The assorted finds of Artefact Publishing
I was in a meeting recently at which the phrase “search engine optimisation” was used, prompting a (mercifully brief) discussion of useful techniques. I restrained myself from simply saying, “write decent content and don’t let anything get in its way”. However, I did think it, and of how entries on this blog are highly ranked in Google for such queries as “wellington bypass” (or just “bypass” on New Zealand pages), “adapting book to film”, “IQ statistics average”, “postgresql sequences”, and “New Zealand immigration language” (quotation marks were not used in the searches). This despite no optimisation, no overloading of key terms, and no one actually linking to those pages (a major factor in Google’s page ranking algorithm).
What does this tell me? Mostly, I think, that I do not understand what people do to make their web pages not be ranked higher — it’s not like I’ve gone on and on about any of the above topics. Alright, maybe one of them, but then I also have a PDF which is the top result for “gemealt”, one of the words in Beowulf. I mean, really, where are the academics?
Posted by jamie on March 30, 2004 21:48+12:00
Posted by: stephen on March 31, 2004 11:45+12:00
Stephen, that would be a better argument if I was linked to by lots of people. However, the pages in question are the archives of my blog which I don’t believe anyone links to, and the number of people linking to my main page are counted in the ones.
That said, I don’t think it’s my gorgeous prose style either.
Posted by: Jamie on March 31, 2004 17:01+12:00
Posted by: sue on April 5, 2004 00:47+12:00
Posted by: iona on March 30, 2004 22:45+12:00