There’s only one kind of SEO that I like. The SEO Rapper kind:
When I was at WordCamp Miami a few weeks ago, I attended a session called “WordPress SEO” mostly to just pass time until lunch. Towards the end of the talk, the speaker said that a major update to Google’s search engine algorithm is coming very soon. He went on to say that the last time Google updated their search engine without warning, many people went out of business because their once highly ranked pages dropped off the face of Google.
The background chatter and the clacking of laptop keyboards stopped. A hush came over the crowd. People were scared out of their minds.
Chasing the Curve
Getting high up on Google is a terrible marketing strategy. In fact, if the success of a business hangs in the balance, it’s dangerous. When you optimize for search engines you constantly have to update your site. Not only do you have to stay ahead of other SEO goofballs, you’re also running away from the Google Cops (a term coined by Jim). Any time Google updates their search engine or you change servers or you repurpose a domain or whatever, you risk losing your search engine ranking. This is reckless. When you market your site to real people, this risk is avoided.
Diet and Exercise
Most SEO tips I’ve heard are just tricks and hacks; you know what I’m talking about. They get you that last 5% of benefit at the expense of focusing on things that matter. It’s almost like taking diet pills instead of eating properly and exercising. These are the SEO tips that I find to be most toxic because they have nothing to do with real people.
However, I’ve also heard SEO tips like “keep your site up to date with fresh content” or “get relevant sites to link to yours.” This advice isn’t quite as bad, but it’s coming from a cold and calculated frame of mind. If you care about what you’re doing and you’re interacting with people in your space, these things will just happen.
Don’t optimize for robots. Optimize for people.
4 comments ↓
[...] that you might find useful. I feel they back up my point quite well. Check out Nick Pettit’s SEO is a terrible idea and Paul Boag’s response to the question Does Google Personalised Listings Affect Your [...]
Trying to do SEO on a single post I think can be a waste of time. Frankly, if people like your content they will share it, if you encourage them to. For all the posts I do I put in place basic SEO and then make sure it’s an article that provides value.
[...] 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 [...]
SEO is not a terrible idea, and the only people that need to fear having their business fall off the map, are people that practice blackhat techniques. For the people using the guidelines laid out in the Google webmaster tools, they should have absolutely no problem.
Yes, it’s important to write content for your visitors first, but it should be done using seo friendly methods, for example making use of your important keywords.
If you are scared of Google updates, than you are doing the wrong thing. Plain and simple. When Google updates, I’m typically happy because my competitors drop off the map, and my clients gain placement.
SEO is good, when done properly. It helps gain exposure for products and services that may otherwise go unknown. Sure you can gain referrals by doing a great job, but we’re not talking about referral business, we’re talking about acquiring new visitors/business from people searching on particular keywords, not searching for your company. If you’d like your company to show up for your keywords (which might have a fair amount of competition trying to rank for them), than you’ve got to optimize your website.
SEO means different things to different people. To me, it means making sure your website meets all of the quality guidelines, e.g. valid xhtml, optimized meta content, copy, and inbound links. If you do those properly, you’ll rank for what you want, and you won’t need to worry about the sky falling on the next search engine update.
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