Notes on SEO Since 2002

Do you remember the Florida update?
Maybe not...

It was one of the first occasions that Google had made a big move to combat the growing industry that aimed to "game" their rankings. It landed in November 2003, just as businesses were gearing up for Christmas. Nice timing.

But I couldn't blame them: they were trying to provide a (profitable) service to the planet and a lot of people were working like mad to push their own businesses by whatever means they could.

I'd been in SEO for about 18 months, and Florida hit us hard. Ancient history? Yes, but it taught me a few lessons that have influenced everything I've done in SEO since.

Well, we'd followed "best practice", as described by leading SEOs and more or less supported (IMO) by Google. We had keywords sensibly scattered on the page and in meta tags, and inbound links carrying keywords surrounded by keyword-rich content.
Then BAM. The goalposts had moved.

I'm squashing all this down so you don't go to sleep, but suddenly we were faced with endless discussion of the dreaded OOP (Over Optimisation Penalty). Had we all gone too far? Which bits were now causing problems? And what were we supposed to do about them? And why didn't Google tell us??
With the clients that agreed, we increased PPC spend to keep the traffic coming. Expensive (ouch), but it bought some time. I'm a bit of a "numbers geek" so we analysed like crazy and progress was slow, but things were back to a "new normal" in a few months.

The real lesson from all this was that what we had learned to do – let's call it "optimisation" – was suddenly a potential liability. Even businesses that thought they were following best practice weren't immune.

The Rulebook Gets Ripped Up

The problem was, there was no warning. The propeller heads at Google changed the rules, and we were left dealing with the consequences. We now had to look "natural" (no definition given, BTW).
And the sobering effect of Florida has guided my approach to SEO ever since.

Yes, there are huge benefits from getting Google rankings, I've seen them change businesses - and lives - over the years, from manufacturing companies and freight forwarders to software and certification companies.

But if you look for shortcuts, you're running a risk.

Play the Long Game

That doesn't mean freezing every time there's an update, or writing something nice and hoping Google finds it. But "Can I get away with this?" isn't much of a business strategy, IMO.

We carried on and lived through Google updates like Jagger, Big Daddy and Caffeine with no downside. We thought we had it all under control and were happily building our client list. Then Panda and Penguin hit us. Rankings and traffic for half our clients tanked.

Again, we went to Analysis Alley (my term) and pulled everything apart. Even so, it took between three and seven months for the worst affected clients' rankings to recover.

It forced us to look hard at everything we did, again, and the standards we set then created the foundation for how we work today. That's when we started developing our quality assessment tool, which has become the WIZ Score™

And since then, we've come through Hummingbird, Possum and the later ones that developed EAT (2014) and EEAT (2022) (there was even one in 2017 called Fred, and in 2019 we had BERT...)
But I digress.

If I may oversimplify here (it often helps, though others may disagree...) the most important day-to-day focus - if a site is set up properly in the first place - should probably be on spam and (un)helpful content.
So we're in that space too, and I believe we're doing it the right way. But complacent? Are you kidding? Not a chance.

What Do You Expect?

But here's the thing: Google doesn't owe anyone a ranking! And however frustrating its decisions may be, building any business that depends on search visibility means you have to accept that the rules can change. And sometimes it's dramatic.

Google's explanations are necessarily vague (or everyone would be reverse engineering things all over again). And that's why experience matters. Not because there's a hidden magical formula, but because I've seen what happens when people become too confident that they've found one.

And now we've got AI to contend with...

Artificial Intelligence Isn't Natural!

As I mentioned, there are repeated attacks by Google on poor quality content. And rightly so. Google has maintained that using AI to create content isn't a problem in itself. The real issue is whether what you end up with is genuinely useful, or just another bone-headed attempt to manipulate rankings.

That's fair enough, but much of the early AI-generated content was utterly dire. Imagine a super-qualified professor giving a dull (and I mean VERY DULL) lecture to a roomful of students he's driving to despair. Got the picture? Great.

And do you know what? It's Florida all over again! In 2003, people stuffed pages and links with keywords because it worked, until it suddenly didn't. Oops. Now, people are churning out hundreds of AI-written pages at almost zero cost, and Google is once again taking aim at content designed to manipulate rankings. The tools change. The temptation to cut corners never does.
I'd call it mistaking volume for value.

And the simple rule remains: build your presence methodically, naturally (yes, that ill-defined concept) and don't think you're cleverer than Google. You aren't.

What All Those Updates Have Taught Us

At Ranking Wizards, my people have been with me for years, even to the extent that they (seem to) think the way I do, and use the phrases I do (think "Get on with it...")

If you run an agency, that matters more than it might sound. When you manage your clients' link building or content, you have a reputation to consider. If you chase quick wins, it's your client who gets hit by the next update, and it's your phone that rings.
If you use a partner, you need to be doubly sure that your reputation is reinforced, not battered.

We don't deal with (or target) sites in "dodgy" niches. We scrupulously vet the sites we work with for quality. We write content that people actually want to read. These things are important.

Of course, SEO involves making deliberate decisions to improve rankings. But there's a world of difference between making informed decisions and blindly chasing whatever shortcut you may have picked up this month.

It's one reason why we put so much effort into assessing publishers, developing our WIZ Score™ and insisting on content that has something worthwhile to say. And I believe the battle scars I've collected since 2002 help us keep things in perspective.

One Last Thing

I'm not claiming we have all the answers. Actually, in SEO, anyone who makes that claim probably hasn't been around long enough. But we are supported by a level of experience that can't be bought.

Now, where was I? Oh, yes: I've got another bunch of ranking reports to look at.

Good luck with all you do.

Steve Warren
Founder, Ranking Wizards (and a few more...)

Note: This article was written by a human, not AI.