{"id":14003,"date":"2015-02-11T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-02-11T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/?p=14003"},"modified":"2025-06-30T18:44:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T18:44:03","slug":"dont-base-seo-strategy-perceived-search-engine-weaknesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/blog\/search-engine-weaknesses","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Base an SEO Strategy on Perceived Search Engine Weaknesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you think that SEO is a way to \u201cgame the system\u201d, you\u2019re wrong. This perception is why the SEO industry as a whole has earned a bad reputation. Looking for search engine weaknesses to capitalize on in order to gain short-term results is no longer what SEO is about. Unfortunately, too many website owners still have this mindset when it comes to SEO.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In recent post on Moz<\/a>, Rand Fishkin talks about \u201chammering away at individual signals\u201d and why that strategy no longer works:<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, SEO professionals had a reasonable sense of many (or perhaps even most) of the inputs into the search engine’s ranking systems. We leveraged our knowledge of how Google interpreted various modifications to keywords, links, content, and technical aspects to hammer on the signals that produced results.<\/em><\/p>\n

But today, there can be little argument\u2014Google’s ranking algorithm has become so incredibly complex, nuanced, powerful, and full-featured, that modern SEOs have all but given up on hammering away at individual signals. Instead, we’re becoming more complete marketers, with greater influence on all of the elements of our organizations’ online presence.<\/em><\/p>\n

An example that Fishkin gives in the article is time spent on a web page as a signal of quality. One website owner chooses to capitalize on this by \u201cusing some clever hacks to keep visitors on the page longer and to make clicking the back button more difficult\u201d. A second website owner pays no attention to that signal and instead opts to make the web page as user friendly as possible, so that the website visitor can quickly find the information they are looking for. The time-on-site metric may have hurt them initially, but as Google\u2019s algorithm catches up with what human visitors want on a website, it begins to \u201creward sites that successfully deliver great experiences more quickly\u201d.<\/p>\n

I think this is summed up best by Fishkin\u2019s following statement:<\/p>\n

Playing the “where’s Google weak?” game rather than the “where’s Google going?” game, you’ve ultimately lost.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fishkin may be talking about Google specifically, but this really applies to all of the search engines that are continually improving their algorithms that are constantly tweaked to mimic what searchers want.<\/p>\n

The key takeaway here is that you can no longer create an SEO strategy based on search engine \u201cloopholes\u201d. If you\u2019re looking for a search engine weakness, you can guarantee that it won\u2019t be a weakness for long. Never underestimate the search engine algorithms that continue to become more advanced. You\u2019ll eventually be caught and lose any organic traffic that you gained. Instead, focus on an SEO campaign that caters to target audience members. This is what the search engine algorithms are striving to do; create the best possible user experience. By taking this approach, you\u2019ll beat the algorithm there and reap the benefits once it arrives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you think that SEO is a way to \u201cgame the system\u201d, you\u2019re wrong. This perception is why the SEO industry as a whole has earned a bad reputation. Looking… More Info<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDon\u2019t Base an SEO Strategy on Perceived Search Engine Weaknesses | Brick Marketing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You can no longer create an SEO strategy based on search engine \u201cloopholes\u201d.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/blog\/search-engine-weaknesses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t Base an SEO Strategy on Perceived Search Engine Weaknesses | Brick Marketing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You can no longer create an SEO strategy based on search engine \u201cloopholes\u201d.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/blog\/search-engine-weaknesses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brick Marketing - Digital Marketing Agency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-11T09:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-30T18:44:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/dont-base-an-seo-strategy-on-perceived-search-engine-weaknesses2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Stamoulis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Stamoulis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Stamoulis\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dd420fc038644ad2ee1a62912b6368fb\"},\"headline\":\"Don\u2019t Base an SEO Strategy on Perceived Search Engine Weaknesses\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-11T09:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-30T18:44:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses\"},\"wordCount\":497,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eqo6k4wde6o.exactdn.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/dont-base-an-seo-strategy-on-perceived-search-engine-weaknesses2.jpg?strip=all\",\"articleSection\":[\"SEO\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses\",\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Base an SEO Strategy on Perceived Search Engine Weaknesses | Brick Marketing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eqo6k4wde6o.exactdn.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/dont-base-an-seo-strategy-on-perceived-search-engine-weaknesses2.jpg?strip=all\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-11T09:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-30T18:44:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dd420fc038644ad2ee1a62912b6368fb\"},\"description\":\"You can no longer create an SEO strategy based on search engine \u201cloopholes\u201d.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eqo6k4wde6o.exactdn.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/dont-base-an-seo-strategy-on-perceived-search-engine-weaknesses2.jpg?strip=all\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eqo6k4wde6o.exactdn.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/dont-base-an-seo-strategy-on-perceived-search-engine-weaknesses2.jpg?strip=all\",\"width\":725,\"height\":483},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/search-engine-weaknesses#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Base an SEO Strategy on Perceived Search Engine Weaknesses\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Brick Marketing - 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