Is SEO DOA? Maybe Content Matters!

There’s a great post over at Tim Bray’s blog about the continuing discussion of whether Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still important.  In a nutshell, SEO is the science (or art) of making your web site rise to the top in search engines like Google so people will find you.

I believe that SEO is still important.  People need to be able to find you, so it’s important that your site follows the rules and is searchable in the ways that work.  You’ve got to understand this stuff if you’re going to succeed developing all that great content that I keep talking about.

seo_school1If you really want advice on how to make it happen, head on over to Naomi Dunford’s site and buy her SEO School — a great overview of how it all works.  Most of it makes my head hurt.

(Disclaimer:  That link is NOT an affiliate link, and I don’t get a dime if you buy it from her.  She really doesn’t much approve of me and would NEVER accept someone like me into her affiliate system, I’m sure.)  (Unless my mailing list was much, much bigger.)

The thing that really caught my eye was in the comments, though:

A lot of times good SEO is just a matter of making a good site. The classic example of an “impossible” case is the local real estate agent.Who’s going to make a link to a real estate agent’s sites? Nobody… I mean, who cares about some real estate agent?

Your average real estate agent wants to pay an SEO $500 who will then sprinkle pixie dust and spammy links around.

A good (effective) SEO will tell the real estate agent to spend one commission on a freelance writer; one commission is a handsome sum for several months of blogging. [And it also provides a lot of "deep link" targets for... uh, "content syndication"]

Your average real estate agent will stomp out and think making a blog is entirely beneath them, but the one who follows your advice will be the winner and the one who doesn’t will be the loser.

How amazingly true!  And how often I’ve had this conversation with a potential client, and had them end up paying somebody else $500 for some pixie dust and spammy links!

At the end of the day, SEO is just a part of the plan.  More and more often, content is what makes the difference.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Walter January 13, 2010 at 6:37 am

Content is indeed the master. I’m a bit suspicious about the workings of SEO. You may have good standing at search engine but how the people will see your website is of utmost importance. If it looks not engaging, or business like, chances are they would go away. :-)

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