A software release from SEO “expert” Nathan Anderson, claiming to offer “The First White Hat Software Tool” has been met with some contempt. The program is supposedly able to “(generate) non-foot-printable, traffic-generating-websites the search engines absolutely love…”

While this sounds like a doorway page generator, Anderson believes his product is different because unlike doorway pages, “MetaWebs are likely to be bookmarked and revisited because of their valuable content.” Meaning his product creates pages with actual content (for $249 a month, plus a $200 setup fee), while doorway page generators just produce pages designed to trick search engines.

Doorway pages, as defined by About.com, are “pages designed to be visible only by search engine spiders, and usually just have blobs of keywords all over them.” MetaWebs, on the other hand, “creates websites that are highly optimized, formatted in php templates, and filled with live, active content from my Meta search engine.” Since people use the product to create pages using Anderson’s content, it seems like Anderson is the beneficiary, financially and otherwise (a doorway for Anderson’s sites?).

Reaction to the release of MetaWebs, especially its connotation as a White Hat software tool, was met with disbelief and disdain in some circles. The criticism revolves around the concept of spam ruining search engine results. Many feel that SERPs have become overcrowded with spam sites and doorway pages. Furthermore, some feel that page generators such as MetaWebs are to blame for the increase in search engine spam.

On the IHelpYou forums, Doug Heil initiated a post discussing the launch of MetaWebs and voiced his displeasure. The first response to Doug’s post was by Bernard, an IHY moderator, who said, “How long will it be before Google's AdSense team starts cracking down on AdSense accounts that are used on pages generated from keyword tools like this?”

While Doug feels that programs like MetaWebs “will be used for is spam. It will leave the tracks necessary for Google to eventually detect the machine generation, and then those pages or sites will be dropped.” The point of those against MetaWebs has to do with the software being called “white hat” because its an automation tool and because of the misuse, software generated pages are not considered a decidedly black hat technique. However, Anderson was present during this discussion and defended his product throughout.

According to him, MetaWebs does have the potential to produce spam pages, but that’s not his fault. It’s the fault of those that use his product to do so. This point is made clearly by Anderson when he said, “…Especially if people don't customize the pages that MetaWebs spits out. But if they think of MW as a site-building tool, instead of a spam page machine, they should never have a problem.

It's up to the user as to how they use the software. You could churn out pages using the advanced tools in Dreamweaver. Doesn't mean that Dreamweaver is bad software.” Anderson feels that he is “empowering the masses with something that circumvents the SEO.”

This point is quickly countered by Quadrille, who says, “no - you are helping spammers. Small difference, I know - but when it comes to epitaphs, I know which I'd rather have. You must do what you think is right; but please don't kid yourself you are doing something good, because it stinks.” Another point was made by a poster named Mcanerin, who said, “It's a totally different thing altogether to market (MetaWebs) as ‘risk-free’ and ‘white hat’ to people who don't know better. That's false advertising at best and fraud at worst.”

IHelpYou was not the only place discussing Anderson’s new product. On Jill Whalen’s HighRankings.com forum, they also had a topic devoted to MetaWebs. During this conversation, Dan Thies also had issues with MetaWebs claiming to create sites that are “non-footprintable”.

“I think he's going to have to change his sales letter to stop claiming that these pages can't be footprinted. That's one claim that is definitely false. It took me about 15 minutes to write a Google API script in PHP to fish these out of the SERPs, starting with a very small list of seed terms (<20 words). I stopped it at 25 results, but it's like shooting fish in a barrel to find these "unfootprintable" pages.”

The question remains, is MetaWebs a benevolent tool for site construction and promotion, or is it a black hat spam machine? What do you think?

__________________
Former WebProWorld Admin

I find it ironic that SEO firms are drawing moralistic lines in the sand. As I have stated my controversial opinion here before, SEO is bunk. "White Hat", "Black Hat", whatever, it is bunk. A bold statement that is sure to anger many here as it has in the past.

While certain techniques will boost you in the results for this or that search engine, the implied promise of many SEO firms is to increase traffic to your site with the subsequent implication that this will increase your business. It really doesn't matter how much traffic you get to your site, if the visitors don't buy and don't return.

On top of that, the little known fact that most visitors do not find your site via a search engine. Don't get me wrong, being number one for a generic search term is a good thing. However, it is not the only thing.

I also like to point out that doing a search for "search engine optimization" (minus the quotes) returns over 7 million hits in Google. Close to the top in both Google and Yahoo is seoinc.com. So, I really see only one clear winner as far as SEO firms are concerned. What's their "secret"? Spam and links. Yep. The term "search engine optimization" is found about 64 times in their source code for their Home page alone and there are 18,000 sites linking to them.

However, there are also other sites that are high in the results that are completely the opposite of this. My favorite real-world example is:

http://www.adiamondisforever.com/

It's up there for the terms "diamond" and "diamond ring" (minus the quotes). Yet, look at their source code. It's awful! Plus, there is no spam. What's their secret? Links. Lots of links pointing to their site.

So, both of these unrelated, high placing sites have one thing in common: links. Adding links to other sites pointing to your site does not "optimize" your site. It doesn't optimize the search engines. Maybe "PR" shouldn't stand for page rank at all. Maybe it would be more up front for "popularity rank."

So, what does a company like seoinc.com offer? You pay them a lot of money and they will add you to Yahoo's express inclusion. Well, that's something you can do yourself. They offer PPC. Again, something you can do yourself. They offer keyword research. You have to be a complete moron not to be able to figure out what keywords are used to find your type of business. They offer reciprocal linking. Again, something you can do yourself.

Outside of using the keywords, which is something that a site built with the visitor in mind should be doing anyway, little of what they offer "optimizes" your site.

All in all, your money would be better invested on producing a quality web site and traditional marketing/advertising. Like dieting, there is no magic pill no matter how much you are promised nor how much you believe or want to believe.

__________________
DrTandem's San Diego Web Page Design, drtandem.com

Shovels and Spears, MetaWebs and Spam Tools

MetaWebs is not a spamdexing tool.

I think that the central question regarding websites that are generated using automation as part of the process is this: “Does each page of the site deliver what the user of the search engine expects?”

For example, if I type in “how to change the oil in a lawnmower” at Google or Yahoo, I'm looking for information about how to change the oil in my lawnmower. If someone has optimized a page for that phrase, they darn well better feature the information that I need prominently on the page. Sales pitches for lawnmowers, RSS feeds to lawnmower news, or links to sites about lawnmower maintenance just won't cut it.

As long as I find the information I need, I don't care what they do with the rest of the page,.

If MetaWebs subscribers pay even slight attention to the eBook tutorials, or the online video tutorials, or the user forum, or the teleconferences, or the DVD that is mailed to them, or the booklet that is mailed to them, I think that they understand that using the pages MetaWebs kicks out without adding the content users are looking for is a) Bad for business, b) Likely to get your site banned from search engines, and c) very questionable ethically.

MetaWebs doesn't build complete useable sites by some sort of magic. I doubt that any software tool ever will. It does handle a lot of the grunt work involved in making sure that all the pages can be indexed. It does handle a whole assortment of SEO related issues far more effectively than a novice like myself could otherwise. And it does provide secondary content that I often choose to leave on my pages to supplement what I write myself.

MetaWebs doesn't let users throw in a few thousand keywords and have it build a site. It's not just advised against. The software won't do it. Strange design decision if it was supposed to be a spamdexing tool, don't you think?

Put another way, a shovel and a spear can have a lot in common. They both have a wooden shaft. The blade of many shovels is shaped much like the point of many spears. But it's hard to do any useful excavation work with a spear. You could kill things with a shovel, but a spear is a much more frightening weapon. They clearly are tools created for different purposes.

Can you build pages that give users what they are seeking using MetaWebs as part of the toolchest? Of course. That's what it was made for. Can you spam the search engines with MetaWebs? You could, just as you can kill things with a shovel, but a tool made for the purpose is far more dangerous.

If I could, I would change the term altogether from SEO to what I call "SEC" -- being 'search engine conscious'. To me, it's simply being mindful of search engine algorithms when designing/promoting a site. I don't see the "SEO firm" industry lasting much longer as a stand-alone service, or at least not the extent it is now. I see SEO, or rather, SEC becomming a standard in the design/maintenance industry. If you create a site that's all flash and graphics -- it can be validated with right code and display wonderfully -- but it won't get ranked anywhere. Being mindful of what search engines want and factoring that into the site (and backlinks) -- that's where it counts. Software will come and go, like outgrowing clothes, but sooner or later one will find it was never necessary.

Good point and I think Tandem's right on this - albeit he phrases it a little more belligerent. I think overall, the notion of SEO as being an ends, instead of a means to an end is what is distorting online marketing, search engine optimization, and giving rise to "white hat"/"black hat" SEO and charlatans. Too many people and companies think that more foot traffic on their sites means more sales. But the site itself needs to be designed in a way to actually convert the traffic. That part falls under marketing communication and design - out of the realm of many SEO specialists, who hail from technology to journalism. A marketing person, a marketing purist, would be able to handle these various responsibilities.

I think we really need to stress that SEO is part of the marketing mix of an overall online marketing strategy and campaign. I believe SEO is necessary and that it's better to optimize than not, but I also think no website should count on SEO as its only method of online marketing.

But what MetaWeb is selling I think is absurd. As one guy already said, if I was searching for "how to mow a lawn" and I get back results describing the latest new megabuck lawn-mower that I don't need, I'll be mad! Let's also think about this for a minute - if the pages they create are "good" content, but it's done automatically, how then is it a good page? Last I checked, no good news article was written by software. Furthermore, if the pages are good enough to be bookmarked, then why does it have to be a separate page? Why can't it be a part of the website?

When you think about it, this product doesnt make sense much less sound suspicious. For MetaWeb to say they are not doorway pages but are "special" pages, it reminds me of an SNL skit with Nicolas Cage where his last name is Azzwipe - but he struggles to correct people's pronounciation which is AHz-`Wee-Pay. But it still looks like azzwipe to me.

What does traffic power call them? "Ad Pages"? Jawn Tech is right. SEO in and of itself is nothing without a good design. I fancy myself an SEC designer. I do USE web position gold, but not to write my pages. I design the page first. Run it through WP, and do my best to implement those changes. Often one is forced to chose between copy/content quality and SEO. Content wins almost every time. I don't mess with google. I don't have time or charge enough to justify setting up link networks, but I've done pretty well on Yahoo! and MSN.

By the way, a bit off topic, I've found a good way to eliminate most of the irrelevant results on a Google search.

Do the search the way you normally would. "How to change oil in a lawnmower".

Then skip to page 5. Page 10 on a competitive search term. I find what I'm looking for faster and cheaper every time.

Ain't I a stinker.

This hat is so black that Vader must be wearing it.

Luke, avoid the dark side,
it is very tempting to
young jedi, such as
tourself.

I suggest we wait and see if they all disappear. I ain't touching it!

__________________
Simon - Biogas, Rauchgasanalysator and Rauchgasanalysegerät

What I have seen is that web design and search optimization generally doesn’t occur by the same people. It’s like the guy who cuts the grass and the guy that fertilizes the grass. One says it grows to fast and the other says it’s cut to short. As a person who works with many custom and tem plated sites I have seen that even when a site is custom it doesn’t mean it will score and I have tem plated sites that get on 1 to 2 million first pages. I would also agree that the new wave will be the company that creates a web product and optimizes it too. It’s strange when I see a realtor’s web site and they don’t say their location, it just says real estate, man what a waste of space.

Pages generated by these systems are generally NOT used for good -- they are used for EVIL -- and anyone who's tried to search for ANYTHING in recent months KNOWS it.

The trouble is that everyone in the world wants to get rich on the Internet -- and doesn't want to do the WORK necessary to make it so.

They buy a product, click a button, generate crap web pages (or SPAM), and wait for the money to come in. And then for some mysterious reason are upset when it doesn't. In the meantime, they've made life just a little bit worse for thousands or even millions of people.

Idiots selling crap software to other idiots to try and cheat the system. Promises of easy money keep the whole vicious circle in operation.

"Traffic Equalizer", and now this product -- all generate the same kind of crap that is filling up the search engine results pages -- returning nothing better than doorway pages flooded with keywords, content taken from free sites or free RSS feeds -- and wrapping them with paid search results and/or Google adsense to make some quick and easy money.

It's getting so that now people don't even BOTHER to research and place affiliate links and product information. Even that is too much like work for 99.9% of the users of these types of products.

Tried to search for anything lately? 99% of the first three pages of results are already filled with affiliate links, spam pages, doorway pages and general garbage.

A good example, try to search for ANY hotel's web site. There are millions of results pointing to affiliate links through hotels.com and other programs -- but the REAL HOTEL web site is not to be found.

As a searcher -- IF I WANTED TO SEE paid search results -- I'd GO to the PPC engine. If I WANTED to see affiliate links -- I'd join the damn program myself and pocket the commission. If I wanted to see RSS feeds, I'd fire up my reader and get whatever I wanted directly from the source.

Sorry for the rant -- but these kind of things just degrade the quality of the entire Internet. Finding the MEAT -- from the ORIGINAL SOURCE is getting harder and harder to do.

Marty R. Milette
Custom Toolbars

Maybe, and I'm going out on a limb here, but, maybe that's because the REAL HOTEL web site doesn't know anything about getting their site listed highly. Just a guess, though.

Speaking of hotels, I saw an ad the other day for an awesome vacation package. Imagine my astonishment when I called the number and it was a travel agent and not the original source! Next I went to Wal Mart. While there I discovered they weren't the original source either!!! Oh, the horror.......

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Continue doing what you've always done, and you will keep getting the same results you always have.