SEO

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Google and Co... I have given-up with them a long time ago! They keep on changing their algorithms every five minutes anyway. If they want to send me traffic, well that is very kind of them - but if not, it's up to them! I just figure that if If I can make websites that people like and find useful, then the word will get around sooner or later - with or without Google!

So if any member here can give us a little 'plug' in their blog or whatever social networking site they may happen to belong to, then we would be immensely grateful!

Any views on the mega rip-off industry of so-called SEO - the Search Engine Optimization that people seem to spend an inordinate amount of time, money and worry on?

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From one of the members:

As for Google, cross-linking no longer works like it used to and 'link farms' are a bad idea. Having a relevant link on a site can be a good thing, as long as the subject matches but irrelevant links are pointless. It has to be used very carefully. We feel cross-linking is debatable whether it works so we don't do it.

And my reply:

Cross linking works when a visitor to my site finds a useful link to someone else's site! And someone on someone else's site finds a link to mine! I agree that link banks per se are a bit of a waste of time. I know the ones you mean... Just big long pages of nothing but a jumbled-up mess of links that no normal person is ever going to look at. But I really believe that a decent, nicely categorized, easily searchable Links Directory is a different matter altogether!

Where I am coming with the linking thing is enabling surfers to do what they used to do before Google came along and virtually took over the whole show... IE, surf the net without depending on Google's assistance! Webmasters, more than anyone else, are responsible for allowing Google to take-over the Net - by overly concerning themselves with Google's search rankings.