Søkemotoroptimalisering & neteffects.no (Anders Jacobsen's blog)

May 17, 2005

Søkemotoroptimalisering & neteffects.no

Søkemotoroptimalisering is the Norwegian word for Search Engine Optimisation (frequently known as 'SEO' in the industry).

Unfortunately, in Norway like everywhere else online there are a large number of players in the market that are either uneducated, ignorant or plainly criminal in their attempts to further their own or their customers' interests.

The big search engines publish guidelines for how to do proper SEO. A minimum requirement from anyone considering to hire someone to do optimisation work for them should be to contractually agree that their SEO agents will not violate any of Google's, MSN's or Yahoo's terms and conditions, as this may instantly get their customers sites banned from the major indexes (something which happened to for example Scandinavian hotel chain Radisson SAS).

Furthermore, and this is a definite recommendation, customers should agree with their SEOs not to violate any current netiquette. This includes (but is not limited to) forum/guestbook/blog {trackback/comment} spamming; creation of fake/additional domains with keyword-stuffed pages that redirect to a customer's side etc.

What triggered me to write this rant on an already too much talked about subject? Last night someone started commenting on my photoblog with the 'name' Søkemotoroptimalisering and the URL www.neteffects.no. I have mailed them about it, saying that despite it just being one comment, the name chosen leads me to believe they are attempting a moderate comment spam attach, and that I will moderate any further comments with links to their domain.

Buyers beware: would you buy from companies that use these 'alternative' techniques? I'd stay away.

Please see also what others have written about the subject: vgrd: Søkemaskinoptimering, Jarle: Søkemaskinoptimering, Lasse: Søkemotoroptimalisering, Arve: Search Engine Optimization (in English) and Søkemotoroptimalisering og juks (good discussion, in Norwegian only)