SEO Strategies
The Eye of the Hurricane
Avoiding disaster in the Florida Google storm by Michael Marshall
Dec 02, 2003
The latest Google update, named "Florida," has caused quite a firestorm of discussion and panic. The custom of naming these updates like hurricanes seems especially appropriate in this instance - instead of knocking brick-and-mortar stores off the face of the Earth, this hurricane is knocking web pages off the face of the SERPs. Perhaps you've read the New York Times online article "Retailers Rise in Google Rankings as Rivals Cry Foul." Florida has an "exact-keyphrase" filter that penalizes sites that over-use certain very competitive keyphrases in web page content and link text. The pages that have been optimized extensively for certain keyphrases are the ones that get swept away by Florida.
'The users made me do it.'
Any good search engine (that wants to stay in business for long) has as its top priority finding relevant results to users' queries. If the users aren't happy, (e.g. stale results, irrelevant results, results dominated by an elite few), the engine is doomed. The engine has to produce results that are BOTH relevant to the user AND free of domination by an elite few. (And you thought the Internet marketer's job of pleasing both the human audience and the crawlers was difficult.) This means they have to determine relevancy in a way that is not easily vulnerable to exploitation, yet accurate enough for an honest copywriter to satisfy.
What is relevancy?
In linguistics, relevancy is a matter of both syntax and semantics. It looks like Google may be measuring both here. In SEO these two components, syntax and semantics, are analogous to "keyword/keyphrase placement" (where you put them - inbound/outbound links, title, etc.) and "context" (semantically related and supportive words), respectively. You do need some sort of AI algorithm to do the context portion adequately, and I know Google has that. If you don't overdo the SEO mechanics and really beef up the context around your keywords/keyphrases you'll be in good shape. (cf. see what Google says about the importance of context in their AdSense Overview). You'll also be more relevant with a full and focused context.
Context is king!
Context is king! That's what I learned in philosophy AND linguistics. It's no less true for relevancy in the search engines. Since the SE is all about relevancy, you've got to be all about focus. Your content must be focused! And it's the right kind of context that yields the best kind of focus.
Since "exact word-pairs" are being targeted, search engine marketers are going to have to be more sophisticated with keyword placement/selection now. "Exact word-pairs" are used by Google as an indicator that a SEM has crafted the page's content or text-link wording. (Personally, I think that alone will not distinguish between black hats, the bad marketers, and the white hats, the good guys, but it is part of the game, nonetheless). This is a good way to pick out copy or text links that have been "intentionally modified/crafted" for ranking purposes.
Many have speculated about what kind of filter Florida uses. Is it rules-based, is it artificial intelligence, a Bayesian filter? Some have even given suggestions on how to combat this new filter, such as using some kind of AI Bayesian sentence generator to create more diverse phrases using your keywords. The only problem with that is that the "MomandPopShop.com" webmasters probably doesn't even know what a Bayesian filter is. Do you? This is somewhat of an arms race between the black hats and Google scientists (with the white hats - that's us good guys - caught in the middle); and Google is armed to the teeth. Mom and Pop are not in the position to pull a Bayesian sentence generator or some other AI tool out of their back pocket to adapt to the demands of the Florida update.
What Google is looking for is less "contrived" and more "naturally occurring" instances of keywords and keyphrases. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google said, "The fundamental principle is that the sites should not artificially game the system." (From Lisa Guernsey's NY Times article.) So what does a white hat do to avoid being penalized? Obviously, you don't want to throw away your keywords - you know they're the right ones. People are searching on the phrases you've selected and those are what will bring the traffic you want; you still need them.
Recommendations
Don't be so "exact" in the way you use your keywords. Try not to appear as "contrived" and obvious about their placement. Use the words in your keyphrase, but spread them apart a little. If your phrase is "keyword1 keyword2," vary some of the instances of that phrase by using filler words (e.g. "keyword1 filler-word filler-word keyword2"), or make use of stemming (different forms of the same word), like "keyword1 filler-word keyword2+(ed/s/ing)." Regardless of the actual words, the principle is the same: (1) mix in filler words, and (2) make use of stemming wherever possible.
Here are some additional strategies:
1. Choose the most effective keyphrase for your topic (e.g. using Wordtracker)
2. Go through the normal process of determining optimum keyword/keyphrase placement
3. Vary the phraseology of keyphrase and immediate context of the keyphrase in its various locations
* Use relevant filler words
* Use words that have conceptual relations to your keyphrase:
- Synonymy/antonymy (e.g. good is an antonym of bad)
- Similarity (gluttonous is similar to greedy)
- Hypernymy (is a kind of/has kind - horse has kind, like Arabian)
- Membership (commissioner is a member of commission)
- Metonymy (whole/part relations - motor vehicle has parts, like clutch pedal)
- Substance (lumber has substance, like wood)
- Product (Microsoft Corporation produces Microsoft Access)
- Attribute (past, preceding are attributes of timing)
- Causation (travel causes displacement - motion)
- Entailment (buying entails paying)
- Lateral bonds (concepts closely related to one another, but not in one of the other relationships, e.g. dog and dog collar)
(Examples from an Applied Semantics technical white paper, "CIRCA Techonology")
* Make use of varied inflectional morphology (suffixes, prefixes, conjugations)
4. Make sure inbound link text is varied as well
5. Make sure your copy flows well and looks natural, not contrived! (This part is more art than science; ask a professional writer, author, or English major for their opinion if you need help.)
Florida is going to keep moving and possibly make unpredictable changes in direction - just like a real hurricane. To stay in the eye, you will have to move with it and keep a low profile. Stay focused and keep on top of it. Some black hats spend hours trying to figure out how to trick the search engines into giving them good rankings - don't be that guy!