Great Scott! SEO Travels Back To The Future
What speed did Marty McFly’s DeLorean have to reach before it travelled through time?
It may come as a surprise to many readers to learn that here at Creare we do very occasionally put down the mice, shutdown our computers and go home to let our hair down. And during one such very rare (practically unheard of) session of relaxation I found myself watching one of my all time favourite films – ‘Back to the Future’ (the first one, naturally).
Now I’m no film buff (I enjoy cinema as much as the next guy) but that’s one entertaining piece of cinematic brilliance, is it not? I spent 116 minutes enraptured and made a mental note not to wear my retro high tops in public again for fear of the inevitable Michael J. Fox comparisons. It wasn’t until a few days afterwards when, working hard on all things SEO, I noticed certain similarities/unbearable puns between the film and Search Engine Optimisation.
Arguably, Marty and Doc are in possession of the most stylish search engine of all time – the DeLorean DMC – 12, a car that wouldn’t necessarily look out of place today. With it, they’re able to trawl the ages in search of assurances of their existence and sports almanacs alike (fast forwarding to part II I know) . But what’s all this got to do with SEO? Well just like Marty, I think there’s something we can all learn regarding SEO, simply by strapping in and venturing into the past.
We needn’t go far; the process of search engine optimisation is a fairly recent one, and like all newborns, it grew quickly. In the old days achieving page one rankings could be as simple as submitting your URL to Google, taking care of your Meta tags and securing a few well chosen links. Unfortunately for DIY-ers there’s now a lot more to it – but we can still take something from the old ways.
Look after the basics. Making sure your tags and keyword are all in order lays a good foundation on which to build; learn from Marty and tie up any loose ends to ensure that you don’t disappear from your family photo (or the search engines as the case may be). Of course, make sure you avoid the big mistake of the past, keyword stuffing, as this is likely to get your site penalised heavily.
Many of you will remember the music from Back to the Future (Chuck Berry anyone?) and look back in anguish at the scene where Marty and his band are rejected in an audition for being ‘too loud’. The search engine equivalent is creating far too many low quality links – something that many companies were hired to do in the early days of SEO. Most simply created basic websites and threw a few of your linked keywords in.
If you have thousands of links, Google will think your site is unnaturally loud and with low grade links from weak sites, it won’t rate the music very much either. Just a few links from relevant and authoritative sites or directories is music to Google’s ears, and will get your site noticed.
My final piece of advice is simple – don’t change too much. Marty, bless him, got a little carried away, and what was the result? He was in danger of ceasing to exist. SEO is no different, if you obsess too much over PageRank, links, keywords, directory submissions and fresh content you’ll end up changing something that was integral to your rankings.
Every SEO change you make to your website should have a purpose for a human visitor too, rather than just for SEO purposes. Bear this in mind, take your time and listen to trusted consultants like Dr Emmett “Doc” Brown when you get into trouble, and you’ll be on the right track.
P.S. It was 88mph.
P.P.S. If you find yourself actually in 1955 then something’s gone terribly wrong: seek help.
August 20th, 2010
How would you relate Marty kissing his mother to SEO techniques?
August 26th, 2010
I think the point in that instance would be that some SEO techniques are just plain wrong; they’re never a good idea, and never have been. Due to the proliferation of their usage in years gone by, black hat methods like the use of gateway or doorway pages and keyword stuffing will always end in tears.