SEO for Dummies – not a book, a reality. Search engines are dumb.
SEO is simple.
Be unique in what you say.
Search engines don’t care who you are, what you do, rather they care about how different you are from the eleventy billion other voices out there.
Search engines are dumb. They don’t have a thought of their own. They rely on others’ recommendations and opinions.
SEO depends on being unique and being found and being talked about.
Are you being unique? If not, why not?
Hi Grant,
Although I completely agree with your premise that search engines are dumb, that is exactly what makes me have to disagree with your point. For SEO you should write dumb content.
We had an SEO working for us for sometime and one of the big lessons we learned is that search engines like it when you sound just like everyone else. Why? because that’s how they are programmed. If you want people who are searching for unique keywords or phrases then yes, by all means, be unique, but if you are looking for ubiquitous results, then you probably need to be ubiquitous. We call it dull, boring writing and we hate it.
This is the biggest reason we think SEO is bullshit and no longer pander. It seems to be working for our business but our approach might not be best for everyone.
I’m sorry to say there is no easy road to success.
Steven, thanks for your comments.
I 100% agree there’s no easy road to success. I also believe SEO isn’t brain surgery in both the figurative and literal sense.
That being said… SEO can work in most instances for most companies, not so much from a ‘trick the search engines’ standpoint, rather from a ‘best practices’ standpoint to ensure your site ranks as high as it can for keywords that drive quality (defined by having the propensity to do what you want them to do when they get there) traffic to your site.
Good SEO *strategy*, along with folks that know what they’re doing to implement SEO best practices *specifically* related to your business goals is where I separate the bullshit from “the shit” – the good kind 🙂
To address your point about ‘same is good’ on content, I disagree.
When one takes a page as a whole, analyze and compare against higher-ranking competition, one can arrive at a ‘best practice’ for the particular keyword based on frequency, anchor text, ratios, linking, semantics, formatting etc. However “on page” content is only one part of the equation. Being interesting and unique, potentially drives eyeballs = links = authority in the eyes of the search engines.
Search engines are dumb, but they put great weight to what people are talking about.
Being unique gets people talking. You guys have a pretty unique voice, culture and product roadmap.
Your current voice says: “We’re better because we’re less.” – Not bad, but could it be more specific or interesting to attract search engines and links?
Your SEO voice might say the same, only more, and more “interesting”: “Screw Quickbooks, we’re everything you need to manage the finances of your small business without the bloat, expense or pain.”
As one part of an SEO strategy, your unique SEO voice *will create interest* because it uses competition, passion, problem and what you do; succinctly and in a way that promotes conversation = potential for links / authority.