Quite a bit has been written about bad SEO information found in fora, websites, etc. Very little has been said about bad questions. Now while you’re trying to reconcile ‘there are no stupid questions’ with ‘ ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer’ I’d like to touch on a few of the questions I’ve seen lately that are just wrong, and the result of wrong-headed thinking. Here are three that I saw just yesterday. My apologies to all the veteran SEOs out there, but I’m getting a few emails from really new folks so I wanted to cover some of their questions.
1. Can I use nofollow to manage my PageRank?
WRONG. Nofollow was intended to combat comment spam. If you’re using nofollow on something other than user-generated content, it’s WRONG. If you want to keep search engines out of specific areas of your site, use robots.txt
But so-and-so said to use nofollow on paid links. Well of course so-and-so said that, helps them figure out who is buying and selling links now doesn’t it?
2. I’ve got a PR5 site, is it okay to trade links with a PR1 site?
WRONG. First, you don’t have a PR5 site, you have a PR5 page, but that aside, if you’re asking about PR you’re WRONG.
Do the links benefit the users of both sites? Are they links to relevant areas of both sites? Would you link to them if search engines were extinct?
3. My competitors have 3 zillion links and are number one for [insert pet phrase here], how do I compete?
WRONG. You don’t compete. At least not over a single phrase, not yet. Target less competitive phrases and work your way up to the big boy’s arena. If you just started playing golf would you be asking about when you could play Tiger Woods?
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Word Of The Day- leitmotif: Dictionary.com Word of the Day July 17, 2009leitmotif: a dominant and recurring theme.
- Presented By: July 17, 2009
- leitmotif: Dictionary.com Word of the Day July 17, 2009
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- Frank B. Kellogg"It is not to be expected that human nature will change in a day."
- Frank B. Kellogg
- Neologisms
- frequency illusion July 16, 2009frequency illusion n. The tendency to notice instances of a particular phenomenon once one starts to look for it, and to therefore believe erroneously that the phenomenon occurs frequently. Example Citations: The word issues bothers a fair number of people, including reader David Devore, who recently sent me a link to a language complaint in the […]
- wallet neuropathy July 3, 2009wallet neuropathy n. Lower back pain caused by sitting on an overstuffed wallet kept in a back pants pocket. Example Citations: Physiotherapists have coined the term 'wallet-neuropathy' for the lower back pain caused by men sitting down (such as when driving or in the office) on wallets always carried in their back trouser pocket. The […]
- intexticated July 2, 2009intexticated adj. Preoccupied by reading or sending text messages, particularly while driving a car. —intexticating pp. —intextication n. Example Citations: The usual concerns arise, knowing teen drivers will be packing the ever-present buzzing and ringing cell phones from which most seem incapable of parting. We've had the disc […]
- Wikipedia kid June 30, 2009Wikipedia kid n. A student who has poor research skills and lacks the ability to think critically. Example Citations: As an English professor at Algonquin College in Ottawa, I was very impressed by the report's neologism: "Wikipedia kids." Too many graduates of Ontario's high schools know how to cut and paste, but have learnt […]
- carrotmob June 26, 2009carrotmob n. An event where people support an environmentally-friendly store by gathering en masse to purchase the store's products. Also: carrot mob. —carrotmobber n. —carrotmobbing pp. Example Citations: Forget sticks, and stick with carrots instead. So says Brent Schulkin, founder of a fledgling movement of activist consumers […]
- phantom fat June 25, 2009phantom fat n. Lost body fat that is still perceived by a person who used to be overweight. Example Citations: Body-image experts say it's not uncommon for people, especially women, who have lost a lot of weight to be disappointed to some extent to discover that they still aren't "perfect." The excess fat is gone when they re […]
- weisure June 8, 2009weisure n. Free time spent doing work or work-related tasks. [Blend of work and leisure.] Example Citations: Weisure has been fueled by social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, where "friends" may actually be business partners or work colleagues. "Social networking as an activity is one of those ambiguous activities, […]
- DDo$ June 4, 2009DDo$ n. A scheme where a fine or fee is paid using a massive number of small electronic payments, particularly when each payment generates a transaction cost greater than the payment itself. Example Citations: After the Pirate Bay founders were fined $3.5 million, they swore they wouldn't cough up a single cent. Instead, they've come u […]
- space headache June 4, 2009space headache n. A debilitating headache experienced by astronauts during space travel. Example Citations: Astronauts need to add space headache to their list of occupational hazards, say researchers. ... The researchers believe there are a number of reasons why space travel could cause headaches, the root cause being microgravity. Micrograv […]
- VB6 June 3, 2009VB6 n. A person who eats a vegan diet before 6:00 PM, and then whatever they want after that. [From the phrase vegan before 6.] Example Citations: VB6. No, it's not a tomato cocktail or the latest version of a computer programming language. VB6 is short for Vegan Before 6, the increasingly popular veggie-heavy diet that converts say can do […]
- frequency illusion July 16, 2009
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January 4, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Very timely as I’m answering “stupid” questions from our sales force this month. Oh and how about questions that are so stupid they don’t make any sense. In fact you can’t even answer them without taking an hour to find out what stupid question they’re really asking. By the way, will this comment increase my pagerank?
January 4, 2007 at 1:29 pm
BakedJake wrote a post at WMW on how to ask good questions. Unfortunately, Microsoft being Microsoft, they removed the article he referenced.
PageRank? We don’t need no stinkin’ PageRank. ; )
January 4, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Great post. But you left out my favorite, which always starts with, “I’ve spent several hours searching this forum and cannot find the answer to my question….”
January 4, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Those questions should always be answered with 42. Or 23 if you’re an Illuminatus Trilogy fan. If you’re not a fan, I highly recommend reading the book.
January 6, 2007 at 12:43 am
Dude, I regularly have bad salespeople working high end finance deals at my company asking me “What you you think of this URL Domain, I need http://www.mysite.com backward slash I am Going to Get YOU a Private Student Loan.com.
Can you look into that and have that to me by Monday? Thanks!
Stupid questions only come from people I should not be working with in the first place lol
January 8, 2007 at 11:54 am
The fact that almost nobody — even in the biz — seems to understand that (site != page) is one that frustrates me daily.