The Occult Bot

If you study search engine optimization you have most likely read about the debate concerning the Pagerank sculpting technique. Pagerank sculpting calls for hiding internal navigation links from search engines so as to make certain pages seem less important to the search engines. The thinking behind this method assumes that if more Pagerank is channeled to other pages, those pages will rise higher in search results. Pagerank, of course, is only one of several hundred factors that Google and other search engines use to determine rankings. Google suggests that Pagerank has always had a secondary impact on search rankings anyway, but many people in the SEO industry act as if they know better than Google.

First proposed in the summer of 2007, Pagerank sculpting was supposed to fix Website navigation issues that critics of the technique said were not only preventable but easily resolved by more traditional methods. One SEO commenter even predicted that Pagerank sculpting would be abused by the SEO community and subsequently devalued. As it turns out, she was completely right. Google announced in the summer of 2009 that it had taken steps more than a year previous to defuse the Pagerank sculpting train wreck.

Instead of helping “more important” pages rise to the top of search results Pagerank sculpting had led many sites to lose much of their search visibility. Many, in some cases most or all the pages of sites that used Pagerank sculpting simply vanished from search indexes. The Pagerank sculpting SEOs published articles claiming their tests showed that their technique was working and helping clients. Oblivious to the facts, they led more people down the golden path to disaster.

When Google employee Matt Cutts revealed what Google had done at a summer 2009 SEO conference, some people tried to dismiss Google’s statements and warnings. Throughout the previous two years some SEOs had falsely asserted that Cutts supported Pagerank sculpting. A careful review of his comments on various Websites shows that he consistently discouraged the practice, advising readers to pursue more productive SEO strategies. The debate raged around him as few people actually paid attention to what Cutts was saying.

The original Pagerank sculpting method of choice used the “rel=’nofollow’” link attribute to hide navigation links from search engines. Google’s intervention addressed the nofollow attribute itself. Failing to grasp the significane of their strategic and theoretical failures, Pagerank sculpting SEOs have since begun promoting new methods for hiding navigation links from search engines. This new generation of Pagerank sculpting techniques may not be so easy for the search engines to devalue. It may be that the SEO industry has committed itself and its clients to a period of de-optimization.

The Pagerank sculpting debacle has unquestionably hurt the SEO industry’s reputation. Some observers are amazed that in the wake of such a public relations disaster anyone in the industry would want to go down that road again. This time around, it may take some client-vs-SEO provider lawsuits to put a stop to the self-destructive fad.

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