A thread titled World Without Search Engines, Amen started by forum admin at Cre8asite Forums, Bill Slawski, might just be the SEO thread of the month. If not the thread of the month, for sure the thread of the week. Ok, so what is this thread about?
It is about a passage from the Google Information for Webmasters that reads; "Another useful test is to ask, 'Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?'"
That prompted Bill to ask several questions - to start a very interesting and thoughtful thread. Here is the first post by Bill:
I've sort of looked at that statement with some derision in the past. Search Engines do exist, and advice like that isn't going to change that fact. But, I've been thinking lately that it might not be such a bad idea to take the question more seriously.What would you do if search engines didn't exist?
Imagine that the search engines all shut down. How would people find your web site?
What efforts might you make offline?
What would you do online?
Would you be considering exchanging links with anyone in particular?
How would you tell that a particular site was a good candidate to exchange links with?
How might television, magazines, newsletters, blogs, RSS, syndicated articles, forums, and so on, play into your post-search engine plans?
