Google just published an SEO Starter Guide.

Well, I guess it’s time to close up shop. The final authority on ranking in Google has spoken. Why bother continuing an SEO site? The secret sauce is out.

or maybe not . . .

What if, instead, we did a case study?

On the one hand we will take a new site and follow Google’s SEO Starter Guide to the letter. We will limit ourselves only to the techniques discussed therein. (Note: there is virtually nothing in the starter guide about link building).

On the other hand, we will take a new site and do the EXACT OPPOSITE of every point of Google’s Quality Guidelines.

So, in the 2nd case:

* We will Make the pages primarily for search engines, not for users. We will deceive our users and present different content to the search engines than we display to the users (known as cloaking)

* We will Embrace tricks intend to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is that we would never want a competitor to know what we are doing. Another test is “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?” The answer will be an emphatic “NO!” on both points.

* We will participate in link schemes designed to increase our site’s Page Rank. In particular, we will link to other web spammers and “bad neighborhoods”.

* We will use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages.

* We will employ both hidden text and hidden links.

* We will cloak and use sneaky redirects.

* We will send automated queries to Google.

* We will engage in Keyword Stuffing.

* We will create multiple pages and subdomains with substantially duplicate content.

* Our site will include a link to a trojan.

* We will use a “cookie cutter” approach with little or no original content.

* We will make sure our site adds no value. We will provide no unique content.

So everyone, which one do you think will have more traffic and make more money after 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year?

Anyone care to make a wager? Larry?. . . Sergey? . . . Matt? . . . Anyone?