Alright, this one's just for fun. We were batting around some cliches in the industry (at conferences, on blog posts, in forums) and thought that a few were worth sharing.
- Black Hats are British
More specifically, it seems they all have some relationship to Leeds (born there, live there, from "around there"). Maybe there's something in the water. - "Content is King"
Ugghh... I imagine that most people who've spent 10 minutes in the SEO field are probably sick of hearing this, even if it's true. - "I'm 100% White Hat"
Sure, I buy links, spam the ocassional blog, send out cheesy link requests and hide white on white text at the bottom of the page, but other than that... - "I'm a Nefarious Black Hat"
My sites make $10 a month on AdSense (in total), and I'm still trying to get my first site banned, but hey - it sure sounds sexier than "white hat." - Matt Cutts is a Government Spy
No. Just no. He's an employee of Google - that's it. - Matt Cutts Once Said
Not always valid in my book. If you don't test it yourself or have data to back up your hypothesis, the "Matt Cutts said" or "GoogleGuy said" argument does not serve as the final answer. Same goes for anyone else - just because Dave Naylor or Greg Boser or that insufferable, yellow-shoed Rand guy said or wrote something doesn't make it gospel. - MSN/Yahoo!/Google/Ask Sucks
They usually "suck" because they're not sending you traffic and then, when you finally get things right on your site, they suddenly "rule." - My Site's Been Banned/Penalized
9/10 times, your site has not been banned or penalized, you're just not getting the links you need to compete and the engines are getting smarter about which ones they count. - I Hate Web 2.0
You probably hate it because it's poorly defined and frustratingly over-applied, not because you actually don't like UGC, RSS feeds, AJAX or shiny, clean web design. - Google Reps and PageRank
In public, Googlers seem to have an obsession with using PageRank when they really mean "advanced link quality/quantity score that has very little relationship to the original algo." You'll hear them say that results go into the supplementary index because of low PageRank (of course, there's plenty of high PR pages in there that just happen to be duplicate/low quality content) or that PageRank is how they determine which source is canonical between different versions of content (I just don't believe they would be naive enough to avoid using other metrics, too). - I've Been Thinking of Going White Hat
One of your big sites got banned and suddenly you're thinking that hard work and unique content and hours of labor are more attractive than 3 hours at the computer every night on your $1K-per-day churn and burns... Why am I skeptical?
Please do feel free to add more to the list 
.
Content isn't King, I am!
Well, in my own little world anyway :)
Lee, your humility is inspiring :)
Funny you should mention that. I just blogged about how Matt said page load time has nothing to do with your rankings, and ended with: But isn’t it strange that we change paradigms based on what one person says, regardless of who he works for? Hey, they DO have a special deal with Google Dmerton. They agree to rip people off, and Google agrees to ban the clients' site for them. It's a mutually destructive agreement. ;P
My Favorite, this happens about every other time one of the numerous, no name SEO companies, that do no research call to pitch us on what we already do:
"We have a special deal with Google"
my reply:
"really? us too!"
Im #1 for "keyword here", says the client who bids the most on adwords.
"SEO isn't that hard, in two weeks my blog comes in first place in Google when people search my name".
If I had a thousand dollars for every time I heard that one... I'd have three thousand dollars..
A couple more to add (they are a not so much cliches as they are SEO folklore):
Mikkel deMib Svendsen played tambourine for the Talking Heads on their 1982 European Tour I did a lot of research on this one and never found any definitive proof. There is still a chance he played the ukulele with Flock of Seagulls.
Bruce Clay is Huge in Japan Also false - but it has been confirmed that Bruce Clay has a posse.
Top 10 SEO Mistakes/Tips
Cue a top 10 list of the obvious mistakes or tips that you have read over and over again.
Client: My site is number 1 on Google already. Just search for "mydomainname.com".
Get top 10 ranking in all the major search engines!
By submitting your site to over 500,000,000,000,000,000 search engines, directories, blogs, guestbooks, links pages - and we'll even air drop 500,000 leaflets promoting your site on various remote African villages as an added bonus!
Good calls, wiggy - how did I miss those?
Oh... I forgot this one too:
Free For All links really DO work!
To find out how, please enter your email address below:
Yes, Please Spam Me!: |_________________|
Rand, reading minds is MY job :)
PageRank has most likely evolved dramatically over the years, but you'd have to admit its far easier to say "PageRank" than say "advanced link quality/quantity score that has very little relationship to the original algo."
I hadn't heard the 'Black Hats are British' one.
I'm British and wouldn't go to Leeds, so maybe that answers your question?
"Chase the long tail".
Extending the Alexa cliche, anyone who uses their Nielsen/Comscore/Hitwise ranking to begin a conversation. "Hi, I'm from XYZ company, the no.2 B2B peanut-seller on Nielsen"
Similar to "content is king" is "write for humans".
People who are journalists/novelists/columnists/etc probably think such language is either overstating the obvious or a small step from insanity.
Classic list...I think the "Content is King" reigns soooo true...although it is the absolutely truth...we need something with a catchier and newer feel to it!...or we could totally Kludge it with a Web 2.0 twist...lol...
Contextual message delivery is reigning monarch... Doesn't have quite the same ring to it. :(
I'm from Leeds, and now I feel horribly slighted. *Sniff*.
Leeds is the epicentre of the global youthquake - and don't you forget it!
You poor, poor person.
Leeds... *shudders*
You can't fool the UK visitors, we've been to Leeds!
And just for rand, there is something in the water up there.
Loved the cliches.
I am off to a Sydney SEO Bootcamp next week so I will be checking them off the list! and perhaps adding a few more.
Has "'linkbait' is a lousy name for linkbait" not risen to the level of a cliché yet?
Here's one: To be a reknowned SEO persona you must have facial hair, no exceptions permitted. Matt Cutts, Stuntdbl, The Rand, Barry Schwartz, along with others that associate a face with their name in the field.
Beards are the new white belt. :)
That pretty much covers it.
Is "the site on theme" ? I was growing sick and tired of this one, until I wrote a tool called Theme Distance to answer it for me. Of course, it is still annoying and themes still probably don't matter that much at all.
Here's one that isn't necessarily a cliche and not necessarily related strictly to SEO - I am strongly annoyed by those who spit out Alexa numbers to show how popular/valuable their site is. And often they're the same people who say "Oh, Alexa is crap!" whenever somebody presents to them sites with higher Alexa ranks. It's truly a Catch 22!
(Yes I know Alexa can be somewhat useful in analyzing a site and there's not many other public tools to choose from, but those webmasters and/or advertisers who judge a site solely by it's Alexa are just damn fools!)
(Which brings me to the point... why the heck doesn't Google come out with its own Alexa-like ranking system? Surely they could present much more accurate data as more people probably have the Google toolbar than Alexa... not to mention all the people who use at least one Google related tool...)
"Content is King"
I agree a 1000% :lol:
lmfao!
For some reason I think it is wrong to reply to a post with a simple "lmfao" so I decided to explain how I felt about typing that just a second ago to give this comment more weight.
Oh wait, I have more...
Web designers are canadian.
Good post and this is comming from an English SEO!
Hey, Matt Cutts might not be a government spy TODAY, but in Q3 2007, when Google buys the U.S. government in a surprise acquisition for $1.2 billion (admit it, the government is less useful than YouTube, but those .gov URLs are gold!).
Michael.
HAHAHA... "Google buys the U.S. Government.. "
that would be awesome.
I think Google's a little late though... Dell already bought President Bush.
You know, there are a lot more misconceptions and misbeliefs about SEO than ten.
I don't have a cliche to add.. but I was just commenting on somebody's search for a job and I realized that job hunting is similar to SEO. Some people might find this cliched. You need good content (resume) and relevant keywords (skills) but links (networking) will help the most in order to land the top position for your field. I felt special when I came up with this. Now I will go for my nap.
That's a great analogy, actually. I think I might try to use that next time I'm explaining SEO - I'll have to give you credit though :)
Cool. Now I feel more special. I will give myself a "Well Done" sticker ! I would also add to that the age of your website (experience in the industry you're applying for) offers some value to your SEO (job hunting). I think I could go on more but then the analogy would lose it's coolness. hehe...
I'm SO quoting this on my blog! :p Kudos!
Seconded - nice analogy. :)
I'll see if the kids will spare any of their own Well Done stickers for you. ;)
Awesome. You can all make royalty checks (Canadian spelling: cheques) payable to Kulpreet Singh (a.k.a. simmal tree). haha...
I feel like a kindergarten student who just got a participation ribbon on sports day :)