With regards to this topic, both the web design and SEO community appear to be firmly divided. On the one hand we have the so-called 'black hat' operators trying to beat the engines and bewailing their lot each time their results are wiped out yet again by the latest algorithm update, on the other are 'white hat' designers and optimisation professionals who work in line with search engine guidelines to produce informative, user-friendly and easily indexed sites capable of achieving true long-term rankings.
Whilst there has been a lot of uproar about search engine algorithm changes hurting online businesses, the vast majority of the complaints being thrown into the ether have come from the wrong side of the web design and SEO tracks, so to speak. Indeed, if it were not for the persistent efforts of black hat operators trying to beat the algorithms into delivering less relevant and in some cases even downright false results, the major search providers would have no need to implement changes on quite so drastic a level.
A search engine's first objective must be to satisfy user enquiries. If it does not, users will simply migrate elsewhere to get better results.
One perfect example of this is Excite; once the undisputed king of the search industry, it has become nothing but a dried up husk struggling for survival since being overtaken by the newer technologies of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN which produce infinitely more relevant results to their user's enquiries.
'Relevance' is the key since it provides the user with what he or she wants above all else; information. Therefore, search engine algorithms are constantly evolving to provide visitors with the answers to their questions without having to wade through fifty pages of trash results.
If web design and SEO efforts are to produce lasting results, the trick is not to fool search engine algorithms into thinking that their site is better than its competitors, but to produce a site which actually is better than its opposition.
Whilst some industry professionals may argue with this opinion, it is nevertheless a fact that sites based on solid web design methodologies and containing plenty of unique, high quality content tend to survive search engine algorithm changes more or less unscathed whereas less content-rich or poorly coded sites will normally suffer.
Search engines then are not the web designer's or SEO professional's foes, although there are certainly some operators within these industries which may be classed as a search engine's enemies.
