Just an FYI. This blog, website…whatever you want to call it, is not centered around ranking for anything. In a lot of ways, it is simply social. And not focusing in on ranking is actually quite liberating.
Because, when you aren’t worried about SEO, you aren’t thinking about title tags. And you don’t really focus on anchor text. Navigation is meant for the reader/visitor. Image tags, meta descriptions, etc. don’t mean a thing. Headlines don’t read like a keyword phrase and are more natural.
And then there is linking. You see, when you link out and are thinking in terms of SEO, you worry about what you are giving away.
Do you “nofollow” the link?
Do you even link out (if it is a “competitor”)?
When SEO is not in the picture, you link out for no other reason than to either share a great story you found or to reach out (or both).
External linking (or off-page optimization)- Those forum profile links that you once built no longer have their luster. Neither do those “guest” articles that you submitted to paid link services that no one will see. Suddenly, the links that matter are the ones that may generate traffic to your website.
And syndication. Who cares if your article is blasted, duplicated and reduplicated in a million places on the web? In the real world, that would be called advertising. If you are an SEO, this has been dumbed down to duplicate content.
Do you still have to worry about where to get traffic? Sure. But you are following your own rules, not some rules from a search engine that likes to flippantly change the rules on you. You aren’t bending a knee to the powers that be.
Now, I’m not saying that you should completely give up on SEO. But the point here is that without it being the main ad medium driver, the mindset changes to something a bit more pure and real.
And if or when you do get organic traffic, then it is like getting a bonus.
image attribution- http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/3063566547/
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Twitter: kbloemendaal
says:
Love this article Leo, far too many people over complicate things in SEO. It really isn’t that big of a deal. Sure, for competing your local jet ski rental business with others, you might be able to do better with your places page by going out and getting more citations (other local directory listings) and making sure all info is matching, adjusting some content, adding vid’s, etc… all to help rank for those local terms. But the bottom line is provide people what they are looking for.
Keith recently posted..Are You Looking for the Easy Way?
I agree, Keith. And the funny thing is even when links become necessary, most SEO’s don’t understand link juice lag to realize that they are spending an inordinate amount of time on something that will get the same rate of return.
Twitter: YNCorg
says:
Leo, what is the purpose of your blog exactly? Is it just to talk about whatever, or are you trying to experiment with social traffic? Do you ever plan to monetize this blog in the future? I agree that focusing on SEO is quite liberating.
Jason,
No rhyme nor reason here. If you have followed me through my older, now deceased blog (leodimilo.com), you would know that I didn’t monetize that one either. And it was around for 3 years. The reason why this is is because I have never tried to make money by selling to the “make money crowd”…nor do I really want to.
I love marketing. I love talking about it. I love musing over it. And in many ways, this website kind of plots my thoughts about online marketing, SEO and other things associated with it. There’s nothing more to it, really. And probably a year from now, it will be the same.
There’s not much more I can say as far as defining a reason why this website exists.
Twitter: affking
says:
I agree its more enjoyable to write without SEO in mind but on my blog where I don’t think about SEO I have 100s of pages I wrote myself but only get about 50 hits a day.
So I think realistically, if you want to make money you HAVE to think about SEO as my money sites are all build around SEO and they do get traffic.
Hey Joe, thanks for commenting.
Actually, people get so focused on the technicalities of SEO that they forget that it is just one of many ad mediums that you can use online. There is no doubt that you need an ad medium. But to say that SEO is the ultimate path in every single case is just flat out wrong.
I could give you several examples of online businesses that make 6+ figures a year that don’t use organic search as their primary model. I say primary, because if you just do the minimal basics of SEO and have content to display, you are most likely going to rank for something over time.
Twitter: harounkola
says:
I like this article Leo, and I think with the Penguin update (sorry to harp on about SEO) it looks like the SERPs are getting back to a time when real connection and providing value to people are being rewarded again.
Like your article on Traffic generation, its your network that’s important and if that translates into getting more organic search traffic, and you can offer value to those visitors, you’re on the right path to creating a great business.
Haroun Kola recently posted..Price and Time Trading