Oh, there are some tests which are valid.The results may be short term and one can never prove a negative, but there are valid experiments.
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LordManley twitter.com/LordManley,
Wed 23 Jun 2010, 11:01,
archived)
Please give an example of a valid experiment.I really can't imagine one.
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monkeon schmonkeon,
Wed 23 Jun 2010, 14:28,
archived)
Okay, really basic stuff and not real example, but:I want to know if a Search Engine follows plain text links, so I write www.somesite.co.uk/manleys-new-test/ and then I link to that page once with a plain text link from an unused but indexed page.
After that I know if it does.
Of course I can never know if it doesn't.
(After that I know if it does.
Of course I can never know if it doesn't.
LordManley twitter.com/LordManley,
Fri 25 Jun 2010, 10:44,
archived)
I'm sure you're going to say "bad seo"but so many companies claim to test all of the small theories as part of their skill base.
eg testing for keyword density
There are so many variables to keep constant that I think it would be impossible to prove anything about this from any test.
Your test makes sense for the job, but when I worked for a company whose SEO team who passed all their work onto the developers, we were never once asked to build any sort of testing sites or tools. I'm sure the root of my cynicism comes down to that!
Ultimately, I'd have thought that an expert would know the limits of what is testable, though I suspect many SEOs get work by saying "we know this through testing...", rather than "no one can know this but it makes logical sense in theory because..."
(eg testing for keyword density
There are so many variables to keep constant that I think it would be impossible to prove anything about this from any test.
Your test makes sense for the job, but when I worked for a company whose SEO team who passed all their work onto the developers, we were never once asked to build any sort of testing sites or tools. I'm sure the root of my cynicism comes down to that!
Ultimately, I'd have thought that an expert would know the limits of what is testable, though I suspect many SEOs get work by saying "we know this through testing...", rather than "no one can know this but it makes logical sense in theory because..."
monkeon schmonkeon,
Fri 25 Jun 2010, 17:32,
archived)