Search Engine Optimization and Resulting Inequality
Google is undeniably an incredibly important factor in determining a webpage’s popularity. With the ever increasing prevalence of web commerce and online markets companies both big and small are scrambling to increase their web traffic by increasing the odds they appear in Google searches. The algorithms that determine a websites page rank are often complex and draw upon a multitude of factors that are constantly changing with each update Google releases. This has led to rise of Search Engine Optimization, a specialized practice that relies on an innate understanding of search engine algorithms and by extension the networks a web page is a part of to optimize a web page’s content so it consistently has a high page.
While anyone can form a rudimentary understanding of the basics of internet networks and how they affect page ranking, truly optimizing a webpage is no easy task. As such professionals that thoroughly understand algorithms and networks have a significant advantage in Search Engine Optimization as they are able to much more quickly react to algorithm changes. These professionals are in high demand at large corporations and organizations that can not only afford them but have sites that have extremely complex networks that vastly increase page ranking but at the cost of adaptability to algorithm changes.
However, as these professionals are being hired it is creating a large disparity between small businesses, start ups, and grass roots movements, and large corporations. Those that occupy the top page rankings continue to do so as newly started competition cannot utilize search engine optimization to a high enough level both due to a lack of professional knowledge and from having too small of an established network to be considered relatively significant. Furthermore the networks utilized by both types of companies are not necessarily indicative of the quality or relevance of the page to the search being conducted. This has become an increasing cause of concern at a time when wealth disparity and social mobility are already pressing concerns.
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo