Searching for search answers

by Mark Wheeler, Technology & Business

People don't like choosing the very first result on the SERP-it's too obvious to our suspicious mind

It seems almost silly to do it-it's like I'm betraying the code of my craft-but on this particular occasion I have Googled and selected the very first entry on the SERP (search engine results page).

Normally, for an IT industry journalist, a large portion of work will be done on the Internet, and Google is of course both an amazing resource and a set of blinkers. As anyone who uses it regularly would know (and that is most of us) with a bit of crafty key-wording and an understanding of the likely haunts an impressive range of information, background and leads can usually be wrung out of it.

The danger is-and ABC's Media Watch is a great one for reminding us-that trusting Google's easy-got information can lead you to just about anywhere and a credible source of information sits right beside a spoof or, even worse, disinformation or even malicious information.

Optimising your Web site so that it ranks well in a Google search is big business these days, and one of the reasons Google became so successful was is its ability to counter many of the unscrupulous attempts to play the system.

There are, however, plenty of legitimate strategies that can still be used to give your Web site the edge. A culture of search engine optimisation (SEO) has evolved under the watchful eye of the Google algorithm but it's a curly topic for any business to tackle. Some methods are considered entirely acceptable while others are considered very poor form, yet there are some strategies that seem to sit a little in both columns.

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