All I know about SEO is that it stands for Search Engine Optimization and that people who run websites ought to know something about it. People who are good at SEO are good at showing up at the top of the list when you search for something on a search engine, and that’s important if you’re trying to get noticed online, and especially important if you’re trying to make money here. It’s not all that big a deal to me, at least not yet, but I am pleased that I am already number one on Google when you search the term “Kill This Blog,” which is at least the small patch of ground I’ve staked out on the World Wide Web. Not vital, but nice to have.
Today on Google I had occasion to search for a video that has been making the rounds online: you’ve probably heard of it: Called “The Last Lecture,” it’s an inspiring 75-minute talk by Randy Pausch, a college professor who has been diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer. Not a very cheerful subject, obviously, but like Clint Eastwood says in that movie, we’ve all got it coming, and so it’s important to all of us how we manage the small amount of time we have while we’re here. (I haven’t watched it yet… frankly I’m a little afraid to.)
So I was looking for Pausch’s official website, which I assumed would be thelastlecture.com. And so it is. But when I searched the term “thelastlecture” on Google, Pausch’s official website, with his own URL as the search term, it ranked tenth on the list of results. Number one on the list was the website www.thelastlectureS.com.
You click on www.thelastlectures.com and what do you get? A keyword sniping website with nothing but an affiliate link to Amazon for Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” book.
Now, I don’t quite know whether to be impressed with some SEO gunslinger’s ability to outscore a New York Times #1 Bestselling Author’s website on the title of that author’s own book, or to be disgusted with the degree of audacity it takes to skim a few percent off the sale of a book from someone dying of cancer. I’d like to think I’m the kind of person who would denounce that sort of thing… but I can’t help being a little impressed.
Obviously, I hope to avoid that kind of behavior in my Internet career. But here’s to hoping an SEO expert will accidentally show up here and let everyone know how that sort of thing is even possible.
Saying Barack Obama is Muslim because his middle name is Hussein is like saying Richard Nixon is a cartoon character because his middle name was Milhous.