This is a borrowed title from Ian Lurie’s blog. Ian works in online marketing and I have been reading his writings for some time. He has a sense of humour which is disarming and I always find reading what he writes refreshing, particularly if I have just come back from a meeting with a corporate client where we have discussed ‘ROI’ (Ian hates the word) and ‘end-user interface dynamics’ (often I find myself wondering what the hell that really means).
His post on why web developers should learn SEO was preceded by one on why SEOs should learn to program. I tend to agree with what he says in both blog posts and I would urge you to take the time to check them out if you haven’t already done so.
In my experience the best web developers I came across were the ones who actually worked to understand SEO and, having worked as a hapless SEO in a corporate environment myself many times, I can testify that the SEOs who actually knew what they were doing were the ones who spent time badgering the web development team in order to understand their limitations.
If you are a web developer looking to increase your knowledge in SEO then this post which came in just last Friday from a web developer in Brazil, will strike a chord with you.
SEO is not rocket science. It is an almost endless list of things which are simple to understand and easy to do and incredibly detailed. Experienced SEOs are worth their money because they can pinpoint a problem, suggest a solution which will work and come up in five minutes flat with the right kind of combination of online marketing strategies and on-page SEO techniques which will give you the desired result: your website on Google’s first page.
The reason so many webmasters are so keen to get their website on the first page of Google is because a first page position on Google is actually worth a lot of money in terms of visitor numbers, conversions, trade and brand.
When you try to get your site’s rankings to improve you really have three realistic options: One is top hire someone to tell you what you need to do.
Two is to hire someone to do everything for you. This has never been my favourite choice for any client, though it has kept me gainfully employed. If you choose to go down this path you are tying yourself into paying forever and each time you want to see your site improve in rankings, without understanding what it involves and what you are really paying for.
Three is to try and learn SEO yourself. This is a lot less difficult than it may at first sound. It will allow you to understand what you are paying for when and if you ever decide to pay somebody to do some SEO consulting for you and it will also allow you to feel that when it comes to your online business and your website’s development, you, as the person in charge, are actually in control of things.
As I am writing all this the debate is raging between those who want content to be free and those who want it to be paid for. Funnily enough both use the same argument, very publicly stated by Stewart Brand...
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In addition to the ten SEO developments Google implemented last month and the 500-odd changes it has planned for this year, the first of which was a change in the algorithm to begin filtering out heavy Google-ad sites, here are...
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If you noticed your website showing up erratically on Google’s search engine results page (SERPs) it’s because Google is tweaking its search algorithm to create more targeted relevancy. Google’s last major update was at the tale end of November 2007 when...
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Google which had planned to open up Google+ to business later in the year has had so much interest it has accelerated its program for businesses and has even created a form where business interested in an early invite can...
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I’ve led the discussion on how social media and SEO are changing the processes we use to work and live, online, with the publication of my book ‘The Social Media Mind’. I combine experience in journalism and blue-chip corporate management with a penchant for explaining complex issues in simple terms. Contact me for media interviews, presentations and panel discussions
