Are the basics of seo being ignored by Google?

Nov 6, 2007 Author: admin | Filed under: Internet Related, seo

I manage a range of websites in various industries including some personal websites of my own. For clients I follow the basic rules of seo down to a T, as I know from past experience that these methods work best to achieve good SERP positions. Now to my own personal shame I run a website promoting unsigned music for artists and fans. The website was not designed by me (thank god) and I haven’t even attempted any seo as its a maze of random code and bad practice design. So the Google update happens, and currently I have all the following issues going against the site:

1. The titles and Meta’s are the same throughout the entire site
2. There is a huge flash image at the top of the site (making the initial part of the page unreadable)
3. The site sells advertising space (quite clearly)
4. The url structure is not seo friendly
5. The site architecture is horribly confusing
6. The homepage size is over 75kb in size and takes a while to load
7. Backlinks are not high
8. Anchors for the backlinks are not at all relevant to keywords
9. The site uses Text-Link-Ads
10. Sitemap inaccurate and contains an error in Google webmaster area
11. Very few site updates, although new pages added by users
12. No RSS feed

So with all these seo basic being blatantly ignored I expected a boot in the rear from Google on the update.

WRONG

1. The website has moved from a PR 3 to a PR 4
2. The SERP positions have steadily climbed to a point where I am top 5 of Google for multiple strong keywords in the music industry
3. Traffic has increased to well over 30,000 a month and still climbing
4. No penalty for selling links

So why, after so many reports of good quality seo friendly websites being penalized by Google does this sorry excuse for a site continue to be loved by Google? Who knows, but this isn’t the first time Iv’e looked on Google and see poor “seo” websites maintain high SERP positions. I’m not entirely sure but I will investigate further and see if any pattern emerges. I will continue to use the basics of seo as standard as it helps for site usability as much as anything. If anyone knows of any similar sites, please let me know.

2 Responses for "Are the basics of seo being ignored by Google?"

Dan the Automator November 7th, 2007 at 4:51 am 1

The most obvious reason I’d come up with is that you haven’t over-optimised your site… there’s nothing worse than looking like a ‘try-hard’
Wayne Smallman December 7th, 2007 at 3:23 pm 2

Without knowing more about the keywords you’re ranking for, it’s hard to qualify that aspect of your SEO activities.

What’s worth mentioning is that it’s not just SEO itself that a website will rank for, which I suspect you already know.

But if you’re getting a lot of in-bound traffic that’s not organic search traffic, but instead as a result of SEM, Social Media, or other link building tactics, then any SEO deficiencies will be “defeated” and overcome by those other traffic channels.

You’re dealing with a website that’s a portal for unsigned musicians. I suspect the search traffic you’re getting isn’t for those guys by name.

So in those instances, the best channels are word-of-mouth, links on other music portals, emails, Facebook et cetera, which may be as a result of the artists themselves.

As I said, without knowing more, I can only make a best guess…