March 27, 2011

Oblique Search Engine Optimization

Conventional search engine optimization seeks to match searchers with appropriate content. Oblique search engine optimization is not concerned with rankings or traffic but more with refining methods and processes. The methods or processes that one obliquely optimizes may or may not draw search traffic for a specific Website. The purpose of oblique SEO is to improve the process without regard for the results.
There are reasons why you may want to separate the results from the process. For example, if you’re not sure of your execution you may want to make a trial run. And who am I fooling? When there may be an element of risk involved with a technique, most people will test it out a few times to see what happens (of course, Fundoscopic examination is unrevealing in these cases — but that’s neither here nor there).
Risk in search engine optimization is not measured by how much you get caught or penalized — there are risks which have nothing to do with violating search engine guidelines. You may have to mitigate risks entailed by changing URLs, rewriting Web copy, adding widgets, removing old content, etc. When you’re not sure of what will happen, testing a small change ahead of a comprehensive change may give you insight into what comes next.
Oblique search engine optimization addresses more than just managing risk. Oblique optimization also provides for greater flexibility in creating a Website. One of the chief psychological barriers to growing a Website is the self-imposed limit on topicality. “I can’t write about that! It isn’t relevant (to what I am doing” is an oft-rung alarm klaxon. Another treasured gem is “There is no money in adding that kind of content to my site — so why should I waste my time on it?”
Oblique search engine optimization helps you move up to the next level. It forces you to focus on links and content that have not been on your radar, which is exactly what you need to do when you find yourself thinking, “Is that all there is? Is there nothing more?”
If your search referral traffic has hit the wall and you feel like it should be growing but doesn’t despite all you do, it’s time to do something unexpected, something that appears to have no direct connection to your clear and specific plans and goals. Your targets may be set too high for your current strategies, so you can keep doing what you’re doing or try something else.
Oblique search engine optimization also helps you take on competitive situations where your competitors feel they hold all the cards. Hostile Websites attempting to destroy your search reputation may have pretty strong positions but if you can leverage enough other strong Websites into your search results you can move the hostile sites down.
Oblique SEO is the practice of optimizing a search system to improve intangible or secondary results. It is oblique because it departs from the expected path dictated by conventional wisdom. Don’t confuse obliqueness for opacity. Your oblique decisions may be quite transparent.
Nonetheless, addressing the oblique issues of search engine optimization and pursuing oblique targets that don’t include increasing traffic, building conversions, and improving profitability is a step toward more advanced search optimization.
Ultimately oblique search engine optimization helps you improve those key performance indicators upon which your business is built by giving you breathing space to think, allowing you to tinker under the hood, tuning up your site’s content and structure, broadening your backlink support, increasing the range of keywords you’re willing to pursue, and building up the foundation of your future SEO success.

Written By Michael Martinez

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