SEO Is Just Good House Keeping
I read a top post recently about SEO and it got me to thinking about it’s importance. The post talked about building something so remarkable that people would come and use it no matter what and that the cream would rise to the top. I love this idea and agree with it to a large extent but it just doesn’t work like that. Not everybody has the ability to build truly outstanding products or services.
Lets compare it to the real world. SEO is very much like traditional maketing. There are really nice innovative, subtile ways to market yourself and there are more annoying yet effective methods such as leaflet drops, telemarketing, TV advertising and various others.
Lets use a restaurant as an example. The best chef in town will simply cook stunning food and have a simple menu outside his restaurant. His ability will see him rewarded with countless awards, TV appearances and critical acclaim. Word of mouth will be the strongest card in his marketing deck.
His middle of the road restaurant neighbour however who doesn’t have much talent will need to employ a more aggressive strategy (or SEO for the real world). He will need a bright sign announcing that he sells food. He may hire somebody to stand on a nearby street with a sandwich board announcing his special offers. He may drop leaflets in to businesses and homes in the area. He may buy premium spots on restaurants listings sites. He may buy advertising in city guide magazines.
Online works in very much the same way. Not every site is as useful as a Facebook or Amazon. Some sites are very much middle of the road and just like the average restaurant they will have to give themselves a leg up and jump up those rankings by employing SEO and PPC (paid Google advertising).
SEO is a dark art and new websites and services should defientily try and make their sites so amazing that they don’t need to rely on it but at the same time make sure they have the basics right. You can’t ignore it. You would be foolish to ignore it. For all the talk about us finding an increasing amount of our content through things like social search most of us find the things we are looking for through Google. We type in what we are searching for and Google gives us answers.The answers may not always be the best product or service on offer but Google is getting better and the algorithm is depending less on things that can be influenced such as incoming links.
Don’t spend your whole life thinking about SEO but do make sure that you have the basics right and that your house is in order. Add a good service or remarkable content to the mix and you will be on to a winner. We may not like people who rely completely on SEO and it may not be noble as a art form but business is about getting customers to your site/service and SEO is definitely still one of the most effective ways of doing that and will remain so for some time.
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