Web marketing (part 4) OR Why is SEO so difficult?

This article from a SitePro newsletter highlights the importance of good web marketing by giving your visitors fresh, relevant content, something I've been promoting since starting this business. CD WebMaker has NEVER promoted the use of any of the methods aimed at 'tricking' the Search Engines into higher rankings. Here's why it just doesn't work:

Two big things have just happened in Google-land: Jagger and Google Analytics. Together, these two events may have changed the face of search forever.

Jagger

First, let's discuss Jagger... Just like hurricanes, Google updates have names. (A Google update is a change to the way Google determines its rankings. Google makes these changes periodically, and they're universally feared because they can impact dramatically on a website's ranking.) The latest update is called Jagger, and it has search engine optimizers (SEOs) all around the world in a state of panic.

Why was Jagger such a fearful update? Simple... With Jagger, Google once again outsmarted huge numbers of SEOs. You see, many/most SEOs spend their time (and their clients' money) trying to trick Google into thinking that their websites are more relevant and important than they really are. They do this mostly by swapping links, buying cheap links, and placing links on free directories. While there's nothing wrong with these sorts of links (i.e. they're not considered 'black-hat'), they don't really show that the site is relevant or important. All they really show is that the site owner has made a deal with another site owner. In these deals, the incentive for the linking site owner is a reciprocal link, money, or increased link volume. Google much prefers it when the linking site adds the link simply to enhance the value of their content or to increase their own credibility and authority.

In other words, Google wants its search results to contain relevant, important sites, not sites that merely appear to be relevant and important. To this end, Google invests millions of dollars and employs the world's smartest mathematicians to create algorithms which identify sites that are trying to trick them. And that's exactly what Jagger did; and when it found those sites, it simply adjusted their ranking to more accurately reflect their true importance.

The most important points noted for the Jagger update were:

1) Increased importance placed on IBL (Inbound Links) Relevancy
2) Increased importance placed on OBL (Outbound Links) Relevancy
3) Promotion of relevant Niche Directories (related to No. 1 & #2)

Some other interesting effects were reported:

"... Google is down-grading or eliminating reciprocal links as a measure of popularity... a few of our reciprocal links did come back up... So we feel that these links came back because of content, not linking."

Interestingly, article page rank (article submission) came through Jagger seemingly unscathed making one thing is clear: article page rank is one of the best ways to obtain a high ranking.

Conclusion

The lesson from Jagger is, don't try and trick Google! They've got more money and more brains than virtually any company in the world. It'll only end in tears! Don't spend time and money trying to make your site look important and relevant. Instead, spend that time and money actually making it important and relevant! Content - the real content behind the optimization - is the answer. After all, whether it's an article or a web page, it's the content that keeps 'eyes on paper', and that's what it's all about.