Nick’s previous post “SEO is a terrible idea” seems to have ruffled a few feathers, and it has also been praised by many. There has been a lot of discussion in the twitter-blogoshpere saying that either we were out of our minds, or speaking the truth. It was a strongly worded post that enraged people who disagree, and pumped up people who agree. That is the point.
A blog article’s purpose is to be read and discussed, by people. The title, the headlines, and the words are all deliberately crafted to get people’s attention and deliver what the people want: information and emotional response.
We optimize our content for people.
SEO is Common Sense!
Photo by Allan Branch.
If SEO is common sense, why do we need a name for it? They don’t build sidewalks with fire hydrants planted in the middle of them. Do we call that Sidewalk Optimization? No! It’s common sense. We think about the people who use our product, and try to make it the best experience we can.
The SEOs argue that SEO is necessary. Here are some of the things that they talk about when we have the “SEO is bullcrap” discussion:
- Have a meaningful title.
- Have unique content.
- Update your site frequently.
- Put relevant keywords near the top of the article.
- Use alt tags for images.
Why do they get to call that Search Engine Optimization? When I am looking for information on a page, whether I came from Google, Twitter, or a random link, I look at the title first. I want to make sure the content I’m about to view isn’t a copy-paste of another article I read before this. Time is limited, and clicking the back button is easy.
Optimize For People
Nick mentioned an anecdote from a WordCamp Miami Session on SEO. When discussing Google’s Caffeine Update, every head looked up from their laptops and side conversations stopped. When the presenter started talking about how your rankings could change, looks of terror spread over the faces in the room.
If the words “Google is changing their algorithm” sends shivers down your spine, you’re doing it wrong. Google’s search engine has one goal (besides serving advertising, which is their primary goal): Be More Human. Google Search exists to help people find what they want. They hire some of the smartest people in the world to do this.
Looking at Google Search’s history, I am confident that all future updates will bias for the content people want to find.
1 comment so far ↓
SEO is a bad term… but I could say the same about AJAX. Most of what people consider AJAX we were doing in 1996 under a different name. And while its still called SEO all of the tools and techniques have been and will always be for people to find the article. The rest is actually SEM (i.e. gaming for ranking), and is a different topic all together
Findability is important and the way you’re framing the discussion is not telling the whole story, and the post has about as much substance as your
Linkbait Optimized, I mean People Optimized title.Leave a Comment