I had a lot of people writing in asking about what are known as Smart Pages just before the last issue. I mentioned that I’d bought a copy of The Whole Truth, a sort of online promotion package - which comes fully inclusive of your Smart Page template. Since then, I’ve been inundated with people asking about Smart Pages and Smart Billboards and Smart yada, yada…
Following my mention in the last issue, the piece was then included in Allan Gardyne’s leading, Associate Programs newsletter. And not long after that, along with all other subscribers to The Whole Truth newsletter (I guess), I saw a lengthy diatribe from Stephen Pierce (developer of The Whole Truth package) aimed at search engine optimisers whose “mouth’s” (sic) he’d like to stick a sock in. And then goes on to say, something like, these pages don’t break Google’s rules etc.
Now I don’t know Stephen Pierce from Adam. I’ve no idea who he is and I don’t much need to (I’m certain he’d feel the same about me). I wish him and his customers nothing but the very best in their online endeavours. However…
I’ll just cut to the chase here as I don’t have much time for this trite nonsense. Personally, I really, really don’t care if Smart Pages are Spam and whether they do break the rules at Google or not. Why should I? I don’t use them. They’re simply not necessary.
You’re all grown-ups reading this newsletter. If you want to Spam a search engine what’s it got to do with me? Nothing. I’m not the police or an undercover search engine agent. Spam - get caught - don’t get caught - whatever - you know the rules. I don’t care - it’s your own online reputation you’re dealing with here. But there is one thing I do care about: and that’s the integrity of the information you get in this newsletter.
So, following an interview for my book at Google with one of their senior technical staff, I also asked software engineer and “Google Spam expert” Matt Cutts, to take a look at a Smart Page template and tell me what he thought. And this is what he said to me:
“It appears that Smart Pages may be another name for the old issue of doorway pages, which Google frowns upon. As Daniel mentioned in his interview, Google prefers to see what the user sees. We are generally skeptical about any system or tactic that shows different pages to search engines than the user would see, or that appears engineered for search engines rather than users.”
You want to use Smart Pages? That’s your choice. You want to know what Google thinks? You just read it: And that really is the truth.
Here’s my final word on this Spam thing. I recently read an eBook called Revenge of the Mininet written by Michael Campbell. In it, he clearly explains how to host your sites on different IP addresses so that you can make it “very difficult for ‘the web map filters’ employed by most search engines, from detecting or penalizing your mininet. He then explains how to “spoof” whois information as this will “protect you from those trying to complain about your mininet to the search engines.” What’s happening here is, someone is selling you an idea which search engines would likely frown upon. Otherwise, why would it be necessary to “hide” anything from them?
Okay, I’ve already said what I feel about whether you Spam a search engine or not. But I really do wish that, guys who sell this stuff, would be honest enough to tell you that you’re being sold a method of “Spamming” a search engine, if that’s what it is. Just put it right up there in the initial sales pitch: “We have checked with a search engine and this is Spam.” At least that way, you’d know what you were buying into. (And you wouldn’t have to ask me!)
