The SEO industry is a conflicted industry to work in, in many respects. Much of the public still thinks this is a form black magic, some feel the industry is packed with scam artists and some just totally don't get it. Let's not forget the conflict of the struggle between the search engine and the search engine optimizers. Oh, then black hat versus white hat. It makes for a very conflicted industry.
The last thing we need is misinterpreting SEO advice. But it happens more often in conflicted and new industries, then it would happen in other industries.
A HighRanking Forums thread reminded me of just one minor example of misinterpreting SEO advice. Let me quote you the frustration one SEO felt about his boss's recent SEO discovery:
My boss went upstate to meet with a partner and their SEO "expert" advised him that Google sets aside the 2, 3 and 6 spot in their Top 10 listings to video. Yes folks, it's a miracle. Someone has in their infinite wisdom broken the Google algorithm and found this wonderful tidbit of information. When I tried to argue the validity of this decree, my boss assured me that the "expert" proved it to him.
Now, with Google Universal Search, there were times where specific spots seemed to be set aside for video. But not for all queries and not all the time. Even nowadays, it seems like the specific spots that appeared to be set aside to video, in some queries, are no longer the same spots. A video can now show up in the 1st result or the 5th result or the 4th result or any of the top ten results.
So what happened here? I suspect the "boss" misinterpreted this "SEO experts" advice as to use videos. I personally recommend videos for SEO purposes to many people. It can do very well in the Google results and you can get your message out to a whole group of people through the video. In fact, I did a piece at Search Engine Land named Want To Rank Tops In Google? Do YouTube Videos, Stupid! The summary:
The Forrester Blog published a small but interesting study on how you can improve your chances, by 50 times, of showing up at the top of the Google search results. Their tip? Utilize Google’s Universal Search by creating videos.
But it is not that simple, you need to look beyond those numbers and use wisdom and experience to know when to use which strategies.
Forum discussion at HighRanking Forums.
