Search engines are just one way for retrieval and indexing information, this the problem with SEO: it has a very limited technological scope based on a single model of information retrieval. A bit like a cancer for the cure, SEO makes pages easier to rank in search engine results but then nobody said that the page was relevant for me in first page. There's an aspect of SEO which is very interesting indeed: keyword searching, taxonomy and linguistic trends, but few are the SEO's who even understand what a taxonomy is all about.
Many times the purpose of SEO is to put the page in the first positions so that more people come to a page where they can click on the paid ads for other pages: a bit like the salmon lifecycle, which goes all the way against the stream so that they can lay eggs, die, then when everything is washed downstream, eggs hatch, baby fish eats mum and dad's flesh and when they are adults they go all the way against the stream again for no purpose in life but populate the rivers. The success rate of most SEO campaigns out there are measured by the position of the web page in the results page, which definitely produces more traffic (another old model: traffic). It is a surge tactics, which might work for the owner of the site, but from the user perspective, if you are lucky to get a page with good content, good for you. Personally, I don't use Google anymore, I go straight to Wikipedia and then go to the links they have there. I also use Digg, which seems to me the emerging model for search, something SEO hasn't thought of yet, after all SEO is aimed for short-term results. Nevertheless, there are serious SEO consultancies out there, it is hard to spot them because there are too many failed web designers waving the SEO banner. Cheers, Luis "I'm not an SEO expert by any means, but reading all this talk about how CSS will effect SEO results really SCREAMS to me my point that designing for SEO is a flawed methodology for total success..." -- dave -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
