WTF is SEO?

Be a yardstick of quality.  Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

 ~Steve Jobs

A guest comment on my Linked In post, bluntly asked:  "WTF is SEO?" What a great question!  You see it everywhere on pretty much any social media site and fairly often as an attribute by a company or individual professing to be an expert.  "WTF" is right!  Although that is best avoided in polite language (most people can probably guess what it stands for) .... or it could possibly mean:  "W-ith T-rue F-ondness". 

FYI (For your information): SEO = Search Engine Optimization 

My apology for getting caught in my own trap by using the SEO acronym.  What it really means is persons or organizations who can bump up your results in search engine query results.  Often they are ones who specialize  in web analytic.  

According to Wikipedia:  Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search,[1] news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.

SEO is often linked with advertising, marketing, events, blogs, promotions, email campaigns, social media -- whatever it takes to drive traffic to an organizations website.  

The top in the craft of SEO is when there are key words commonly linked with that organization or web site, is set to attract the web crawlers or virtual robots who scroll through millions of content to determine who/what/where you appear in  ranking results.  i.e. Page 1 or page 10 (not including paid banner ads).  

  

Design is a funny word.  Some people think design means how it looks.  But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.

 ~Steve Jobs

  

 Most consumers today will not buy anything without first doing research:  reviews, media, etc.  How they do it, is typically by random searches by product, name or questions that lands them on a website to navigate around to find what they came looking for.  In fact, according to Hubspot:"55% of visitors spend fewer than 15 seconds on your website." 

Savvy web masters, have laid the trap to snag those searches on behalf of their organization or clients website.  This potentially leads to more inquiries, calls to actions, limited time deals, generated by the website.

There are other ways to get around the crowd and get in front -- quick fixes for those who don't have the time to wait for organic results.  Organic results, are from slow, steady, concentrated, consistent messaging out in the social media world.  Quick fixes, are paid banner ads through Google ad words or Facebook campaigns, keyword manipulations, buying followings, likes and the works.

Before you seriously consider hiring an SEO, marketing or content guru, ask yourself, what makes them so special?  I know I'm pretty darn tired of reading a bio or boast by someone wanting to take your money to "help you" increase your results, then go to Twitter and they only have a few hundred followers or even better, look them up on KRED or KLOUT to see how they rate among peers and it is dismal, not even noteworthy.

I would suggest you leave those "selling ice to eskimos" SEO, web analytical and Social Media self-proclaimed TOP of everything to their fooled customers who believe they are spending money to gain some hidden holy grail.   The truly gifted and ones you should be hiring are actively participating in it, not just talking and blowing steam at everyone.  They have results on KLOUT and KRED and have their own following.

Do your homework before you part with any money.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.  ~George S. Patton