't know as part of her final year in college. Entertaining and
an incredible way to gather wisdom, from my perspective.

<http://52cups.tumblr.com/checklist>

~~~
sharkweek
This is an incredible project, thanks for sharing

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elorant
His mom knows more than the average social media expert out there.

~~~
PavlovsCat
I am very impressed actually, some are crazy smart guesses IMHO.

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onan_barbarian
Don't tell my mom that I work in SEO. She thinks I'm a piano player in a
brothel.

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kreddor
His mom sounds pretty smart actually. I imagine that most people know even
less about how search engines works.

~~~
neltnerb
She knows more than me, I thought that page rankings were based on how many
people link to your site, not how many actually visit. Who knew?

~~~
sharkweek
OP here -- You are correct, it is mostly about who links to your site -- but
things like bounce rates and whatnot do affect rankings as well; hence the
partial credit being awarded

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _but things like bounce rates and whatnot do affect rankings as well_ //

How do Google, say, use bounce rates - they do have bounce rates for folks
using Analytics, and I guess they could guess some form of bounce rate by
analysing search clicks but they'd be missing data for lots of pages and lots
of visits on pages they could get a rate on. So, do you have any insight in to
how they or Bing or whoever do it in practice; or is it just a guess?

SEOmoz ranking factors, [http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-
factors#metrics...](http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-
factors#metrics-7), (and other pages there) suggest it's based on clicks on
SERPs that follow after a visit to your site. Is that the/a _known_ method or
just the most speculated method.

Seems it could be potentially abused, so for example the "are you sure you
want to leave this page" (onbeforeunload) type warnings will clearly elongate
the page visit duration.

~~~
czr80
People who click a search result and then immediately return to Google.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Are you speculating there? Is it for all users or just logged in? If I open
several links from a SERP in tabs then am I adding to stats to give a higher
bounce rate?

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ambiate
It is funny he mentions observing hacker news to understand the audience and
potential criticism. It is 100% of the reason I visit this site. I want to
understand and interpret this audience. There is a fountain of knowledge in
these comments from a broad spectrum of users.

~~~
VLM
Either that, or he thinks we're his mom.

(More likely answer is a ploy to get upvoted to get coverage here. Worked.)

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orangethirty
You should ask random people how search engines work. It is a hobby of mine
these days, and its quite entertaining. One young lady told me that se thought
Google had a bunch of secretaries answering all of the queries. I did not
laugh, because that actually is how things are still done in a lot of places.

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danbmil99
30 year tech veteran here, and I my answers would have been precisely the same

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fbnt
I think that one of the most valuable points this article makes is the "keep
it simple" message, the apple ad example is particularly spot-on. It's great
advice especially when you're trying to promote/market a new
service/app/whatever. When you're into product development, you'll always tend
to be slightly technical when you describe it. Removing _any_ technical
reference during the first approach is good to bear in mind. Unless you're
aiming to a particular market, 99% of your users won't be that savvy.

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spajus
Anything related to advertising and getting people to do something they didn't
intend to is evil. SEO is on a borderline, and when you start growing links to
your site, it crosses it.

I especially don't like those shitheads who come to blogs and post a
"relevant" comment with a link to their services - I carefully mark them as
spam and report their profiles.

~~~
dchuk
So you would classify an organization like the Ref Cross running ads
soliciting donations or volunteer work as...evil?

Really?

~~~
spajus
That would be a corner case.

