About ethics: right or wrong?

Have a look at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Search_Guidelines
There is some good advice in that.


I would encourage you to change your company and parcel name.
It can be the business name followed by a slogan that might capture what you do and what differentiates you.
It's what is listed in initial Search results. You are one of many in the list. A name is not enough differentiation in that context.
Page titles (parcel names in SL) anf heading are also significant for search engines.

Motion Capture seems to be a speciality of the offering. Many people refer to it as MoCap. Use that term too.
Try to think of the search terms that people might use.

As an aside, it would be really nice if parcel pages were more like real hosted web pages, and we had the ability to see the traffic/hits *on those pages* - particularly the search term that the person was using when they found us.

Use the available space in the parcel description. What is your Unique Selling Proposition? Are you using all the phrases that might be used to find you?

The suggestion of a short branding version of the name is good.
I really appreciate object names that help me organise and find them in Inventory. I wish Sine Wave would put some ID at the front of all their dance names. It's all very well when they are in the original folder. When they get into AOs and dance balls they lose that branding and identity.
"Flatleys Magnificent Moves" is a bit of a mouthful. The way I use the Inventory window when wearing/rezzing on the fly. That phrase would have the name of the dance invisible.
"FMM - Argentinian Tango 1" would be good.
I bought a lot of textures from Textures R Us in my early weeks in SL. I've always referred to it as TRU. I can quickly find those textures with "TRU - ..."
When talking to others about them, I say "TRU". It's way easier to type than the long version. Word of Mouth with typos is difficult. Inventory search with typos is nigh impossible.

However you get eyeballs to visit, they end up looking at your information and the way in which it is presented. If they buy from you, those purchases in their inventory are your branding opportunity.

The "Appeal to Humans, Not Search Engines " heading in LL's guidelines makes a lot of sense. Clearly describing and differentiating you business *is* a form of optimisation.

Once you've got excellent descriptive text that covers the relevant applicable terms, Search will obviously find you, and will initially list just your parcel name.If the presentation has been designed to attractive to humans - within the limitations of the UI - you have a better chance of pulling the eyeballs to see your expanded information.

All of the above is Optimisation both for search engines and for human viewing.
Optimisation is good! Very, very good!



Then there is a different type of optimisation. This type of optimisation is designed purely to take advantage of the imperfect ways in which search engines rank pages.

You've got a great presentation, but it's mostly way down in the pages for various search terms. You find that the first page or so of your competition have items listed. Many or most are named things like "dance dance dance dance dance" "tango tango tango tango tango ".
You determine that this is a major factor in the higher ranking.

What do you do?
It might be reasonable for a page that lists 100 matching dances to rank higher than one that matches on 10. The rationale would be that the 100-match place offers a greater range.
However it's insane if a page of 5 matching dances outranks a page of 25 matching dances because the descriptions of the 5 dances repeat the word "dance" or "tango" or whatever 20 times.

You're outraged! All your careful work and then you find that in order to rank up there you have to start hacking your page and products about. You have to create fake items for listing simply to stuff repetitions of search terms into them. Apart from that , you find that you have to do other stuff to inflate your ranking -- Like buying Picks, or running bots until LL change the system to ignore Scripted Agents.


What do you do?

Two extremes :

(A)
Join in an arms race. Find ways to inflate your ranking higher that the other people who are inflating their rankings.
Become the person who outraged you.
Become a person who will outrage a new innocent merchant when they see what you are doing.
Become a person who will bring the system into disrepute.
Ignore the LL warning that "Any attempt to artificially inflate your rank in search results could result in penalties to your rank, de-listing from search and disciplinary action against your Second Life account. This includes but is not limited to inappropriate use of traffic bots or Picks. " Do this on the basis that the warning is hot air - and in any case if LL actually do this they they will hit everybody.
It's business! Even though government is definitely beginning to move against the gaming in general, they haven't explicitly banned specific activities. They've only issued guidelines. They've only indicated that the activity is unwelcome. That's not actual law is it?


(B)
Find like-minded people and campaign LL for change. Raise a hell of a stink. Keep at LL.
Try to counter the search gaming via Word of Mouth, advertising, hunts, or anything that is not subverting the systems being used. Be aware that the gamers could also be using these legitimate methods.
Develop joint marketing efforts and schemes that exclude anyone involved in gaming Search.
Do this in the knowledge that option (A) might show a faster / higher return.

Come On Mickey....now you know you're telling porky pies......some are good at English i'll agree with that....but just as many are not. I not only see it in my own shops, but also with Land rentals too.....for the time spent explaining Land rules etc.

Don't type so fast - I'm trying to write these down

No...all i'm saying is that any ranking system you care to propose, can be gamed somewhere down the line....i showed you very quickly with your example. I'm not sure whether the end result would be any better.

If LL goes back to how they had ALL search system set at the very beginning, when it did not have such keyword density bias.....the product listing pages will return back to how they originally were. LL screwed up the system....when they tampered with the weightings back in Spring 2009......that's the reason why it now looks like a pig's mess!

I think everyone, even the Gamers would prefer to go back to nice looking Listing Pages.

Nope. Not telling a "porky pie."

Ah. It was a response to what I wrote, so I assumed it was about that.

"Competitive" is simply the number of people actively competing for a searchterm. It could be the most obscure searchterm in the word, but if 10 people compete for it for some reason, and there are no other results, it's more competitive than a much more widely used searchterm, with a million results but only 5 people competitng for it.

another one off the top of my head.

Pay the same company to have a few hundred Avatar TP's into your rival's Shops and don't buy (loads of -5 points there)
Say you aiming for high spot for the keyword "Fire Places"....and you happen to be in 15th position (on page 2).....send those hired avatars to your immediate rival's location without buying! In a day or two, you'll be on Page 1 !

I got off on a side street a bit....because I hadn't pulled that page up in a long time, and had it in front me.....and was LMAO.....thinking people are worried about THIS? This being an edge? to be on this page?

Didn't look like an edge to me.

That would just be "optimizing", wouldn't it... what's wrong with that?

Not every click has to count, nor does every person have to count. Whichever way you end up "cheating" can be mitigated to a large extent (ie if AdSense was as simple as "company pays for each and every click by someone" then it wouldn't work either since you'd just drain competitors' budgets in minutes).

You don't feel the results would be significantly better than what we currently have which is really the only objection you're truly raising and so far you haven't even come up with a reason for claiming that.

For the most popular keywords (not "Low Prim Furniture"...you'll be surprised what a difference it makes to be listed on page 1 in terms the unique daily visits .....even a difference from Positions 1 & 2 to say positions 4 & 5.....or to positions 8 & 9 of page 1. I've been monitoring unique visitor counts at all my locations for 3 years, so it's very easy to see the correlation for some of the Main Stores.

Providing the products are kosher and good or desirable ones....more unique visitors translates to more Sales.

If the page mentions all the offerings, then Search will find them.


Keyword stuffing, picks buying and traffic inflation do not "allow a person to find what they're looking for". All they do is put certain parcels further up the rankings.



That's an *excellent* argument against the use of keyword stuffing. Excellent!


Who claimed that they are?
What LL did was to link them in terms of activiry that would be punishable.
"Other things that may cause your listing to receive a lower search rank include: Keyword stuffing or false representation"


LL obviously disapprove of keyword stuffing.
You have above produced an excellent argument against keyword stuffing. It can lead to a situation where items available are not visible in Search because the available space in the parcel page has been consumed by keyword stuffing.

Yes. SL Search sucks, from the customer's viewpoint. This is what Qie was talking about, and several others who have said that since Search is so messed up, the only rational way to use it, is to game it.

Hey, try to do a People search on "M Linden". Because the first name is shorter than 3 letters, it's ignored, and you get ALL the Lindens.

I don't recall anyone saying that optimising was bad.
Optimising is good in my view.

However, I do not regard thinks like keyword stuffing, manufacturing artificial IBLs and falsely inflating traffic as 'optimisation'. That 's 'gaming'.

Well aware of that, Rene. If you remember correctly from our exchange in the other forum...I was the one that was pleased with sales, and you were the one that was saying sales are way down.

I'm listed on page 1 of almost every keyword search that I think I have product for. I also have some ways to determine where my visitors come from, and I do tons of tests, so well aware of where the visitors come from.

If you put all your eggs into one basket, and think that the only way to make it in business, is to place on page 1 of a search.....you are WRONG. And as I said above....to place on the page 1 that I had pulled up....would probably be detrimental.

There appears to have been a lot of judgement passed on Floyd.

Kitty- it's dead simple..the GSA 6 isn't a super computer...no matter what system you care to introduce it can and will be gamed to some extent. People are extraordinarily creative like that.
Yes, I'd like to see the end of keyword stuffing as it isn't pretty" Guess what?.. LL could change that today by simply changing the weightings ......this on its old system (I presume GSA 5) Blame LL for current farce!

When LL announced they where going to ban Traffic Bots & camping on Lands ticked for search....i more or less immediately thought of what could be the next big thing regarding gaming traffic! Models inside Shops was a no brainer, that was too obvious. .......but roaming bots, made to walk and look like unique visitors that TP in and out of several participating locations......almost like a rent-a-crowd for 20 mins or so, then move onto next location.

Guess what....they've arrived ....there are companies providing that exact same service.
That's what I mean....don't underestimate people's creativity to skirt around any rules LL should introduce. For the same reason with ALL Search can be exploited....by it's very nature that it somehow needs to rank one location higher than another.....how and why does it get higher ranking? Whatever parameters they are using...it can be gamed, it will be gamed.

I'm not in any way, shape or form a fan of keyword repetition. However keywords and short phrases are very useful due to the limited amount of text available in a parcel description, it's like comparing twitter to a blog post. You can't write a decent description in twitter, you have to consolidate.

I've long bemoaned how the google search appliance ruined parcel names because people now put keywords in the parcel name when previously they didn't as it wasn't such a big relevancy score.

Lets not exaggerate...they were not "way down"....they were 20-25% down in some shops during Oct-Dec period. In January they're now up by 15% without having done anything.....this purely how the in-world economy effected me during months of stagnant login growth. If you look at Help & Orientation Islands, you'll see increased activity and tons of green dots....its my belief LL are beginning to market the platform (has been a long time coming!!)

Maybe you should research the official blog regarding ALL Search changes and read what I wrote in a reply to Prokovy. In case you missed it....i'll write it here.

"If you want a reasonably successful business.....you cover all the bases....including All Search, Classifieds, decent presence on Places Search, a sizeable Group, lots of Picks, presence on Xstreet, alternative shopping sites, 3rd party Search sites, blogging sites etc etc.....you don't solely rely on just 1 or 2 sources, hence why i had so many options listed in my Shop survey."

You preaching to the choir!


.

Well, you've missed some very important bases, probably the Most Important ones....but you're off to a good start there.

The don't put all your eggs in one basket suggestion was directed to anyone reading, particularly those who are frustrated with not being on page one of a search.

You can consider it more of a "disclaimer" than "preaching." I generally add a reminder like that, whether someone is getting freaked by the costs of classified ads, freaked by costs of Xstreet listing, or freaked by group pics getting picked away at. Whatever the topic for the day is....

Misrepresentation is da ebil!
All agreed?

Excellent!


So I'm looking for some new dances of some type. I All Search and click on a top listing.

Ok. There's a bit of text giving the overview and then the headings:

Items found here:
Price Description

Oh goodie! This page layout is clearly designed by LL to let me see a list of items, with prices.

I scan the list and see that they have a dance item named "Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance"

That looks interesting! Maybe it's a new club dance. It sounds very dancey. Maybe you hop about doing this dance and shout "DANCE!!!" instead of "WOOT!!!!"

I see they have a number of those dance items. Hmmm. Maybe they come in different colours.

So I go to the place and begin looking for the "Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance" dances. The listing didn't give prices. maybe they are demos?

I can't find them. I go to the coordinates given by the Search page. It seems that they are in the ceiling. Someone edited the danceball too high?

I IM the owner.
"Hello. I'm in your shop at ...... I can't find the "Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance" dances that you have."

DOH!!! Delayed double-TP or something. I seem to be outside the shop all of a sudden????


============================

Anyway.
The clear intention of the page design is that it lists items available for use or viewing or purchase.
f it was the ceiling that was the actual item that was made available in Search for our enjoyment, is it not misrepresentation to describe it as "Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance"?

To represent "Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance" as an available item is misrepresentation.

But how about your point:

"If" they do.
Do you think that they do?
How could they help someone to find what they are looking for?

A search for "Dance" will find parcels with "Dance" as well as parcels with "Dance Dance Dance"

A search for "Dance" will find parcels that have a few natural Picks as well as parcels that have 100s of bought picks.

A search for "Dance" will find parcels that have low traffic as well as parcels that have high inflated traffic due to bots.



Keyword stuffing, picks buying and traffic inflation are of absolutely no benefit to the searcher.

Well "word of Mouth" was my 2nd highest vote category...in terms how one of my particular shops was found.....so I'm pleased with that result.

I think we can all agree that the current keyword stuffing is a farce......no one likes it, not even those that joined the arms race!

Blame LL for the farce...they changed the emphasis to text keyword density....it was ok prior to that,.... at least the listing pages had products for sale with proper names and descriptions. LL could change all that tomorrow if they really wanted to.

THe question is...

Did LL *make* anybody do keyword stuffing?

Nope!

What happened was that someone found that keyword stuffing raised rank and used it. Others then followed.

LL might have left the door open, but everybody had a choice not to enter.

You could leave your door unlocked in RL.
It is possible for people to enter without invitation, but they have a choice not to do so.
If someone enters and does harm, you could be admonished for being careless, but for anyone to say that it was your fault that the person did harm would be to ignore the responsibility of the person who entered and did the harm.

You seem to be accepting above that keyword stuffing is harmful.
The people most at fault here are the people doing the keyword stuffing.

I didn't say keyword stuffing is harmful.....i said it was messy and not useful in terms of viewing the Products sold at that location.....that's not to say, that these same Companies don't sell good quality products. The people most at fault are LL....ALL search was fine at least in terms in the way pages were presented....but LL went and f@cked it up again!

Lets go back to the example of the most common keyword we seem to focus on these threads...which is "Low Prim Furniture" The page 1 order hasn't really changed even when adjusted the weighting back last Spring......the same companies that had proper pages before are back there on Page 1 again, just with messier listing pages.

When LL changes over to GSA 6, you can bet within several weeks after the initial mayhem, the same orders will be established.....it doesn't matter how LL changes the bias, it will be discovered.....and you'll see the same sort of orders for those other popular keywords too like Hair, Shoes, Clothes, Fashion, Skins, Prefabs or whatever.
You'd be extremely niave not to think that.

Lots of Merchants have whole SIM's to pay for, they're not going to consider your whims on how they should present themselves in ALL Search.....you don't pay their Tiers at the end of the day....it's all about Sales versus Tiers, especially in this struggling economy.