Internet

SEO’s Party Like Its 1999! (Inbound Linking No Longer Important?)

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Yesterday, around the world, throngs of SEO’s burst into the street whooping, celebrating, and laughing. The reason? Google’s first manual on SEO 101, which, upon reading it carefully, makes no mention of the importance of inbound links to a given page’s ranking.

“Man, I was SOOOOooo relieved when I read this. My fingers were crossed and I was like ‘please-don’t-mention-inbound-links-please-don’t-mention-inbound-links’ … and, and — it was like Christmas 1999 all over again!”, a jubilant Barry Schwartz said, before he ran off to celebrate with other search engine round-tablers.

Mr. Schwartz, of course, was referring to the halycon days before Google placed such heavy emphasis on the quantity and quality of inbound links to measure a page’s worth, and therefore, its potential ranking in organic search engine results. The so-called “golden age” of SEO, when mere children could hang out their shingle and proclaim that they “did SEO”, when meta-keywords, keyword stuffing, and doorway pages actually worked without the threat of a “ban”, and when Google wasn’t the only player in town, are happy days for many working in the SEO industry.

While many SEO pundits, players, and practitioners of the black arts were found celebrating in the streets, there were some that questioned Google’s change in its algorithmic emphasis, particularly Jason “SEO Troll” Calacanis.

“I just — I just don’t get it. Mahalo was doing everything … oh, hallo. I mean, this is just horseshit. Do you think people want to go and have their search results polluted by penis enlargement ads, mortgage offers, and “free” credit score checks? People didn’t like it at Yahoo, did they? Can you say $10 share price?”

Conspiracy theorists, however, are having a field day with the news, suggesting that Google’s public proclamation of the non-importance of inbound links is more of a honeypot trap than anything else. When reached for comment, Google engineer and all-around SEO wet blanket Matt Cutts mentioned the following yesterday:

“This is by no means a sophisticated attempt by Google to root out SEO’s by baiting them into readjusting to pre-Google; these changes should, in no way, represent changes that should be threatening to any SEO, and should encourage SEO’s pursue any means necessary to achieve their goals; Google will never penalize anyone for operating within these unspoken rules, and will never strike anyone with a lifetime ban that affects their spouses, children, and great grand children for unto e generations.”

“At the same time, let me reassure everyone that Google is absolutely and verifiably not working on a 4th dimensional model for quality score affecting search engine results that affect SERPs in both the past and future, nor has it developed the world’s first globally integrated sentient artificial intelligence that makes the current model of inbound links childishly obsolete. That is absolutely, totally, and utterly, correct — I MEAN … incorrect.”

© 2008 TekPopuli.