Search Engine Optimization is a very hot web topic. I prefer a simple strategy in regards to SEO. I treat it like obeying laws that Google and other search engines make. Obey the laws and you will see a benefit. Not everyone sticks with this philosophy though. Some prefer a “laws were meant to be broken” mentality. An example of this is with “The AOL Way” that has been all over the tech news world as of late. 
AOL’s news department recently laid out a blueprint for a plan on generating more web traffic through search engines. Here is a leak of the strategy called “The AOL Way”.
Sticking with the law comparison, Google actually differs from legal systems. Google is a lot less beauractric than the U.S. legal system we are used to. They can actually react quickly to changes. Exploiting loopholes can be very difficult since Google can easily realize a loophole and change their algorithms accordingly. “The AOL Way” is a blatant attempt at ignoring what Google wants in their top search results.
Recently Google made an algorithm change aimed at hurting “content farming” SEO practices in an attempt at improving search results. Here is a blog post I wrote about it. “The AOL Way” should of been hurt by this algorithm change. That is because a lot of the practices preached in that leaked article are of a content farming nature.
Essentially AOL thinks they can ignore Google’s long-term algorithm goal because they are smarter. Google works every day on their algorithm and a big mission of theirs is the quality of search results. But AOL, being like the arrogant child stealing from the local convient store, thinks they can break the rules. The amount of resources required to stay ahead of Google’s resources amazes me. It seems impossible. If I had these types of resources, I’d focus on a lot more productive of ideas and gone with a K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosophy in regards to SEO.
K.I.S. tells me this. Play by the rules. Listen to Google. They want quality, content driven, spamless, keyword intelligent sites. Or for you to pay for results. Not sites ran with a content-farming philosophy to get a search hit and in turn lose all their quality. Engadget, the popular AOL ran tech blog, is losing its staff. Let’s see if this trend follows.
