SEO Has No True Definition
Before you can understand how to exactly approach web based marketing for your business you have to truly understand the definition of SEO. Ask 5 different search marketing professionals what search engine optimization is and you will most likely get back 5 different answers. One thing that we can all agree on is that search engine optimization is the process of making your online marketing efforts 100% efficient.
ef•fi•cient [ih-fish-uh nt]:
–adjective:
Performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort; having and using requisite knowledge, skill, and industry; competent; capable: are liable, efficient secretary.
According to the dictionary.com definition it means to perform or function at an optimal state. What is your optimal state to operate at? If you are going to perform an action online to entice your audience to visit your website make sure it is 100% efficient.
Example of SEO efficiency
If you launch a video online on how to build widgets make sure your title tags are efficient:
Title 1: Building Widgets Video (Not efficient)
Efficient Title: How To Build Widgets To Increase Employee Productivity (efficient)
You now have the potential to rank and appear for a variety of other search terms people might be using by increasing your chances due to a much more efficient and optimized title.
Each website and business is going to have a much different search marketing approach than the other. Principals and process might overlap but the approach is always going to be a bit different. Some website owners take a very technical approach to their search marketing efforts. Always calculating the quantity of links and the types of links pointing to and away from their site regardless if they even produce traffic or visitors and some take a much more branded and marketing driven approach to their search marketing efforts. Creating promotions and contests for other bloggers to write about and generate links back to the website. Some search marketing professionals take a heavy mix of both approaches which I think is a good approach because you blend the two, marketing and SEO.
SEO has quickly taken a front row seat in many marketing departments across the globe. Something that has always been voodoo to many business owners and entrepreneurs now has its own department behind the walls of many businesses across the globe.
2 Responses to “SEO Has No True Definition”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
Nick,
I know you have a lot of experience in SEO but I have to disagree with you.
Not about the titles but about the different approaches which actually have nothing to do with SEO.
Distilled into a nutshell SEO is:
“The composition of the VISUAL relevance of keyword phrases and the writing of the code to EXACTLY the same relevance.”
Visually the primary keyword phrases are found in the domain name, the title, and then on page.
On page displays of keyword phrase importance should be represented in size and position of text, with the shorter tail being the largest text and progressing down the and emphasized, in the code.
Linking and Page Rank count for little since Google decided that this metric was not worth the effort to police. Too many linking schemes were trying to beat them.
Links are still great for building traffic and should be constructed with that in mind.
Page rank is still a pretty good estimate of content relevance and popularity, but it has no discernible effect on search engine ranking.
Somebody is going to strongly object to my stance that links count for little but I have 2 “proofs”.
First, it is said that Page Rank is logarithmically determined.
(I am not so certain of this since the last PR update a short time ago.)..
Whichever way it is constructed, if it was an important metric in determining position, the first proof would be that lower PR webpages would not outrank higher.
My 2nd proof that PR does not impact standings is that my new NBS-SEO.com website just went from a PR0 to a PR4 and my search phrase rankings stayed the same.
I am strongly considering my position on how Google is determining PR. This last update upsets the apple cart.
Will have to do some research into this.
best,
Reg
http://NBS-SEO.com
Hi Reg,
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
You know after I wrote and published this post, I realized I should have included several published definitions about SEO:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-seo.htm
http://www.brickmarketing.com/define-search-engine-optimization.htm
The bottom line is SEO is comprised of on site optimization and link building. There are different approaches (and yes definitions as well!)
Regarding Google pagerank, I would like to see what type of research you come up with and would be happy to post it on this article as well…
Thanks again!
Nick