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goobster  ·  1832 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results

    "...There's a large, black line between SEO manipulation and top-down manipulation of the algorithm..."

I don't agree at all. Search is a product; SEO is the attempt to game the programmatic weaknesses of that product.

There is no edict or diktat that requires Google Search to work in ONE way, for ever and ever. And it hasn't; the Farmer Update of 2011 is just one BIG example, but small tweaks happen almost constantly. I don't recall Google ever making a claim to be impartial... in fact, the whole benefit of their tool over other search methods was that its methodology was unknown and unpublished, and therefore was much harder to game. You might be able to for a bit, but they'd find out your trick, make a tweak, and now you are de-listed.