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.
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://killthisblog.com/2008/05/06/google-levitation/trackback/
May 6, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Random Kath
Wow, that is skeevy, but not unheard of. I think that one way they optimize is that they think of all of the usual ways that people would incorrectly spell a popular name or site and just grab up all of that real estate - which leads to lots of hits, because a lot of people aren’t looking that closely the first time . . .
But of course, you are way above doing stuff like that . . .
May 6, 2008 at 9:51 pm
admin
I, of course, would be exempt from censure, on account of, I’m GREEDY.
May 28, 2008 at 10:24 am
Strong One
WOW. Somewhat disturbing information on SEO… and how easy it is to ride on someone else’s sails.
I have read Dr. Pausch’s book.. a must read for anyone who thinks they have this game of life figured out
Thanks for the useful info!
May 28, 2008 at 11:07 am
admin
Thanks for the comment, although I’m not sure how useful my post is. Like I said, all I know about SEO is that it’s an acronym for sumpin or udder. And I’ve done a bit of follow-up.
Turns out that when you search for “thelastlectures” on Google, this very post turns up number one in the list. In other words, I outrank the owner of the sniping website for his own domain name. And that’s with absolutely no attempt to massage the ranking at all — I wouldn’t know how to if I wanted to. So it seems there are some assumptions I’ve made in my post that don’t hold up well.
Meanwhile, when you search for “thelastlecture” (without the final “s”), thelastlectureS does not rank. http://www.thelastlecture.com, the official Last Lecture Site now ranks third, which is an improvement, but slots one and two go to sites that rank URLs, which is kind of a little bit sort of ironic.
In other words, I don’t get it. Lots for me to learn.