Your Brand Size Matters with Big Site SEO - Why Big is the new Blackhat - Intent, Extent, and Semantics
Found this post in the archives, and thought it was worth tossing up since I’ve been MIA quite a while. 
BMW was out of the index for less than a week. Colgate has pushed the envelope hard. Wordpress made a boatload of cash on MFA’s and was back in the index in days while the inspiring party, Hot Nacho, is still as Greg Boser, the artist formerly known as WebGrilllllla put it, “buried somewhere in the Nevada desert“. Most large brands MAY suffer up to 40 days through the new index cycle. Why wouldn’t they push the envelope further than the little guys? I have to say it really upsets me when search engines make decisions and claim it is to “help the little mom and pops” when they are discussing things like paid links. We live in an idea economy. The value of a link to search engine rankings is knowledge, and idea. The debate has been made dozens of time, so I won’t add much to that here. I will say, however, that taking that advantage away, is taking away power from the little guys that learned it - not assisting them. Paid links help the little guy OUTSMART the big guys…it does not help big guys who just whip out their wallets and buy every link in site (that’s what ppc is for).
Semantic differences based on brand size:
1. Small Brand – Cloaking
Big Brand – IP Delivery, Geo-targeting, User Experience Optimization, etc.
2. Small Brand – Cross Linking
Big Brand – Cross Promoting
3. Small Brand – Link BUYING
Big Brand – Strategic Media Placement
4. Small Brand – Doorway Pages
Big Brand – Landing Pages
5. Small Brand – Reciprocal Linking
Big Brand – Co-Branding
6. Small Brand – Social Media Marketing
Big Brand – Social Media Optimization
7. Small Brand – Scraping/ Made for Adsense
VC Money - Mahalo
When is Black Really White?
When your brand is big enough to handle the outing fallout unscathed.
What are your favorite examples of double standards for big guys vs. little guys in the online world or off?
Thanks to Rhea Drysdale for the cool image above.
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SEO Book.com
February 10th, 2008,
7:35 am
Is Your Brand Big Enough?…
…
Jeremy Luebke
February 10th, 2008,
6:01 pm
So true. We no longer work in an open and free internet. The Internet now reflects the real world where money talks, and the little guy walks.
Tim
February 11th, 2008,
5:03 pm
It’s the same as it’s always been - it’s all about leverage. What has changed are the leverage points.
Previously, the leverage points were knowledge and sweat - how many “better positioned” sites were beat out by somebody who understood search engines better?
Was that fair?
No more or less fair than it is now.
SEMSpot
February 11th, 2008,
6:04 pm
That is the problem with almost any online marketing tactics you try to implement, the big guys are doing the same thing just on a much larger scale. Since they are bigger, more well known, and have the money to back up any online marketing they get away with almost anything. Maybe the search engines are afraid of a lawsuit if they deindexed a large corporate website for there marketing tactics. I know a few companies have lost there rankings, however they did get them back. I would love to know how they did get them back, could it have been there lawyers calling Google? Not that Google couldn’t fight it, they have the money to win almost any case. It would be a PR nightmare to see a large company sue google over there loss in rankings, the newspapers would eat it up.
SEO Company Reading - Hobo SEO UK
February 12th, 2008,
11:25 pm
[…] Your Brand Size Matters with Big Site SEO - Why Big is the new Blackhat - Intent, Extent, and Semantics, Stuntdubl […]
Judd Exley
February 13th, 2008,
10:32 pm
It seems that this is truly how the world is going to go.
Tell you what though, big or small, it’s the ones that think 10 steps ahead and get there first that make it big. Then, by the time there are lawyers coming in and payoffs being made, that fella is sitting on a beach, earning 20%.
Patrick McEvoy
February 14th, 2008,
8:13 am
This has been predicted for over a year now.
The internet “wild west” is over and the really big money is coming at us like a freight train.
It looks like it’s going to be the “Fortune 500″ and GAP stores reinvented all over the Internet soon.
Pity.
Patrick
Nancy Williams
February 20th, 2008,
5:53 am
Interesting how in so many cases, it is a matter of semantics, and the small guy falls on the wrong side of the interpretation.
Makes it much more difficult for them to play and win. But then, that seems to be endemic of the society we live in.
Corey
February 21st, 2008,
12:15 pm
Great post! Its amazing that there is such a difference in how different sites are treated. I wouldn’t doubt there are probably some reputable .orgs and .edus out there that push the envelope as well!
sam au
February 21st, 2008,
11:33 pm
Maybe the search engines are afraid of a lawsuit if they deindexed a large corporate website for there marketing tactics. I know a few companies have lost there rankings, however they did get them back. I would love to know how they did get them back, could it have been there lawyers calling Google?
Edward Beckett
February 25th, 2008,
11:23 am
Great rundown on the industry …
Here’s one that you could plug ….
Big Brand = Omniture Analytics Nuclear Warhead of the Marketing Industry … )
Small Business = Google Analytics … (Gets the Job Done …. )
Gab "SEO ROI" Goldenberg
March 17th, 2008,
12:28 am
Well, how about a guy getting his sites banned for linkbaiting and having the links direct to money sites rather than the originating linkbait site? If Axe had done it, it would be a brilliant viral campaign.
Brand Rich
April 6th, 2008,
3:29 am
Search engines are looking for ways to make more money quickly, but in the guise of helping the small businesses. While big businesses can afford to do paid links, most small businesses arent’t there yet… their sites are not optimized and they are worried about how to boost their current ranking without spending big bucks.
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