SEO 'not the same as spam'

Search engine optimisation is different to spam and should not be treated as the same sort of content, according to an expert.

An industry commentator has stressed that search engine optimisation (SEO) should not be confused with spam.

Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, wrote on the website that too often people who complain about SEO are not aware of how it differs to spam content.

He claimed that saying all SEO is spam is like declaring that all advertising and email marketing is spam, when in fact the basis of it is ensuring relevancy to what users are searching for.

Mr Sullivan pointed out that effective SEO will be based on top quality content, with everything else built on top.

"They should have good content. Trust me, a good search engine optimiser would love nothing more than to deal with a site that has outstanding content from the get-go," he wrote on the website.

In his view, the problem is that there is always going to be spam due to the lack of moderation online.

Last week, Marketing Sherpa advised search marketers that keywords which produce the most effective SEO will change over time.

20/10/2009