Re: Deliberately dropping?

[MM]

T.J. wrote:
> I have someone hassling me to make big changes to a site
> all in one go. I don't want to do this as if it drops it will be
> an elimination process to get it back up.
> What's the best thing I can do to make it drop out of site
> temporarily but be able to get back up within a couple of days?
> A shock like this might keep them of my back for a while ;o)
>
>
There is a somewhat less technical solution. It only involves the
inputting of a phone number.

Call this person up and say, "I don't want to make several changes at
once, because if something goes wrong, it would be a lot of work to
figure out what change actually caused the problem. So, get off my back."

Just a suggestion.

MM

[T.J.]

"MM" <ngreader@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:F%jwd.530043$%k.462050@pd7tw2no...
> T.J. wrote:
>> I have someone hassling me to make big changes to a site
>> all in one go. I don't want to do this as if it drops it will be
>> an elimination process to get it back up.
>> What's the best thing I can do to make it drop out of site
>> temporarily but be able to get back up within a couple of days?
>> A shock like this might keep them of my back for a while ;o)
>>
>>
> There is a somewhat less technical solution. It only involves the
> inputting of a phone number.
>
> Call this person up and say, "I don't want to make several changes at
> once, because if something goes wrong, it would be a lot of work to figure
> out what change actually caused the problem. So, get off my back."
>
> Just a suggestion.
>
> MM

That was the first thing I told them, to which their reply was something
along the lines of "Does it matter about the internal pages as long
as the front page is no.1?"
Basically, they want me to link straight to the products pages and homepage
of another site and not bother with all my internal pages.
I've told them that will effectively make my main way page a doorway page,
but they have no concept of what this means.

What I would like to do is give them a bit of a shock, which is why I want
to
temporarily get the site to drop , but once they get the message I will want
to
get the site straight back up.

[MM]

T.J. wrote:
> "MM" <ngreader@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:F%jwd.530043$%k.462050@pd7tw2no...
>
>>T.J. wrote:
>>
>>>I have someone hassling me to make big changes to a site
>>>all in one go. I don't want to do this as if it drops it will be
>>>an elimination process to get it back up.
>>>What's the best thing I can do to make it drop out of site
>>>temporarily but be able to get back up within a couple of days?
>>>A shock like this might keep them of my back for a while ;o)
>>>
>>>
>>
>>There is a somewhat less technical solution. It only involves the
>>inputting of a phone number.
>>
>>Call this person up and say, "I don't want to make several changes at
>>once, because if something goes wrong, it would be a lot of work to figure
>>out what change actually caused the problem. So, get off my back."
>>
>>Just a suggestion.
>>
>>MM
>
>
> That was the first thing I told them, to which their reply was something
> along the lines of "Does it matter about the internal pages as long
> as the front page is no.1?"
> Basically, they want me to link straight to the products pages and homepage
> of another site and not bother with all my internal pages.
> I've told them that will effectively make my main way page a doorway page,
> but they have no concept of what this means.
>
> What I would like to do is give them a bit of a shock, which is why I want
> to
> temporarily get the site to drop , but once they get the message I will want
> to
> get the site straight back up.
>
>
I think that you are seeking a technical solution to a human problem.
That usually doesn't cure the real problem, just delays it.

If I am understanding this, you are doing this work for someone else,
perhaps a client who hired you because you were thought to have more
expertise than they do. Then, upon hiring you, they suddenly become
experts in *your* field.

I think that this is the basic nature of about 20% of clients of
anything. Maybe 20% is too low but I digress...

First of all, I think that manipulating the search engine results is not
a good idea. You may be able to engineer a drop, but you might not be
able to rescue it or undo what you have done immediately. If there is a
time lag, then that would be bad for the client and bad for you.
Besides, that approach seems a little passive-aggressive.

I am not sure I completely understand the situation about their desire
to link to another site. I don't think it's important that I understand
the the problem you describe, since that does not appear to be the real
problem.

The real problem seems to be credibility. They don't appear to assign a
lot of credibility to your opinions. Perhaps this is a new relationship.

Whatever the situation, you'll have to earn credibility by patiently
explaining to them why you think the course of action you are
prescribing is the best choice.

Be firm if you want to win this disagreement. For instance, it *does*
matter about the internal pages, since they can greatly assist in making
the "front" page #1 and so on.

If you convince them that your idea is the way to go, then it has to
work or they won't want to listen to your advice again.

If you have presented your case to the best of your ability and they
still don't see the light, then you have two choices - say (cheerfully),
"Okay, I'll do it your way" and continue to try to earn credibility in
their eyes so that next time something like this occurs (it will) they
will assign more weight to what you say, or say (somewhat less than
cheerfully), "I can't continue under these conditions, bye-bye". Some
clients are not worth having.

MM

[SEO Dave]

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 18:25:02 -0000, "T.J." wrote:

>Basically, they want me to link straight to the products pages and homepage
>of another site and not bother with all my internal pages.
>I've told them that will effectively make my main way page a doorway page,
>but they have no concept of what this means.

Sometimes clients are their own worse enemy, much worse than their
competition (I have the T-Shirt :-)).

How important are the internal pages of the site they want the links
removed from? If not very important then a few links from the home
page to internal would solve the problem, that's if you think it's a
good SEO idea in principle (I don't).

From the sounds of it I'd never do what is suggested above. A single
home page linking to every page of another site just doesn't make
sense. I suspect they are fixated on PR and not what really matters
anchor text/PR/relevance.

If the two sites are related a much better plan is to link from
related pages of one site to related pages of the other site. This is
more natural linking and will result in much more traffic than what
they suggest with no risk of the domain looking like a doorway page!

David
--
http://www.search-engine-optimization-services.co.uk/

[Expert who says moo]

We aren't asking the right questions to give you a real solution. The real
questions are 1) What is the relationship between you (your company) and
this other person (company) and 2) How are you being paid exactly? My guess
would be you are in an affiliate/client relationship. If this is the case
then its your site and you make it anyway you see fit. Then they have a
choice, either then end the relationship and you give your traffic to their
competitors or they don't and the status quo continues.

If this isn't an affiliate relationship and you are simply being paid by
this other company, then do it their way. They pay the bills they are the
boss. If its foolish such is life, as long as you get paid.

Anyway, so answer the first 2 questions first and then we'll have an answer
for you.

Mike
"T.J." <no1@home.invalid> wrote in message
news:cpsjtt$jfv$1@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> "MM" <ngreader@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:F%jwd.530043$%k.462050@pd7tw2no...
>> T.J. wrote:
>>> I have someone hassling me to make big changes to a site
>>> all in one go. I don't want to do this as if it drops it will be
>>> an elimination process to get it back up.
>>> What's the best thing I can do to make it drop out of site
>>> temporarily but be able to get back up within a couple of days?
>>> A shock like this might keep them of my back for a while ;o)
>>>
>>>
>> There is a somewhat less technical solution. It only involves the
>> inputting of a phone number.
>>
>> Call this person up and say, "I don't want to make several changes at
>> once, because if something goes wrong, it would be a lot of work to
>> figure out what change actually caused the problem. So, get off my
>> back."
>>
>> Just a suggestion.
>>
>> MM
>
> That was the first thing I told them, to which their reply was something
> along the lines of "Does it matter about the internal pages as long
> as the front page is no.1?"
> Basically, they want me to link straight to the products pages and
> homepage
> of another site and not bother with all my internal pages.
> I've told them that will effectively make my main way page a doorway page,
> but they have no concept of what this means.
>
> What I would like to do is give them a bit of a shock, which is why I want
> to
> temporarily get the site to drop , but once they get the message I will
> want to
> get the site straight back up.
>

[T.J.]

"Expert who says moo" <oranges@panix.com> wrote in message
news:cpul11$h5q$1@reader1.panix.com...
> We aren't asking the right questions to give you a real solution. The
> real questions are 1) What is the relationship between you (your company)
> and this other person (company) and 2) How are you being paid exactly? My
> guess would be you are in an affiliate/client relationship. If this is
> the case then its your site and you make it anyway you see fit. Then they
> have a choice, either then end the relationship and you give your traffic
> to their competitors or they don't and the status quo continues.
>
> If this isn't an affiliate relationship and you are simply being paid by
> this other company, then do it their way. They pay the bills they are the
> boss. If its foolish such is life, as long as you get paid.
>
> Anyway, so answer the first 2 questions first and then we'll have an
> answer for you.
>
> Mike


Your right that it is a sort of affiliate/client relationship, but it isn't
done via a network.

They are friends/ex- work colleagues. I initially put a 4 or 5 page
site up for as a favour and as a demo of what SEO can do.
It was 4 or 5 pages about one of their products and was soon
no.1 on Google.
This got them interested and they offered me a commission on
everything they sell if I put more products on the site.
It's now grown to about a 100 page site with various top10 rankings.

The problem is, they also have a site, and would prefer me to
optimise this now.
They think that by simply scrapping my internal pages and linking
to theirs it will be better for both of us (I Won't have to worry
about maintaining internal pages, but they will still pay me
a commission)
For obvious reasons, there is no way I am going to do this and rather
than simply telling them to take a walk I would rather make a few of the
changes they want and deliberately have the site drop in the rankings.
I can then say, I told you so and hopefully they will leave all the
optimising
to me and concentrate on the selling ;o)

Once this has happened I will want the site back at the top ASAP.
which is why I ask what is the best way to deliberately get a site to drop
temporarily but is safe so I can get it straight back up when needed?
Is there something I can put in the robots txt which will do the job, but
once I remove it normal rankings will return?

[MM]

T.J. wrote:

>
> The problem is, they also have a site, and would prefer me to
> optimise this now.
> They think that by simply scrapping my internal pages and linking
> to theirs it will be better for both of us (I Won't have to worry
> about maintaining internal pages, but they will still pay me
> a commission)

You are in the driver's seat but only because you have internal pages
generating traffic and sales. If you give those away, plus optimize
their site, you have nothing. They could easily say, "What do we need
you for again?"

Of course, they're going to make it seem like it is in your best
interest to make changes favorable to them, if they are skilled negotiators.

If you could make the site drop out of site for a short time and then
return it to its position in the serps, I still don't see how that will
solve the problem. Besides, if you are unable to bring it back to where
it was before (a very real possibility) you lose everything you are
trying to preserve.

Why not just say to them that despite the fact that there is some
maintenance required, you would like to keep your pages as they are.
Their reaction to that should help you find out more about their real
position.