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ThirdGen Look: How SEO got its groove back

Posted by Michael Martinez on June 20, 2007 in SEO Theory

There are three recent developments which have put search engine optimization into “Unplugged” mode.

First, the major search engines have been rolling out integrated search algorithms: AOL, A9, Google, and Ask have all jumped aboard the ThirdGen Search (outdated people living in the past might call it “Search 3.0″) bandwagon. I think it’s only a matter of time before Yahoo! and Microsoft redesign their interfaces. Rumor has it that Microsoft is planning to roll out a major change later this year. We’ll see.

Second, people have begun picking up the pieces of the Google Supplemental Pages debacle and leaerning how to live in today’s Segregated Web. As long as good content is pushed into the Supplemental Index, it will behoove all of us to know how to get that content to rank for something, anything until we can build sufficient trusted linkage to move it into the Main Web Index.

Third, we now live in the age of authentication. Like it or not, you gain more than you lose (for now) by authenticating your sites and the sooner Ask and Microsoft allow people to authenticate to better. It will be even better than that if the major search engines can agree on a universal authentication standard.

Still, for the first time in years people now have access to fairly reliable data concerning what Google knows. There are currently no publicly available SEO tools that actually help you work with this data. But I think the days when people say stupid things like, “Just use Yahoo! to check your Google backlinks” are ending, if they haven’t ended already.

Cross-index research can be very useful in a number of ways, but you have never been in a position to use search engine X to check your backlink profile on search engine Y. Frankly, most people don’t do a very good job with backlink analysis anyway. You might as well not be doing as trying to analyze backlinks the way SEO forums and blogs have been telling you to look at them for years.

The day is not yet here when people will be afraid to admit in a forum or blog post that they actually looked at Toolbar PR, but as long as the crescendo of criticism for doing so continues to build I will hope that our days of slogging through PR-based pseudo-analysis are numbered.

There will probably always be PR lovers. For that matter, there will probably always be people who think Wikipedia offers valuable, reliable information. You can tell them the truth and let them decide whether to continue living in the dark ages. You’re under no obligation to bring these naive folks into the 21st century, or even the 3rd millennium.

Search engine optimization is still the bad boy of Web marketing, being too closely associated with search engine spamming, site scraping, and made-for-advertising clutter. But search engine optimization is also moving into new directions. There are the ala carte SEO services that will help small business owners do simple things (however the lack of standards hurts the customers as well as the ala carte providers). There are the large corporate service providers who charge big fees and perform lots of service.

The middle sector may or may not be squeezed out. Value added resellers who used to package software with mini-computer systems were eventually squeezed out of the market by large system vendors and off-the-shelf PC-based solutions. If we lose the mid-range SEO market it won’t be because no one wants to optimize for search.

Even so, we have not yet moved into the era of Thirdgen SEO. I think the third generation of techniques and methodologies has yet to emerge because it has to come in the wake of ThirdGen Search, and we’re not quite yet there on the search side.

Other challenges have unfolded in the field of search engine optimization. I suspect that Search Index Forensics will eventually become an established profession. We almost have the metrics we need to quantify the values we seek in search engine results. But people may be surprised by the directions that SI Forensics take. The average SEO won’t be equipped to do a proper analysis.

ThirdGen SEO may not be able to develop the standards we need to build a true science in the field. Most SEOs know and understand so little about standards and the scientific method that their attempts to form consensus are unproductive. There are still several competing certification standards, and none of today’s contenders is positioned to become the top standard.

I shudder to think what it would be like if any of the current certifications available did become a standard. If certification depends mostly on link building and pay-per-click management and analysis, we’re all doomed. SEO, in order to survive and thrive, must hang on to its roots. The fundamental principles have to prevail.

You cannot optimize for search through links. You can only boost your relevance for specific keywords through links. Optimization entails improving efficiencies. There are several types of efficiencies in search engine optimization.

For example, you can look at the efficiency of query targeting. How many queries can one page rank for? I have successfully optimized a single page to rank in the top 5 results for dozens of queries (and I did it through content, not even through internal links).

You can also look at the efficiency of search engine coverage. How many search engines are there? 50? 60? So what if most of them are meta search engines? So what if most of them offer little to no value? How many of them do you rank well on? The more queries on more search engines you dominate, the better. Search Index Space Management used to be a primary function of search engine optimization. Few people look beyond Google today.

You can look at the efficiency of search conversions. Conversions begin with the information search engines provide to their users, but your on-page content and (believe it or not) your link building also assist with conversions. Search conversions can be influenced by direct submission, on-page content management, and link management.

In order to succeed, ThirdGen SEO will have to adapt to an increasingly complex search space. Social media optimization is really not search engine optimization. They are both aspects of Web marketing and Web marketing continues to evolve. But if all you are doing now is social media optimization you’re falling rapidly behind the curve in true search engine optimization.

ThirdGen SEO may, in fact, become an industry of true specialists. We’ll have to agree to some definitions, adopt some standards, and learn to accept that the latest fads don’t constitute or invalidate the fundamental principles.

You need visibility, you need content organization, you need keyword research, and you need links — but not the kinds of links you’ve been naively taught to work with. Link optimization is a specialty that few people in the industry are qualified to discuss.

A link can do more than just get your pages crawled.

A link can do more than just pass anchor text.

A link can do more than pass PageRank.

A link can do more than build trust.

A truly optimized link goes beyond those four most commonly sought values.

ThirdGen SEO will go beyoond today’s hot topics and popular formulae. ThirdGen SEO must stay on par with ThirdGen Search. Otherwise you’ll be playing against tomorrow’s search engine algorithms using yesterday’s tools.