Reading Vanessa Fox on SEO Between the Lines
Vanessa Fox seems surprisingly timid and reluctant to be definitive on simple issues. Yet, she has written a lot on the subject of search engine optimization. Gleaming Vanessa’s writings for her intent rather than what she actually has written; it is rather obvious that both Vanessa Fox and John H. Gohde view SEO the same way.
Who is Vanessa Fox?
“Vanessa Fox is the founder of Nine by Blue, which looks at the relationships between development, SEO, and online marketing silos and how the data from each of these areas can be used holistically to learn more about customer behavior. She has been researching business needs and developing strategies for effective use of this data as an entrepreneur-in-residence with Ignition Partners. Vanessa is also features editor at Search Engine Land, a leading online journal covering the search industry. She previously created Google’s Webmaster Central, which provides both tools and community to help Web site owners improve their sites to gain more customers from search. She’s been building Web sites since 1995 and spent a number of years writing SDK documentation.”
– About Jane and the Robot
It is rather interesting how Vanessa uses the natural health term holistic, in much of her writings.
“I come from a background of working at a search engine, rather than from a background of being an SEO, so I may see things a bit differently …”
– x-googler Vanessa Fox
“When I was at Google, I spent a lot of time expanding the [webmaster] guidelines, detailing examples, and providing options of techniques that didn’t violate the guidelines.”
– x-googler Vanessa Fox
If white hat SEO according Vanessa Fox is whatever is in compliance with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, while Black Hat SEO is whatever that is not in compliance with them than her opinion which presumably would echo the spirit of Google’s guidelines should obviously carry a lot of weight.
Timid Vanessa Fox
“I generally don’t like to speak in absolutes …”
– x-googler Vanessa Fox
While it would have been nicer if her writings were more clear cut, she states more than enough in several different places for everyone to figure out just what her absolutes are.
What is SEO?
“Search engine optimization … focuses on the user experience … [in order to build] long term value in search engines. It doesn’t make use of tactics that stop working as soon as the search engines change their algorithms and it doesn’t employ shady techniques that search engines seek out and penalize. Search engines algorithms are designed to find the best results for users, so the key is to create a compelling experience for your visitors in a way that ensures search engines can find you.”
– About Jane and the Robot
“Search engine optimization (SEO) is sometimes seen in a bad light, filled with spamming and deception and trickery. But what’s sometimes called “SEO” is more accurately called “spamming”. True SEO is much more akin to making sure your pages render on Firefox and when done well, increases not only findability, but accessibility and usability as well. Pages designed using SEO principles render well on mobile devices, screen readers, for those with slow connections who turn off images, for novice users who are still on older browsers, and for savvy users who block Flash and javascript.”
– x-googler Vanessa Fox
What could be more clear cut? True SEO is about tweaking on-page factors. It is about what some have called copywriting and boring HTML stuff. True SEO is about creating value that directly benefits visitors to your Web site.
“What is SEO?
So what is white hat SEO? The panelists agreed it was about creating quality content — being the most relevant result for a desired query. I absolutely agree, but SEO is also about making sure the site can be easily crawled and indexed by search engines.”
– x-googler Vanessa Fox
“A big part of the search engine perspective is the searcher perspective, so when I look at the SEO issue I’m looking from a point of triangulation. I understand that searchers want the best result as quickly as possible; I understand that search engines want to understand the Web so they can deliver the most relevant results; and I understand that site owners want to market their content effectively to the right audience.”
–x-googler Vanessa Fox
People operating Web sites wear many different hats. But, just because persons calling themselves an SEO are engaged in a number of different activities doesn’t automatically mean that everything that they do should be considered SEO. Perhaps, what it actually means is that they are running a tiny one man operation? Start looking at the bigger picture. Start thinking in terms of bigger projects, and you have a number of different individuals working full-time on vastly different activities.
The Bigger Picture of Search Marketing
“Many people don’t think of SEO as [being] part of [search] marketing. They think of it [more] as a necessary evil rather than [being] part of a larger strategy.”
– x-googler Vanessa Fox
“I think that understanding how search engine optimization fits into a holistic [search] marketing plan is important for the long-term vitality of businesses who want to participate in the online space.”
– x-googler Vanessa Fox
“I think of link building as [being a] part of [the bigger picture called search] marketing rather than [narrowly defined as being] strictly [a] part of SEO.“
– x-googler Vanessa Fox
Spamming is NOT a Part of SEO
Where there it is.
When you got a big enough project going, you can afford to employ more than one person doing vastly different different things.
Those who insist that SEO covers everything are only publicly advertising just how tiny a business enterprise that they are actually running. Big projects require a lot of people specializing in different activities. And, just because one SEM firm wants to market Web site Spamming as a business service, does not automatically mean that all SEO firms do. Some SEM firms offer creative Web site design and layout as one of their services, while others do not. Link building services, which clearly falls under search marketing, should not be viewed any differently.
One man operations, well that says it all, doesn’t it?
