Search engine optimization (SEO) seems to be a necessary evil these days. This is a very unfortunate fact. I have come across more and more sites recently that seem to be created just for the sake of deriving cheap traffic from the various search engines (read Google). When I say "cheap" what I am really referring to are those sites whose content contain no original thought, or very little original thought and offer nothing of substance to the Internet population.
Before there used to be such a dominating presence of search engines and the role they play in helping you and me find what it is we are looking for, a web site could only succeed if it offered unique content that you couldn't find anywhere else. This would accomplish several things such as ensuring repeat traffic, ensuring new traffic via word of mouth, possibly landing a mention in a print publication, etc. Those days have ended.
These days a site cannot exist for any substantial amount of time unless it is at least somewhat optimized for the search engines. This is a sad but true statement. If you don't mind your site existing in a vacuum where its readership consists of family and friends then this is a non issue. There is nothing wrong with that, but if your site is of a commercial nature you can see how the lack of traffic might be a hindrance to say the least.
Pseudo Blogging Web Sites
The big trend/fad these days seems to be these pseudo blogging web sites. These sites have no original content; rather, they search other sites for original content, write one or two sentences about the original content, and then link to the source. How lame is that? Then they run Google ads and other types of ads around the stolen/reprinted content. It's one thing if it's a site for personal gratification, but to create this type of site to make money by leaching off of other sites is deplorable. Off the top of my head I can think of several SEO related websites where all they do is visit the forums of other SEO sites, copy threads that they find there and then add one or two opinionated sentences and that's their entire web site. Sounds crazy? It is true. And they make money by doing it.
Have you seen the kinds of sites I am talking about? I bet you have even though you may not recognized it at the time. Maybe you are searching Google for some help on optimizing your site and Google returns a fistful of what appear to be hits to your query, but in reality its web sites who have stuffed the word "optimization" into their pages and offer no original content whatsoever.
Is this what passes for quality content on the Internet these days? I guess so. I have seen more and more of these lazy sites than I care to. Why should we give a crap? If they can create vapid sites with no intrinsic value whatsoever and make money doing it, more power to them! But here is the problem: all these kinds of sites do is add to the confusion and congestion of the search engines, making it much more difficult to find what you are looking for.
Let us say you type in "help with xyz widget." Let us assume that there is a forum with the thread topic "help with xyz widget." Now let us also assume one of these leach sites we discussed previously decides that thread is worth "covering," so they write their one or two sentences and then link off to the thread. But the main difference is their leach site is totally optimized so that it actually shows up ahead of the original thread in the search engines for "help with xyz widget" that they copied! This scenario happens a lot and these thieving types of sites count on it. There is big money at stake.
Website Marketing 
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