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They pursue great search engine result placement by looking for “holes” in Google's algorithm or “shortcuts” that will produce ranking bumps.
It's a treadmill. A new strategy pops up. It works. Everyone hops on board. The search engine operators realize that their systems are being “gamed” and they make adjustments to curtail the value of the trick. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Look, good rankings are a great way to make real money online. Search engine traffic is the holy grail of IM and if you can get a big flow of visitors through organic results, it's hard not to make money. It's easy to understand the obsession with the “latest and greatest” way to fool Google, et al.
However, it's something of a backwards approach. The best way to secure high rankings that will last through all of the algorithmic tweaks is to step off the treadmill and to start thinking about what search engines really want to accomplish.
Google and the other search engines make money because people use them.
People use them because they want to find information to meet their interests and needs. When the search results put them into contact with the right information, those users are happy. When they get a lot of material that doesn't help them, they get annoyed. Annoyed users are less likely to continue using the service.
Thus, the search engines have a vested interest in providing people with the information they seek. They design their systems to broker that user/content connection.
And they're always trying to improve the process. They don't want to serve up junk results just because some savvy SEO found a way to exploit the system. They'll patch those holes as fast as they can while simultaneously devoting a great deal of time to improving their base approach to finding and sorting everything that appears on the web.
So, when you're looking for shortcuts you're fighting against the search engines. You may occasionally lose battles, but you're probably going to lose the war.
There's a better way.
Instead of trying to find the tricks, you can start trying to work with the search engines.
You can make an effort to provide quality information and content in a usable format. You can strive to create the kind of material that people really want. You can make their job easier.
And they will reward you with higher rankings. The best sites, the one the “tricksters” are inevitably trying to pass in the SERPs usually have one thing in common--they provide good content the right way.
You can try to stay one step ahead of the search engines, but it's going to wear you out and a lot of the effort you pour into the process will end up being meaningless after updates and changes.
It makes more sense to play right into the search engine wheelhouse.
Create the kinds of sites the search engines want to reward. As the quality of search inevitably improves, those sites are going to benefit from all of that search engine traffic.
At one time becoming an eBay Power Seller was considered the peak of online auction selling. Recognition that you were a grade A number one seller. But that's not true anymore, if it ever was. All you have to do to become a Power Seller is average $1000 (£750 in the UK) a month sales and have good feedback rating .
But what does being a Power seller really say about your eBay business? It says that you have a minimum turnover figure. For all anyone knows you may have achieved that by selling items at a loss. Many businesses both on and online have run into trouble by going for turnover at the expense of profit.
When you are planning your eBay business set your self a target based on profit not turnover. So instead of setting a target to sell $5000 of product on eBay each month make it to make $2000 profit instead. By concentrating on your profit rather than turnover you will always know what your business is worth to you.
Many of the sellers making big profits on eBay are not in fact Power Sellers. You may think this strange but for a variety of reasons they opt not to go for this accreditation. Some sellers have multiple eBay Ids. You may wonder why this is, some
may be targeting several different niche markets and have a different Id for each of these niches.
One very well known eBay seller deliberately has many Ids and stops using them when they reach a certain feedback level. The argument for this is that it makes it more difficult for any so minded jealous competitors to harass their Id with false bids or negative feedbacks. Be warned it can be a tough world on eBay.
The trouble with eBay is that it is very much price driven. Ask most people why they shop on eBay and they will tell you they are looking for a bargain. This has the effect of forever driving down prices and hence profit margins as well. There will always be someone willing to shave that little more off the price and their profits just to make the sale. This is particularly true in the Buy it Now part of the market.
The only way around this is to have something so unique that you are the only person selling it on eBay. This can be achieved by either inventing and having a product manufactured yourself or finding a new product and signing an eBay exclusivity agreement with the manufacturer. The best places I have found for discovering these types of products are trade fairs, which are always worth a visit.
Probably the easiest way to get an exclusive product is to write an e-book, audio program or make an information video. All of these are very cheap to produce and offer a big profit margin for a small out lay. Up to 1000% profit and no competition
to force your profits margins down.
If you are successful eBay will offer you Power Seller status anyway and it is up to you if you accept or not. But the point is that you will have got there by concentrating on your profits not your turnover and you will be all the richer for it.