Comments on: Which SEO’s should not read IR or search papers

By: John

John — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:21:13 +0000

I read white papers on algorithms and LSI as it gives me a greater insight into exactly how the engineers at the search engine HQ’s are thinking about their next wave of classification of data. As an online marketer, it pays, I feel to keep ahead of the game. of course, it can be a lot of work flicking through a white paper, but I find some of the terminologies and references quite useful in my work. I set up Google alerts to catch articles and blog posts “like this” to expand my knowledge, which in turn helps my clients and allows me to provide a better service to my clients.

By: dave tribbett

dave tribbett — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:55:09 +0000

Great post. Here is a good article that adds some additional detail to the topic and a good set of links to the deep web search engines and other helpful sites.

By: seo

seo — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:33:05 +0000

I have to agree with the reasoning that performing effective seo is helped by the knowledge about how search engines work. In any industry I like to know the business from the ground up as much as possible. My example would be if managing a restaurant I’d want to be able to strap on an apron and do dishes for a while, get some knowledge of each aspect of how the restaurant runs. This has to make me a better manager. Knowing how search engines work has to help to a certain extent in tailoring efforts in the competitive environment. Perhaps less contested keyword can get away with less for longer, but those that do have solid competition will need every edge they can get. Besides, if you are interested in search engine optimisation as a career, presumably you have some sort of fascination with the process, or you love the buzz you get from seeing sites you are working with appear on first page. In either case it would be hard not to want to know how a search engine works, that sure beats trial and error. It’s fine to copy the leading techniques but what if you hit on a new method that no one else knows yet? That would be a great feeling. I’m all for knowing what makes things tick.

By: rankONE

rankONE — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:30:01 +0000

At least 5 people are keen on learning new things and always researching to keep up with the times. Otherwise we wouldnt have found this articles. There needs to be at least 1 day a week or research and readings – you deffinately need to find the edge to get your website as well as your clients website to the top of the results for the most competetive key phrases.

By: George

George — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:41:56 +0000

Very interesting… thanks.

By: Dejan Petrovic

Dejan Petrovic — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:42:25 +0000

Reading the content of this website I feel very much at home. A proper scientific way to discuss search! Will I lose my commercial touch and go broke as a result? I guess we’ll find out.

By: CJ

CJ — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:58:28 +0000

LOL – I guess for the 1st one, you have all those cool peeps who make it easy and dissect and read all the patents and papers for you, meaning that you just get posts to read. I read all my news in Google reader and catch up whilst in transit or whatever.

By: CJ

CJ — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:51:50 +0000

Yes Craig that’s true to an extent. I think that reading the papers or rather keeping on top of developments let you know what to expect. PageRank took 2 odd years to be implemented after all. The brand thingy that happened was hardly a shock. I agree that not everything will be implemented and that not everything will be implemented exactly like it was described.

By: David Leonhardt

David Leonhardt — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:17:15 +0000

Amusing list. I wonder how many people said yes to #15. But you left out, “you are too busy serving clients to read long documents”, and “you are too rich from all those #1 ranking you get to care”. That first one is my constant struggle and that second one is my constant wishful thinking.

By: Craig Fifield

Craig Fifield — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:08:11 +0000

Great post CJ. I agree with you that good SEO’s should have a strong working knowledge of search tech.

One thing to keep in mind though is that search engine papers and even engineers that implement the tech in question often can only tell you how something was done and how it should perform. That can be far different than reality.