Building 43: The Gatekeepers

Seth points to a very popularly linked page in the NYT about Google's infamous Building 43. That center houses a bunch of the best minds in the business all focused on spoiling "black hat" and unethical web SEO tactics. Seth nails it in this graph:

Seth's Blog: Building 43: "Once you've done everything you can... once you've built a web of information and once you've given the ability to do this to your best clients and your partners and colleagues, then by all means apply the best SEO thinking in the world to your efforts. Hire the best consultants and use the resources you've got left to be sure you're playing by the right rules.

Betting against Building 43 doesn't seem nearly as smart as betting on them."

Damn straight. One of the things I preach to my clients over and over again is that there is simply no shortcuts. Want to be known as the best physical therapist on the web... be them. Offer advice, links to products and services - even competitors where it makes sense. Establish community, if not a 'social network', at least a place where like minded gather to read and view what you are doing. It isn't even hard to do anymore. There are tools and services out there that are free to really, really cheap YouTube, for example is a soft marketers dream. Streaming video that doesn't eat your bandwidth... are you kidding?

Does it take time? Yep. Does it require doing more than what we are doing now? Yep. Does it sometimes require the expertise of a consultant hell bent on having you do it the right way? Yes, it does.

It just does.