So, today I needed some binding done. Unfortunately my Assistant was on holiday, having flown out on Purefiction airlines to the small province of Idontexist. It was down to me to head to our usual binders.
On arriving, I was turned away having been advised the company was ‘far too busy to handle small jobs.’ It was ‘not what they did’ and ‘not what they wanted to do.’ Back in the warm, with a cuppa and heavy duty stapler, Google showed their business listing in between poor reviews from several credible sources.
Search Engine Results Pages or ‘SERPs’ have ‘changed little during the past 10 years’ according to MediaWeek digital editor Rich Sutcliffe. Since the millennium, we’ve been presented with a very similar format although a wider variety of media (i.e. videos) has become incorporated. Although, it’s likely that maintaining the SERP’s style has given rise to those determined to manipulate it.
Search Engine Optimisation, according to Phillips and Young, ‘is the method by which websites can gain enhanced positions in the organic listings’ of major search engines. By finding the balance between popular search words and phrases specific to a niche, designers can embed words into site’s HTML, content and title to manipulate their search ranking.
To say search engines are used by 93% of web users everyday and a majority of B2B sites are located by engines like Google, this binder’s reputation and CSR is in jeopardy. Their site might look good but the web user might be completely put off by negative previews collated on the same search.
Maybe the organisation in question can take some comfort from the recent scrutiny Google, the world’s preferred engine, is coming under from bloggers such as Julian:
“In some ways Google has set up its giant monopoly in a way that if it ever veers from its “Don’t be Evil” way of thinking, it will lose its monopoly status”
To have a truly unaffected and organic search – as sought by Google – the relationship between the engine and SEO specialists is contradictory. A pure engine, unaffected by marketing opportunities like adwords, would a) affect income and b) reputation – results would be riddled with SPAM.
Like the binders, maximizing profits and maintaining an indignant attitude towards the unworthy might be shrewd but detrimental to a transparent business.
Filed under: personal journalism, SEO
