The Philosophy of SEO

“Philosopy” might not be a the right word, but it does show how SEO is a way of thinking, not so much a set of rules.

One of the reasons why the SEO industry is so exciting is its lack of solid rules.  There are guidelines and common practices reinforced by testing and analytics, but Google, Yahoo! & Bing have not released an SEO bible, nor will they ever.  Therefore, us SEOs are left to figure it out for ourselves.

Much debate is out there about the different rules of on site optimization and backlink building, and those debates probably will never end.  There are, however, some ways of thinking that can help people steer their sites in the right direction.  The following are pretty broad and I’m pretty sure most will agree with them, but I am more than happy to hear any feedback regarding this list:

1. Create content for your customer, not a search engine. – You could spend all your time doing keyword density equations and tweaking word counts, but please keep in mind that ultimately, you want your content human-friendly.  Write content that makes sense to a potential customer and keeps them engaged on your site.  One visitor that reads then converts is much more valuable than 10 visitors that come to your site, get confused, bounce off, then go tell their friends about how horrible your website is.

2. There’s a reason why it’s called “natural search”…be natural! Yes, keyword targeting is important, but variation is key.  It would be impossible to refer to something by the same name every single time. I mean…even my name can be shortened…and it’s only 4 letters long!  Switch it up a little, get creative, go after those phrases that others aren’t going after.

….next time: the Philosophy of Backlink Building!