The Different Shades Of SEO

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Effective SEO comes in different shades. There is black and white, gray, and a myriad of colorful colors. Sometimes they contrast, sometimes they compliment. But SEO is not simply optimization. It never is. It’s always something else hiding under an SEO hat. (In case you are wondering, I tend to stay on the “what hat” side of things!), anyway…

If that seems a little mystical to you, that’s because it is. It was intended to be mystical. SEO is not a trick or treat. It’s not some magic bullet or fairy dust. There is always a point beyond the keywords and links. In other words, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Here’s what I mean:

If you are building a site for AdSense, you will write your SEO copy differently than if you are building an information site where you are trying to sell an e-book. Why the difference? Because what you want the reader to do is different.

Here’s a for instance. On your AdSense site, you want the reader to click the AdSense. Any outbound links you include on your page distract from that goal. You’ll love revenue because readers clicking those other links won’t click the AdSense links. So you have to write the copy differently.

On the other hand, if you are a service business you’ll want pages on your website to link to each other. Each page should have outbound links to other pages on your site because you want prospective clients to learn as much about you as they can in order to determine whether they need your service or not.

So how does this relate to search engine optimization? Because each of those elements are SEO elements in and of themselves. Those internal links that navigate your readers from page to page provide each page with link juice that will affect their rankings in the search engines. You can do the same thing with your AdSense sites, but do it too much and you’ll lose AdSense revenue. The same thing with product downloads.

So here’s the takeaway: Never just think about SEO. Think about how you are going to close the sale and build your business over time. Think of your links in terms of more than link juice and also as canals of navigation for your reader. If you wouldn’t want your reader to go down a certain path then don’t provide that path even if it provides you with obvious benefits. The bottom line is your revenue. Do what makes sense for the bottom line and the benefit of your audience.