By Randy Milanovic
You can always tell when a new client had SEO work done on their website in the past.
Even though it might not be evident in their actual search position, they tend to drop in, examine proposals, smile politely, and then ask when we are going to start talking about keyword density, tags, anchor text, and the other “nitty-gritty technical details” involved in their search campaigns.
More often than not, however, we don’t discuss these things with our clients at all. And, it isn’t even because we have some super-secret algorithm-buster under lock and key, or a “secret sauce” that we promise will carry them to a top SERP in virtually no time at all.
The fact of the matter is that, even though we pay attention to technical SEO details, we don’t obsess about them. This runs counter to traditional SEO philosophy, and much of the culture in our industry. So why is it that we’re still happy to gloss over the perfect length of H1 text, or avoid long, protracted discussions about page rank?
The reality is we have found, through real-world trial and error, that worrying about the details isn’t just fruitless, it gets you thinking about the wrong things at the wrong times.
If you doubt the wisdom or truth of that statement, consider these four things:
The Technical Details Involved in SEO are Variable, not Fixed
There are things you could have done just a few years ago that would likely have vaulted you to a very high ranking for a particular keyword or phrase that would likely get you blacklisted by Google today. And, even if you move toward the more subtle ends of the spectrum, things are still shifting there, too.
The best practices for things such as keyword density, link structure, and anchor text have all changed, and continue to do so. Real-time social updates are now being factored into the mix, and fresh, relevant content is being valued more heavily.
The point is that each of these trends were only starting to show themselves a few years ago, but could likely change again before too long. So, it’s not worth focusing solely on the technical side of SEO, because what you worry over today might not matter at all tomorrow.
SERP Indicators Don’t Measure What Matters Most
One of our favorite things to do is remind people that it doesn’t matter where you rank on Google, how many Twitter followers you have, or even what kinds of responses a guest post generates.
What matters is how effective your business website is at helping your actual business achieve its goals. It’s so easy to fall in love with the indicators when what you really need are new sales opportunities.
And, even though higher search ranking might help you accomplish those goals, it’s really just a means to an end. In other words, search engine optimization details need to take a back seat to actual business goals.
Keyword Placement is Important, but a Great Piece of Content Creates its Own Momentum
In this case, we are thinking less about “link-baiting,” and more along the lines of “expressing great ideas clearly so people want to talk about them and pass them on.”
In other words, if you generate a really great blog post, video, infographic, or other piece of content, it’s going to attract attention. That’s good for your search engine optimization campaign, of course, but it’s also good for your visibility and credibility as a marketer.
The bottom line is far too many companies (and marketing teams) spend time fine-tuning SEO details when they should be pouring that energy into developing stronger content.
These are Things Best Handled by Someone with Extensive SEO Knowledge
And finally, we know the difference between understanding the technical side of search and having to bury our clients in it. Although we always want to teach them about our work, so they understand the value they’re getting, going through the minutia usually isn’t worth it for either party.
Our reliance on quality content and bottom-line results over SEO trivia works in the real world, but it can almost be a hard sell to new clients who are used to hearing endless streams of buzzwords and jargon. It’s almost if, by speaking to them in plain English and emphasizing core marketing concepts that have been around for more than a century, we’re admitting that there are normal people at work when they peek behind the curtain.
Even though it might not be fashionable, though, I think focussing on the business is the only approach that actually works over time.
Do you agree? Give me your thoughts on the importance of knowing, hearing, and emphasizing the technical details of search engine optimization when you work with a digital agency.
Great article!
@Anders A-man Mikkelsen Thank you!
Thanks Randy, It always comes down to strong Content being that corner stone. If that content is not there, then all the SEO in the world won`t help your business objectives. Great points.
Agreed!
Great post Randy and great bottom line. “The bottom line is far too many companies (and marketing teams) spend time fine-tuning SEO details when they should be pouring that energy into developing stronger content.”
They do at that!
Randy Milanovic I know. When I speak with a lot of small businesses about social media the first thing they ask me is about SEO. They are so focused on the buzz around SEO and trying to get that aspect right for their website they don’t focus on developing strong content. As well, because they are focused on SEO they leave that , the creation of content and sharing of content to the “SEO experts” which of course is most often not the right decision.
LSSocialEngage Randy Milanovic We don’t have to be Carmac the magnificent to predict a changing of the guard from SEOs to COMMUNICATORS.
Your post is spot on. Instead of asking myself “will this webpage/content/video/etc get me more SEO juice” I’m solely focused on “will this webpage/content/video/etc be useful to my customer/prospect or their friends?” That approach has shown algorithm-change-resistant results for me.
You are right about algorithm-resistant. In fact, with each algorithm change introduced lately, our website scores have improved while competitors’ take a dive. It is truly a wonderful thing when straight forward communication trumps tech tweaks.
“What matters is how effective your business website is at helping your actual business achieve its goals.” — AMEN to that! I am guilty of worrying about SEO at times too much, so I totally understand what you’re saying and agree 100%. Yes, there are ways to “game” the current system. But that never pays off in the long run. How many businesses do we all know who are absolutely killing it online and have terrible SEO? 🙂
Speak to your customers’ needs. Create useful content that answers questions and gives away a tiny bit of your secret sauce & you’ll be golden!
TaraGeissinger I’m happy to note that the list of ways to game the system is getting much shorter. 🙂
Other than using the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast, and reviewing its Page Analysis, I’m not paying a lot of attention to SEO tactics. Like you said it can be a moving target. And my keyword density is usually pretty small…and I do not sweat getting them into h2 tags, etc.
Instead, I have my bloggers focusing on writing good and HELPFUL content. A lot of the recent posts from my new bloggers for the company are also fairly “evergreen”. Where my own posts can be tied to events (like another Denver Broncos win…or yet another professional sports star getting into trouble), their posts are best practices around software dev, BI, etc. As a result, I’m already seeing pretty consistent views from week-to-week for posts. Also seeing some nice times per page view, so life is good so far. We do not have BIG numbers, because our audience still frequents forums much more than blogs/social channels, but hopefully those numbers will persistently grow.
dbvickery Interesting. Those who don’t have black/grey baggage are the true winners now.
I have to agree that hyper focusing on the details you lose sight of the end goal. We do help clients “optimize” their content but, that normally means they have no title tag, H1 tag etc. at all. Whomever built the sight decided to leave those blank. Trust me, I see it all the time. Other than that and image alt tags (remember those are handy for vision impaired visitors to your site as well as search engines) we don’t worry about keyword density at all. We just like to have a complete page, with quality content and that’s always been enough.
Thanks Anders A-man Mikkelsen!!
I agree with @dbvickery. I use Yoast but focus just on writing good content and helping people. This approach saw my stats shoot through the roof for a particular recent blog post, so I used the comments to find out what other things people wanted to know then addressed those things too – and the traffic went even higher. It’s over 30K a month actually.
The weird thing is that my most popular blog posts are about things that are kind of ‘obvious’ to me but clearly are not obvious to my readers. Once you start to help people and answer questions then (hopefully) the traffic follows. I’m fascinated by SEO but never use any ‘tactics’ as I know Google will always reward well written useful content whatever future changes they make.
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What a great article. I could NOT have said things any better myself. We take the same approach here and sometimes find that clients take us down the road of rank and technical details. Excellent post.
JeffBell Thanks Jeff.
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