SEO != 42 July 17, 2008
Posted by bohenriksen77 in SEO.Tags: search engine optimization, SEM, SEO, usability
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For those finding the title of this post a little cryptic i recommend reading the Wikipedia articles Operators in C and C++ and Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
In the time I have worked with SEO, most of the sales pitches I have heard regarding SEO and SEM, from our own sales staff, partners and competitors, has concluded that “If you wan’t your online business to succeed, all you need is SEO/SEM, and your ROI will skyrocket!”. I know and accept that salesmen tend to glorify the product, and will do almost anything to sell it. I know they will make it look like you doen’t need anything but SEO/SEM and you will be fine. But I disagree.
While I’m not a business genius, my understanding is that keeping a client happy means keeping a client, and it takes less effort to keep a client, than to gain a new client. Assuming that my simple business understanding is correct, I have fougth for a more holistic approach, where SEO is an important part of the foundation for online success, but not the one true answer.
My view on things is that SEO/SEM should go hand in hand with usability, design and market analysis. Having the best, most userfriendly website in the world won’t do anything good, if nobody can find it. Having lots of search engine top rankings won’t do anything good if people exit your website as soon as they get there, because it is ugly or userhostile. Even the best website with great rankings won’t do anything good for your business, if users can’t relate the website to the search they just did, so this is where market analysis comes in.
The market analyst in cooperation with the SEO/SEM can help tailor content and searchphrases to match your products and services, so that rankings on the rigth words will lead to qualified traffic. The market analyst together with the usablity and design teams will be able to apply a model like AIDA to make sure the relevant traffic has easy access to your conversion points, so you can earn your profits.
Summed up, when done rigth, visibility will lead to traffic which leads to conversions.
Googlicate content July 15, 2008
Posted by bohenriksen77 in SEO.Tags: duplicate content, googlicate content, search engine optimization, SEO
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Working in the R&D department of a SEO company, I often get the following two questions:
First people ask me “What is SEO?”, and after having answered that, or pointed people to the Wikipedia definition of SEO, they usually follow up by saying “That sounds like a nice thing, how do I do that on my website?”. Then when I start answering the question, or give them some general advice on SEO, they tend to either loose interest in it, or say that its to complicated for them to do.
Tor those who think it is too complicated, I must have failed in my explanation, for in my opinion SEO is a pretty simple concept. So I end up telling them to read Matt Cutt’s blog, for he often has som easy free advice on what to do, or at least on what not to do.
Then a little while ago I discussed SEO with technically savvy friend of mine, and we got into the details of duplicate content issues and stuff like that and he ended up saying “So one would rather have Googlicate content than duplicate content!”. I kind of like the him naming it Googlicate content, and have used it since, in my trying to make simple what good content is from a SEO point of view.
So after some thinking, rethinking and reformulating my (pretty long) rule of thumb on creating Googlicate content is:
When creating content for a specific keyword or keyphrase, have someone, preferably from your target audience, read the page. Then ask them if they would be satisfied if they found that page when searching for that keyword or keyphrase.
If they are satisfied, you should be satisfied, but most often there will be parts of the text that needs a rewrite or two. This is because the people writing the text typically has a deeper understanding of the product or service they are writing about, and then the text will be to complicated for the target audience.
Having said this, there is a lot more to SEO than good content. Before starting to write, you need to find the keywords/keyphrases that you will write to, and this is often a more complicated task than writing the text itself.
To sum up this post: When trying to write Googlicate content, think about the user, not the search engines. A good relevant user experience will result in good search engine rankings in the long run.
