Not too long ago Matt Cutts posted a blog entry named PageRank Sculpting. This article notifies search engine optimizers that the way PageRanks flows between web pages has changed.

Before the change, if a web page had a PageRank of 5 points and linked out to two other pages, this PageRank would be divided in two and parsed over to the other two pages. You can see this very clearly in the image of Matt’s article.

The rel=nofollow attribute is an HTML attribute which, when added to a link prevents the PageRank to flow over to the other pages. So a page with PageRank of 5 points that links out to two other pages which has two rel=nofollow attributes added to them will not parse PageRank to the other pages.

The result is that the PageRank of 5 points are deliberately kept on the original page, giving that specific page an advantage over the other pages in the web site when getting ranked by Google.  This is called PageRank sculpting and it’s one of the tricks that experienced search engine optimizers use in order influence rankings.

Truthfully, it was only a matter of time before Google would put a stop to this and Cutts even stated that they thought people would notice a change would be coming. The reason behind the change is of course because eventually, practices such as PageRank sculpting would influence how relative the search results are because ranking power is directed to certain pages and kept away of others deliberately.
The lesson here is not new. We’ve seen this time and time again.

If you want to keep being successful at SEO and keep your traffic coming you need to not only understand the search engines, but also need to think like the people behind the search engines.

Their aim is to provide users with relevant search engine results.  It means that any seo practice which eventually might influence the quality of their services will be dealt with in this way.

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I’ve been picking up on a rumor that’s circulating around the blogosphere that some people are starting to believe that SEO doesn’t ‘matter anymore’.  As you know, rumors can spread quickly around the web. Aside from that, bloggers often  write about topics while having no more than basic knowledge and experience on the subject. Not all bloggers are seo experts, so it’s  not unusual that information you read on blogs can be inaccurate.

SEO can become frustrating when in theory, you’re expecting to receive a  massive web traffic, but never see any results in practice.  There can be a number of reasons why a search engine optimization campaign is not working the way you expect.   It’s my believe though, and I say this not as an seo expert , but as a someone with both technical and commercial knowledge combined with years of experience, that the main reason so many people fail to be successful  at it, is  due to the fact that they don’t fully understand search engines and the SEO process as a whole.

Being successful at optimizing your web pages and attracting  traffic through SE’s  goes a little  further than performing basic and easy techniques. Long term SEO success needs insight, anticipation, understanding and most of all, dedication. This means that if you want to get a good position the SERPS (search engine results page) you’ll have to start thinking not only like the search engines and the web surfers using them, but like the people behind the search engines, as well. Once you start doing this, you’ll be thinking like most experts or professional seo companies do.

With that said,  let’s get back to what this post is about, increasing your chances of attracting more traffic with SEO.  In this article I’d like to explain why SEO will always matter, I’d like to touch upon some of the factors that are the reason why people can get so frustrated with optimization. I’d also like to emphasize a few ways of changing a limiting mind sets, which can keep you from being successful …

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