The Real Dave Pasternack
I’ve said many times in the past that I think SEO contests are stupid. But the Dave Pasternack contest is beyond stupid. It’s destructive, disrespectful, and completely unprofessional.
If the only person named Dave Pasternack happened to be one of the talking frogs from Did-it, I wouldn’t really have a problem with it. But he’s not. There’s another Dave Pasternack.
The real Dave Pasternack is an award-winning chef who owns an Italian seafood restaurant in New York’s Hell’s kitchen called Esca. (Italian for the word bait). He is also an author whose recipes have been featured on dozens of high-profile culinary websites and TV shows including Martha Stewart, Epicurious, Esquire, and New York Magazine.
He is a Master Chef on the rise.
And he is clearly the person real search engine users are looking for when they type in David Pasternack.
Unfortunately, when that happens, they only get 4 out of 10 results that are about Chef Pasternack. Even if you add a word and use a phrase like “Dave Pasternack Recipe” you still end up with a page talking about some rocket scientist dipshit in the #1 spot.
Now clearly, Chef Pasternack is pretty clueless when it comes to the web. He certainly could have been in a much stronger position in terms of SERP position when this genius contest was announced. But does that fact make it OK to pollute Google SERPS with a bunch of gibberish crap?
I don’t think it does.
At some point, someone close to Chef Pasternack will figure out that it might be a good idea to build a solid web presence much the same way Emeril and Wolfgang have. Unfortunately for Dave, he won’t be able to do that, because a bunch of dumbass SEO wannabes rushed out and registered every possible version of davepasternack.something that exists.
All for the chance to win a wopping $1,000.00.
Pretty shitty thing to do, if you ask me.
So consider this my official entry. I know I’m a day late and a dollar short, but I figure I might at least throw it out there, so when the dust finally settles on the contest, people looking for the real Dave Pasternack might have a little better chance of finding some information about him.
If I should happen to win, I’m going to take some friends to Dave Pasternack’s restaurant during SES New York. (Hmmm… maybe the person who gives the best link will come with me???) And even if I don’t win, I’m going to make it my mission to remove all traces of rocket scientists and baked goods from page one.
I’ll 301 any links this page gets to any of the appropriate pages on the web that talk about the real Dave Pasternack. And all of you contest participants should do the same.
And if you were lame enough to register all of Dave’s potential domain names, you should do the right thing and give them back. A guy who has worked as hard as Dave has to build his career shouldn’t get bent over simply because we all thought it would be fun to take shots at an idiot.
Comments
33 Responses to “ The Real Dave Pasternack ”
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too bad you had to violate the rules to do this one..
Not sure what you mean? The page is about Dave Pasternack, it talks about SEO and I posted it in the TW thread?
So what rule am I breaking?
Your post is a good dose of reality. Interesting that now one ever bothered to check into this before or think about what the ramifications of this contest could be.
Good post Greg… “Pissing in the Internet Pool” is the thought that comes to mind with all this crap.
Just so you’re aware Greg, you’re already no.1 on the SERP for Dave Pasternack.
I’m not seeing it from any location I’ve checked.
I think he is seeing todds, which is now 301′d here, and just made a mistake assuming it was your listing already.
Greg
you were #1 yesterday, well Oilman redirect to you, not sure of DC but on .com
Today gone, hopefully to return, an excellent idea
phantom redirect.. technically spam according to Google’s webmaster rules..
right? at least you can be reported as spam for it.. then again.. it would be good to have “dave pasternack” flagged as a spam term..
this is not the URL that shows up in search..
http://general.webguerrilla.com/dave-pasternack/
this one is..
http://www.oilman.ca/dave-pasternack/dave-pasternack/
Good job on following the rules.. not.. thanks for giving the organic people credibility.. not..
-disappointed.. but hey.. it’s $1000 bucks and did-it.PPCTwits don’t win.. so.. ya take what ya can get dealing with buffoons… (meaning dave pasternack - PPC ASSCLOWN) …
SEO… 3 out of 4 rocket scientists don’t get it either…
Greg.
The flip side of your argument would be to leave most of the mess as-is, just to prove to the masses that decry the end of SEO that indeed it isn’t dead which is what the PPC crowd was pushing that started this fiasco in the first place.
Sure it’s not fair to the chef of ESCA, so put him in the #1 spot as a public service, and then bury the other Dave as far as possible.
i like bill’s idea…
p.s.
Page does not match Google’s description
Cloaked page
Deceptive redirects
Doorway pages
bad boy..
Good job on following the rules.. not.. thanks for giving the organic people credibility.. not..
what are talking about? creative 301ing stuff is simply advanced seo and shows what we can do. Phantom redirect? not at all.
just because Google is taking their time doing what we want isn’t our problem. The current listing isn’t cloaked and the content matches the url that google has indexed.
It’s nice to see someone that people actually listen to take a stand like this.. I’ve always wondered why these SEO ‘competitions’ were so popular.. But I think that this is the first one to actually harm innocent bystanders..
What innocent bystander was harmed?
I never heard of Dave Pasternack the chef before this contest and I’m sure most of the people in the SEO community didn’t know who he was either.
The lines waiting at ESCA during SES NY might be legendary!
Dave Pasternack the chef is now more famous than ever thanks to this contest so the only innocents possibly hurt are those naive enough NOT to get a reservation to dine at ESCA.
I knew who he was.. But then I’m a food network geek..
paisley: Google states that a 301 redirect should be used to let them know when a page has been permanantly removed and/or palced elsewhere.
Todd felt that Gregs page had more relevence than his own page did, I agree with that, so he 301′d his page to Gregs. All he has done is make the SERPS quality go up in doing so.
a 301 is not a “deceptive” redirect in the least. Neither he, or Greg broke any rules with it.
Looks like google finally saw and handled the 301 properly.
Paisley - 301 redirects are fine. Google just doesn’t like pages which show content (to rate highly in SERPs), then redirects the user into another page.
(see http://www.maxmoose.com.au/review/rfrbar8.htm for an example)
It looks like Michael Gray (Graywolf) just set up a 301 to this page too - another top-10 site for [dave pasternack] pointing here.
Maybe after the contest is over, Greg will call Chef Dave Pasternack, and whip up a bio page for http://www.esca-nyc.com/ and 301 redirect this page over to there…?
Then the SEO comp will have benefited Chef Dave Pasternack - and not the one who “bakes cakes”
Well, whether you agree the technique breaks rules or not, it certainly looks to be working almost right on time for the end of the contest.
Looks like his did-it bio is #1 for his name now…
i know what a 301 is.. when i wrote some of the rules for DMOZ and Yahoo! a long time ago, (mid-late 90s) this would have been something I would have flagged as spamdexing and removed from the index(s)..
it’s not something I would do for a client.. or can’t for that matter, and the fact that both URLs showed up for the same query and pointed to the same content is spamming.. 301s are supposed to be used for supplementary URL redirects.. but yes it works in this example.. and while I do applaud you for bitchslapping the PPC ASSCLOWN, dave pasternack.. i may not agree with your methods, professionally of course. personally.. i’m doing some other shit but not saying anything about it.. (insert devilish smile and peter lorry-ish laugh)
We are coming close to the deadline tho.. Google has an index update right before.. has anyone narrowed down the details, like what time of day the contest is judged, is it 12:00:01am thursday? is it EOB on the 1st? safe search on or off? which google search server must be used, etc?
i really don’t want this PPC ASSCLOWN - dave pasternack to come above the chef dave pasternack… so u want the SERP boost for this page? and not the oilman URL, correct?
Yes, that would be correct.
Greg:
Very classy and brilliant as always! Not only do you defend the honor of the SEO profession by securing the number 1 spot, you manage to do it by taking the high road and the easiest strategy. Brilliant!
As I mentioned in my blog about your post, http://itstheroi.com/2007/02/25/boser-on-pasternack/, you better reserve that table for 10 now, because Esca might be the hottest ticket in town.
did anyone nail down the particulars of the contest? is it EOB wednesday? or midnight tonite, and what time zone?
The original TW post says March 1st, at noon EST.
anything about safe search, etc.. filtering.. safe search fucks ya.. fyi..
lol.. we have a company process document on how to set up google and yahoo to measure results.. etc.. just somehting to think about..
Why are you asking these questions here? Why don’t you just read the original post?
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/11507
Looks like it’s just over 12 hours to go…
Is it too early to count chickens and say “Well Done Greg!”
P.S. - has anyone else noticed DP posting comments on just about every blog post which mentions his name? I’ve mentioned him twice on my blog, and had 2 comments from him. Spam?
Yes I have.
Since I couldn’t personally “vouch” for the link they were using on my blog and it’s purpose, I decided to do the “right” thing and remove it.
I actually see greg at #3 now, and some articles on the real Dave Pasternack in #1-2
[quote]Yes I have.
Since I couldn’t personally “vouch” for the link they were using on my blog and it’s purpose, I decided to do the “right” thing and remove it.
[/quote]
I did the same thing.
P.S. - I got the international dateline wrong in my last comment - forgot us Aussies are ahead of the US of A (in one thing at least)
Hey Dude, I guess you are the winner of the Dave Pasternack contest..Congratulations.