Search Engines & SEO-Are the Rats Leaving the Ship?
For Search Engine algorithms, there is no constant equation that will give identical results every time. For a nautical look at the types of variables SEO professionals have to deal with day after day, it is enlightening to consider the problem symbolically and see which variables come to the surface.
Let’s say it’s your job to get your passengers on a ship heading to a certain specific destination. You are responsible for predicting ship arrivals and departures and scheduling passengers for the cabins they desire.
A sea vessel is doing the ferrying for your passengers. This ship must take these passengers back and forth. You are depending on it. Your passengers are depending on YOU.
This ship travels all around the world, a vast ocean. (Let’s call it the WWW) It has its storms, hurricanes and tsunamis, but overall it’s pretty predictable. High tides and low tides, beach condominiums, populated islands, surfers; these things are symptoms of regularity. The ocean is something people (a lot of people) can live by, on and around.
Ultimately, What is most concerning for you and your passengers is who or what is navigating the ship? (There is no one offering anyone traveler’s insurance here.)
Could this concern be the fathoms-deep algorithm? Probably. But in this story, it looks like an old mean seafaring captain maniacally rolling ball bearings between his fingers. This captain has a fairly regular schedule and he has accurate maps, a mariner’s compass and all that. How do you predict how this old captain will sail this ship? For this, you will probably want to look for clues before your passengers cross that ramp.
Take a look:
1) Which way are the ocean currents flowing? Are other boats following these currents?
2) You might want to examine the captain’s prior behavior. Does he have binges of weekend drunkenness? If so, are they predictable binges? Are there bouts of depression?
3) Does the captain generally make it to his destination? What percentage of the time?
4) Which way is the wind blowing?
5) Has the captain become the victim of mutiny? If so, how many times?
6) Is there a captain?
7) Are the rats leaving the ship? If so, is it clear why?
In this allegory, the captain is an algorithm; the ship is the search engine, and the ocean, our beloved web. The ship’s passengers are our SEO clients, expecting their SEO guide to get them top rankings. Search Engines shuttle websites and surfers all over the place, to their intended destinations or not. Your search engine may leave you in the middle of the Leeward Islands when you were looking for a Long-Island hotdog. Who knows?
Where does SEO fit into all this?
In examining SEO in relation to Search Engines and the WWW, look at our algorithmic captain a little closer. By looking at past behavior, bad behavior, predictable bad behavior and the behavior of others affected by his behavior, can we find some hint of predictability in the unpredictability? Is Chaos Theory afloat here? If this is the case, then the solution just might be as simple as watching those rats a little more closely. Because as everyone knows, when the rats leave the ship before its departing voyage, a sinking ship is in the future, and your passengers are going down with the ship.
