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Perhaps it would have been better for Money.co.uk to just declare that all its stories going foward would be 'nothing but the truth, and the whole truth, so I swear by the Queen' (Lol)
It's unfortunate things turned out this way, and at the end of the day, despite our different positions on the situation, I feel that the Search Marketing community lies divided. This is too utopian a result to ask, but we really need to band together more, especially in the face of every body non-search marketing out to shoot down seo/smm.
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" - I suppose that's rather appropriate in this circumstance. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Lyndon's already done this sort of 'evil linkbait' in the past, or will, in the future. Rest assured, he won't be gloating about his successes and instigate a thread such as the one we're discussing right now.
In the grand scheme of things, I think Lyndon did really well. From a social media perspective, people often vote on what they WANT to believe, and not what truly is. Do you think a digg user verifies the sources of the story he or she is digging? Definitely not - as the purpose of digging a story up is to share popular, sensational content - whether true or untrue.
I remember a couple of months ago, a story about a university kid who built a lamp that could last a 100 years on the same battery power source (can't remember the link), and that turned out to be a hoax. I didn't see any heated threads come about that story, and I don't see why Lyndon should be accountable for his linkbait strategy in this situation either.
Was is ethical 'social media marketing'? That's debateable. Was it Lyndon's responsibility to make sure the websites that linked to the article, knew of its 'truthiness'?? Definitely not.
The intent and outcomes of a situation are always debated in ethics courses worldwide. Was this article fabricated purely for links? brand awareness? buzz? all of them? In either case, I believe Google should not play judge on whether the article was 'okay' in their eyes. This is for a couple of reasons:
1. The onus and responsibility of a linking entity is entirely on their own editorial preferences. Journalists from credible news sources should definitely know better than to syndicate articles that not only sound off-beat, but have no sources cited either.
2. Google's mission is to bring the highest relevancy in search. To date, it is probably the closest of the major search engines to do so, but we all know it cannot and is not a 100% perfect. Therefore, it's prime goal as a search engine should to be to keep refining and improving its index (and in an utopian world - seo's help this process). It is certainly a slippery slope when this search engine giant might choose to judge content based on fact versus fiction, instead of the algorithm it's close to perfected. That sort of judgement is not scaleable, as for every hoax story that get's outed, there's dozens more that never do.
@neyne - Thanks!
@Jill - Given the story at hand, and the master 'linkbaiter' that created it, wouldn't it be more appropriate to term this in 'social media'/'viral content' rather than SEO? Despite the obvious correlation and tie-ins in all aspects of internet marketing (SEO/SEM/SMM), isn't it time we gave distinction between true social media marketers (think Lyndon, Mmd Saleem, Mr BabyMan, etc.) than SEO's (think Danny S, Rand, Todd, etc.)?
If so, then perhaps this entire hulabaloo is a social media piece gone haywire, rather than one that affects SEO directly.
@Jill - I completely agree that we're all a bit of all things Search Marketing, with most search marketers acting in different capacities depending on the day of the week, or the client's needs. That said, this thread is definitely waaaaay too long and freezing up my pc as well. A la prochaine!
Having made the transition from a very well known search marketing agency to an in-house firm, I have to say that Duane hits the nail on the head with this post. Stumbled, and bookmarked :)
Count me in too. My mind is like a sponge for every shade of grey! The darker the better -- for educational purposes ofcourse... *cough* *cough*
@crashingflwrgrl - only in certain provinces though! Not if you come to Toronto, though - Although I'll hook you up with a few brewskies ;)... or just go to Montreal, or Alberta.
This is a brilliant article Adam! I compile a bookmarked list of search marketing best practices and this is a great addition to that list
Congrats Jeff and Brent! Jeff runs a tight ship at Search Engine People (I know from experiece ;) ) and I'm sure both moderators will make Sphinn even better!
Story: International Multilingual SEO and Duplicate Content Concerns around English Speaking Countries
Agreed - The best practice is to definitely translate fully. As for your second question, it is infact possible to register subdirectories into GWT. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-mondaysmx-west-interviews-will-critchlow-on-ranking-foreign-domains
Thank you for your kind words Kimberly. Look forward to seeing many more blog posts around the web from me soon!
Thanks for the Sphinn Tad! I got way too many mails regarding this resource, so I'm glad I've made it available for everyone to use.
I'm looking forward to hearing about any other tips any of you might have on increasing crawl rate!
Story: I'll Stumble For Ya!
I wasn't even around when this song came out! Had to watch the Youtube video to get a hang of the tune. Great work Tom!
You know even though I'm Canadian, I'm going to be REALLY happy the day Obama becomes the President of the US :)
I prefer being legolas really - Should have covered him on this post. His sharp with and deathly arrows are the stuff of search legend! I'm definitely interested in hearing which character you guys think resembles your own personality the most.
There were simply too many vivid characters to cover, and I can completely see certain indviduals within the search marketing community being akin in personality to various LOTR characters. Maybe I'll do a followup to this on request!
Agreed - The 'advanced' seo title to the post is certainly misleading! This stuff is the bare bones of onpage seo
Wait I went to bed at 4:30 am after chatting with you Shady, how long were u up till?
Story: How To Do Retargeting Cheaply and Build Branded Search Demand