What template user cares about SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Only the template users who want their website to be found by websearchers I guess. Which I would guesstimate to be about 95%. Do Template buyers/users know anything about SEO, I will guesstimate those people at 70%. How many bought templates that are already SEO-friendly, I don’t even have a ballpark guesstimate. How many know how to customize their template to an SEO-friendly state, no guess. So why talk about SEO again? I feel that if I talk about SEO then maybe somebody will design SEO-friendly templates.

Last week I had the worries about SEO algorithms - how high any search engine ranks any particular website. And I don’t feel reassured by Google’s suggestions yet. Google claims it is improving it’s ability to spot illegitimate attempts at improving SEO. In most service organizations there comes a day when the quality of the services provided is legitimate, rather than commercial or just ineffectual. Because even though these services are pushing commercially for a monopoly, or at least dominating market share here in the Wild, Wild West there will be competition - somehow, someway. You may be the fastest gun in Dodge, but for how long? Even Bell Telephone had its problems: anti-monopoly legislation, regulation, competition, cell phone technology, cable internet, etc. That means that ultimately, if Google wants a legitimate product, it has to tell us what’s in it. If Google wants legitimate customers it has to tell everybody its definition of legitimate.

For the sake of argument let’s suppose Google gets good enough at what it does that it can say what it does outright, becoming a service organization that is transparent in it’s mission and practices. It would always have to cope with both the young guns competition - search engines that just feel lucky, and with the webpages that go illegitimate - think they got nothing to lose. So ultimately Google, like Yahoo and MSN, needs to progress, but remain transparent. Maybe the big three are moving in that direction. It sounds like it will be near constant change for everybody - Whew! Gimme a rest!

One more oar in the water - what about niche directories? You know it isn’t the Yellow Pages, it’s the Insider Directory of a niche. Just like a webring, but a step up to specialty mini-engine. Yes, your right, nothing is more colloquial and special-interested than a local newspaper or a coffee clatch. Okay, I give up, no easy answers. I guess I’m lazy.

No rest for the wicked.

Arthur Browning