May 4th, 2010 by Nick

The relationship between the major search engines and the SEO industry is certainly a complicated one. From one perspective, the search engines and the SEO firms are largely on the same side. They both want users to access high quality sites and the search engines go to some lengths to keep the SEO firms informed about relevant changes in the way things are done. From another viewpoint, the SEO firms are trying to manipulate the search engines in the interests of their clients and the search engines are trying to minimise this threat to their efficiency.

The trouble is that both perspectives can amass plenty of evidence to support their contentions. The truth is that neither perspective is particularly persuasive because their narratives operate at a very general level. While examples can be gathered which contradict or support either position, neither have the explanatory capacity to capture the complexity of the evolving relationship concerned. This is probably related to the inherent difficulty of remaining neutral in a debate which affects many people on a day-to-day basis. It is also the case that personal experiences and beliefs can colour views in this area.

An example is necessary to illustrate the point effectively. Imagine a blog written about the topic by somebody in the search engine optimization industry. One of their sites may have just incurred a search engine penalty. On the other hand, a site they have been working on may have made excellent progress up the search engine results pages. Even if neither of these scenarios is at work, objectivity may be in short supply. For instance, they could easily be frustrated at the level of detail proffered by Google as guidance.

It is relatively common to moan that search engines are not specific about their rules. However, such complaints ignore the fact that this can be positive in two ways. From a user perspective, it means that not all sites are optimised to the maximum. This means there are fewer keywords disrupting the smooth flow of prose on sites. From the search engines’ view, a contented user is more likely to be a loyal user of a search engine. It also permits the search engine a bit of discretion about when action should be taken.

The constant efforts of SEO service providers to get round the rules of the search engines by technical expertise must cause a certain amount of grumbling in their anti-spam departments. There must inevitably be the occasional wish that SEO was just about improving sites in the interests of users. However, in any long term relationship there is friction and mutual recriminations from time to time. It is also the case that the work of SEO specialists leads to the production of sites which fit in effectively with what the search engines are demanding.

It can be seen that the relationship between the ethical SEO company and the search engines varies over time and that is not possible in a brief article to illuminate many aspects of it. However, the broad picture is arguably one of uncomfortable mutual dependency, characterised by periodic but temporary fallings out.

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