Search Engine Optimization. The very name conjures up images sophisticated algorithms and secret techniques that help one website get better position over another. There are so many people who pay big money to have someone like me help them with their website. The truth of the matter is they don’t need to.
Search Engine Optimization – the act of manipulating elements on a rendered HTML page to effect a better placement within the search engine indexes. That’s all SEO is folks. We research keywords and make subjective decisions based on what we think. Those decisions lead to a redesign of a website, adding copy, or some other unpleasantness. It isn’t magic. It’s research and experiential learning.
One thing that drives me nuts about this industry is how closely everyone holds their cards to their chests. You’ve likely seen it if you’ve gone to a conference. Name tags with nick names instead of real names, people that hesitate when you ask them what they do for a living, people that carefully avoid talking about the market space they are involved with. Why? It’s as if they’re afraid I might find out who they are and invade their market space. The reality is that there are some folks in this industry who might but the majority of us are too busy with our own markets. Caveat: totally exploited markets like the pharmaceuticals and pornography. In these markets everyone is a target. Back to SEO.
There are many folks who have figured out the mechanics of SEO. It’s really not that difficult. In fact, it’s very much like a paint by numbers kit. Follow the recipe and you’ll have painted a wonderful picture of a covered bridge over some forgotten river. Here. I’ll give it to you in simple terms. I
Search engine optimization is all about keywords. Build pages that are focused on a keyword(s). The keywords should support the topic of your website. Make sure you have all of the ingredients the search engines check for and assembled in good order (META Data, on page copy, on page titles, keywords). Make sure all of these speak to the topic the keywords support for that page. Do NOT repeat the keywords on other pages within your website UNLESS they link to the page that’s targeting that keyword. Make sure you’ve got an appropriate ratio and amount of copy and keywords mixed together. Keep adding on topic content and get links to it. Rinse well and repeat. Black hat SEOs would modify this a bit more using some less than reliable techniques. Steer clear of their them and their techniques.
Most of what I just wrote could have been written by any con artist. It sounded good didn’t it – plausible at least. I know how to talk the language just like I know how to paint by numbers. Anyone can do it and that’s one of the reasons I hate SEO – it’s so easy to talk the language that any knucklehead can sound like they know what they’re doing if they learn the language and use a paint by number scheme. Most business people won’t know the difference until after they’ve spent $20,000 or $100,000 and seen no return for it.
What makes me boiling mad is that the businesses and organizations out there that spend this money don’t see the obvious. What I see is that we tell you over and over again, your own business sense is probably telling you too, there is NO SIMPLE ANSWER to achieving better rankings! AND what is more – the goal isn’t simply to achieve better rankings (if it is then I won’t by stock in your company). The goal had better be to affect some action that supports the organization – either add to the bottom line or facilitate the mission. E.g. you want to sell more products and services, get the phones to ring more, have more people contact you, connect with more people in your market space than you have ever done before.
So what’s real art if SEO is a paint by numbers kit? Think big. Then think bigger than that!
Success on the web isn’t a matter of degrees, it’s a matter of revolution. It’s not about manipulating small components on an HTML web page. It’s about utilizing many different levels of communication and positioning your organization such that your brand reaches your audience and engages them where they need/want you. In Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of Innovation, he writes “Too many companies duke it out on the same curve. If they were daisy wheel printer companies, they think innovation means adding Helvetica in 24 points. Instead, they should invent laser printing.” Think bigger than your competition. Think beyond SEO. Stay tuned – I’ll tackle this next.
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