How SEO Information Spreads the Web... or Doesn't

It's an age of information, with unprecedented accessibility and opportunities to teach yourself new skills by tapping into new layers of learning. We are surrounded by learning at all angles - this is especially true when it comes to the tech and internet front. After all, most of the people who are enthusiastic about technology are likely to use technology to talk about information. Not everything is kept out in the open, however, and some things are guarded as if they were an artifact from the Da Vinci Code.

Why Optimizers Are Like Ninjas

Yeah I said it. NINJAS! Anyone who makes a living from optimizing websites does so because optimizers have a track record of amazing and proven results. Nobody will keep optimizing if they are terrible at it. While following all the standard procedures will frequently get "better than average" rankings, since the vast majority of webmasters aren't familiar with the public SEO knowledge, any working professional will try to get whatever edge they can. If you make a new discovery public, you've automatically lost your advantage. After all, techniques and methods that everyone is using will be considered the "baseline." You should keep any SEO secret tactics to yourself. After all... ninjas wear black and hide in the shadows right?

Why Some Information Does Spread?

This doesn't mean that information isn't out there - there are a large number of documents that are spread by companies, individuals, and even the search engines themselves. There are plenty of reasons to keep this information public. One is that not every group that's knowledgeable on SEO is reliant on it for income. The search engines, for example, stand to gain if there's more public knowledge of certain aspects of optimization. For others, spreading the information works as an excellent way to display how knowledgeable they are while driving traffic to their site. Just because people have the knowledge, it doesn't mean they even know or have the resources to use it to its full extent.

What Type of Information Is Kept Secret

There are a number of things that these optimization ninjas are going to keep close to their chest. Things that might be hidden include names and contact information of link sellers or groups, workarounds for site bans or black hat procedures, blogger information for people willing to add links, lists of effective link or article submission sites, programs that have especially good demand and payouts, techniques for finding keywords, groups that can be hired to reduce man hours at an affordable rate, and much more. In the same way that a medical research company won't release its awesome bionic strength formula, companies that make discoveries like these aren't going to be blogging about it any time soon.

How Much Is Hidden?

The common phrase used in the Search Engine Optimization industry says it's the "secret 10 percent." That number certainly isn't exact, but it does give a fairly clear indication of how much knowledge is hidden. The vast majority of information is available on the web, released by search engines, friendly experts, and professional optimizers looking to display their knowledge and acquire customers. It's just a select amount of information that optimizers retain in order to keep their competitive advantage and minimize the amount of work necessary to meet baseline expectations. It's already a competitive industry - nobody wants to make it more competitive than it needs to be. Research indicates that an increasing amount of this information is publicly available, with the total amount doubling since the mid 1990s. So, it appears that availability trends are on the rise.

So what am I trying to say? I guess I'm trying to say that while the best of the best isn't available for you to learn - you can always work on your own techniques and eventually, you will figure one out for yourself... and be a top 10% ninja!

This is a guest post by Selena Narayanasamy, who is highly involved in technology, social media, writing/blogging, and in love with entrepreneurship and productivity. You can find her writing on Search Engine Journal and her own blog, Esvienne.
Follow her professional Twitter - @selenavidya or personal Twitter - @esvienne.

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