SEO - What to chase
My wife and I just spent 8 hours in the car driving from home (Charlotte, NC) to Florida. Typically, this makes for an interesting time. As you can imagine, I get bored easy and my wife just likes to relax – not a good combination.
This time was different. Sandy had a laptop and earphones. So she watched some girly movies. I had my iPod Touch and listened to several quality SEO podcasters for several hours. Occasionally we had pleasant conversation. But overall, this arrangement kept me from pestering her. Everyone was happy.
As a side benefit, it means I am more psyched than ever about SEO. You see, many people think SEO is boring. Honestly, it is. Writing tags, editing pages, checking rankings, bla, bla, bla.
But after listening to some experts talk about the latest and greatest techniques for link building in particular, I’m excited once again. These guys are brilliant and their ideas on how to use blogs, social media, and other sources was just awesome.
I’ve now got some great stuff to share with my colleagues and students in the upcoming weeks. I’m also excited to get to work on several of our internal projects to make them even stronger.
SEO – WHAT TO CHASE
While driving, I heard two great SEO illustrations that I want to share. These are not really tips or techniques, but a mindset.
Two experts were discussing how to view SEO. Unfortunately, many think of it as a battle between you and Google. That’s not really true. Your real competition is not Google, but the other sites (or businesses) competing for your key phrases.
To illustrate, if you are camping with a group of friends and a bear jumps out of the woods, do you need to run faster than the bear? Not really. You need to run faster than the others with you.
It’s an interesting way to look at it. Don’t chase the algorithm. Outrun your competition. It’s almost always easier.
Why?
Because even though the algo has not changed much over the years, it is hard to chase it. When you shoot an arrow at a flying object, you don’t aim for your target, you aim for where the target will be.
Do we know where the Google algorithm will be in 3 months, 6 months, one year? We have some loose ideas, but not really.
So don’t chase the algorithm. Outrun your competition.
And next time you go on a long trip, bring something to watch or listen to. That’s today’s advice for SEO and a happy marriage.
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September 19th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Nice point. Funny you mention that, I have taken the same approach with my clients. The first thing I have been asking clients, is a list of their top 5 competitors, then I do my own research and examine their tags and such.
What I have found is that many competitors are missing little things that “The Bear” suggest to do, so we simply make sure they (Clients) are following guidelines “better” than the competition.
I love your advice on keys to a happy marriage too, sounds like you found the secret algorithm to relationships!
September 30th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
The same goes for working to get more conversions than increasing traffic. I have seen sites double their traffic and not increase revenue one cent.
Good post.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:51 am
Metaphorically speaking, I’m not going camping with you. So, have fun with the starting the fire and smores. You run much faster than I.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
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October 15th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
[...] well? The correct answer is “More than your competitors”. Remember, as I wrote earlier, don’t chase Google. Chase your [...]
October 17th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
SEO is a sport. Like any sport, there are leagues and for each league there will be only one #1 ranked team, and only one #2 ranked team. SEO is a sport. Outrun the competition.
(Never try outrunning the bears; they’re already destroying the economy!)
December 31st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
[...] SEO – What to Chase [...]