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Will Google Ever Be Able to Eliminate Spam?

by EricHammer on January 20, 2012

800px Spam 4 types 9426 Will Google Ever Be Able to Eliminate Spam?

The short answer to the above question is no, Google will never be able to eliminate spam. Plain and simple. No matter how good Google’s algorithms become, without human intervention to check and approve every single web page they index (something which is virtually impossible to do), they will never get rid of spam. Here’s why:

Computers Aren’t People

I really should qualify the above statement by saying that based on what I currently know and understand about computers, Google will never be able to eliminate spam. The reason is really simple: computers are not people. No matter how fast or well programmed a computer is, ultimately, it doesn’t “think” the way a human being thinks.

Even Watson, IBM’s Jeopary winning computer basically works by comparing millions of possible choices and then making the best guess. However, it’s still using a logical process to figure out what a question may be asking and this means it is not infallible. It doesn’t have the ability to discern certain things the way a human being can.

They Can Reduce Spam Greatly

Now that said, good algorithms can reduce the incidence of spam greatly. They can for example weed out spammy looking sentences, they can look for duplicate content across different websites and they can look for other telltale signs of a spammer. This is what Google relies on today not to inundate searchers with piles upon piles of spam. However, this cannot account for human ingenuity.

Any Lock Created By Man…

There is an old saying that any lock created by man can also be defeated by man. What this means is that even the most secure and sophisticated locking mechanisms will have some kind of a flaw in them which will allow a human being to find a way to defeat them, given enough time and patience. The reasoning is simple: ultimately, there will always be someone, somewhere who is just as clever as you are and who can figure the thing out.

I personally haven’t tested this theory and I do know that some of the top locks and safes in the world are virtually impervious to being picked  or defeated by thieves, however, they all say they are “virtually impervious” because there is always the possibility that another human being will figure out a way to defeat that which you created.

Computers Are the Same

I personally believe that computers are the same way – ultimately, computers are still programmed by people and this means that no matter how sophisticated Google is in creating new and better algorithms to try to beat back spam, people will continue to innovate and find new ways around the spam filters.

People Are Lazy

Plus, no matter how much effort Google’s engineers put into eliminating spam, ultimately, they can’t eliminate the one thing which makes spam inevitable: human laziness and greed. Most people will always seek the easiest way to make money or get something done and will always try to find ways to “beat the system.”

That’s because most people, by their very nature, are lazy. They don’t want to have to work. It’s not anything against anyone in particular. It’s simply part of human nature. And this means that no matter how sophisticated Google’s engineers get in finding way to eliminate spam, they’ll never do away with the human desire to find easy ways to accomplish something and ultimately get away with something.

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Tagged as: Google, seo, serps, Spam

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Can You Really Outrank the Top 3 For The Term “Credit Cards”?

by EricHammer on January 18, 2012

photo 1003 20060203 Can You Really Outrank the Top 3 For The Term Credit Cards?I’m going to be a bit unfair in answering the question, can you outrank the top 3 for “credit cards” (or any other popular keyword for that matter). I’m going to be a bit unfair by mentioning a different question, one which has already been answered but which at the time seemed all but impossible.

Imagine yourself in America around half a century ago. It’s the early 1960s and President Kennedy has just announced “we choose to go to the moon.” This, at the time, seemed like a pie in the sky idea – how could man possibly be expected to walk on the moon? The science hadn’t even been developed yet and we didn’t know what dangers humans would face when they were shot out of the earth’s atmosphere. And yet, humanity did reach for the stars and we know that Neil Armstrong made his historic moon walk less than a decade after the president made his pronouncement.

All It Takes Is Money and Time

Now I did say I was being a bit unfair here. The fact is that unlike the idea posed by the president in the early 1960s, when nobody really knew for sure how to get to the moon, we do in fact know how to get a website ranked in first place, even for the most difficult of keywords. However, just like that first historic moon landing, the key to this is time and money.

It Takes a Lot to Rank for Popular Keywords

SEO is not magic. It’s a basic science with a bit of art thrown in for good measure. This means that it is indeed possible to rank for a keyword like credit cards. And it won’t even cost anywhere close to the amount that America spent sending a man to the moon. On the other hand, like the moon landing, it will be hugely expensive and may in fact be a waste of effort.

We Haven’t Been to the Moon Since the 1970s

The fact is that for all that we have more advanced technology today than existed back in the late 1960s, we haven’t been to the moon for decades and it will be at least a decade longer before man ever walks on the moon again. The reason is simple: while it was an awesome sight to see Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the lunar surface, the fact is that the cost was astronomical and the benefits didn’t seem to be all that great.

Getting to the Top Three for Super Popular Keywords Is Also Impressive, But…

This also points up the reason that we rarely recommend to clients that they pursue an SEO campaign for a super popular keyword – it’s hugely expensive and often doesn’t offer the kind of results you may hope for. The fact is that a keyword like “credit cards” or “car insurance” or “make money online” is going to be targeted by tens of thousands of websites and will thus cost a lot of time, money and effort to get you into the top three.

The But…

Here’s the but part of the above statement: but it may not make you money. People searching for such a broad term as “credit cards” often aren’t looking to sign up for your specific credit card offer. They’re playing the field and looking for basic information about the industry. They may not even want to sign up for a credit card. This means effectively, that like the moon landing, it’s expensive and doesn’t ultimately give you much to show for your trouble except for pride of making it to the top.

Long Tail Keywords – A Better Choice

Long tail keywords, which work by including additional things in the keyword (i.e. credit cards for damaged credit) tend to work better because you are targeting a specific group and are more likely to actually make a sale.

So yes, like President Kennedy’s proposal, it’s theoretically possible to rank in the top three for a popular term like “credit cards.” However, before you spend the time and money to do so, you should make sure that you have a reason for doing it. Otherwise, it will be a lot of money spent for something showy which you will ultimately be likely to abandon for more practical ideas, just like the Apollo missions were abandoned for the shuttle program.

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Tagged as: keywords, ranking, seo, serps

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