The World’s Shortest (and Probably Most Controversial) Guide to SEO

Agree. Either you keep trying to game Google and other search engines. It’s could all be wasted when they change their algorithms.

Better to create stuff that people think is good. Then leverage social media to spread the word.

All the advice I’ve read from Matt Cutts can be boiled down to this.

It seems to be the central topic. If anyone knows what good content is, it’s Mu! :)

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Not controversial, as Jonathon Phillips mused on Twitter. Just truth.

No argument from me on this. I think you’re right, and more than ever creating great content is a challenge we should all rise to.

Amen! That’s the ‘gospel’ (Google) truth!

What Google has just done with their most recent update is return to evaluating the quality of content. It’s still a lot about linking, but the basic principle here is the way the internet should work.

Create good, DIFFERENTIATED (not just unique) content, tell people about it, and they link to it. Google sees that, ranks it up, and done.

This post was awesome! I am always trying to get my SEO higher. This is why I added a blog to my site to get more content. But also trying to have good content as well. Thanks again for this awesome post!!

I think you missed something:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=&q=create+something+that+people+will+want+to+link+to.+repeat.&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGLL_en___US413&ie=UTF-8

SEO has as much to do with accessibility as it does with user experience and promotion.

“50% of its traffic from search engines”

Do you mind posting a one month snapshot of sources? Or at least highlight what makes up the other 50%.

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I like your guide :) Now I can breathe a sigh of relief, since I only did the SEO stuff (tag words etc.) a few times, and then stopped because it took me longer then creating content, as you say. So I spend my time creating content :)
Congratulations for the baby!

I agree with you about organic Google search. About 60% of my visitors come from Google search engine. The new post can spread from there via other social media channels.

Now you’ve gone and done it. You’ve explained perfectly how to get high-rankings in the search engines and get higher conversions!

Of course there’s more of a science to it then you’ve even outlined here, but the structure is just that: create good, quality content. If it’s good people will link to it, if people are linking to it then search engines will believe it’s good.

Who knew? :)

Thanks for repeating my SEO tip ;-)

http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-single-most-important-SEO-tip-for-a-new-website/answer/Christian-Kohlsch%C3%BCtter

Or if not creating good content, at least commenting on blogs so you get a link back to your own site. :)

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Please create shortestseoguide.com or something similar and let this stand forever as something I can link to. :)

Best SEO guide ever.

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Dumb linkbait

I have wasted a lot of time doing everything else but create content. You are right. Content is much more important that optimizations. At least, it is more important than wasting time on optimizations and not creating any content at all.

Win.

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This is really short.
But it is very true indeed.

As of last month, Google sent me 54% of my unique visitors.

That’s not a bad idea! I’ll look into it :)

You can create the greatest content on earth and people still won’t link to you. It’s just not that simple. You have to actively engage in promoting yourself, not just “Build it and they will come”

Josh

Berto, I’m not sure I follow. Care to explain?

Well, I disagree. Then again, I’m biased :)

Best advice I have ever read. I always wondered how these SEO gurus could output so much verbal pablum about a subject that can be whittled down to one concise sentence.
Well done.

Thanks! this is just what i need to spawn more creativity

3 words – “Create Useful Content”

I totally agree with what you’re saying here; content is king. That being said, it can be difficult to teach webmasters to develop the kind of ‘voice’ they require in order to generate great content that speaks to readers and provides them with fantastic information. What’s your best tip on training writers? Is the ability innate or can writing be learned?

Great post! But I agree with Josh – how do you get sites to link to yours?! Just ask? Please advise :-)

Seems sort of common sense, when you step back and think about it that content, not keywords should drive relevance in search rankings… keyword optimization has it’s place, but shouldn’t overshadow content creation.

I think what most people overlook is that this strategy is future-proof. You never have to worry about updates to algorithms, etc.

But I agree… it’s how the the internet *should* work.

Science, shmience :)

That said, I fully know what it takes to rank highly in Google. But I’ve found that really worrying about the content is where the 95% of the benefit comes in terms of rankings.

“You can create the greatest content on earth and people still won’t link to you.”

That’s not true. If you consistently create great content, eventually the links will come. I do understand the ins and outs of SEO, believe me. I’ve spent more time than I care to say learning about it. It’s insanely complex. But that’s the point, isn’t it?

The point of this article was to point out–and I’m sure I could have done a better job of this–that if you spend gobs of time optimizing, tweaking and fiddling instead of creating content, then you lose. Investing in something that might change overnight (like the Farmer Update) is fools errand.

Well, I hope it can be learned! It doesn’t come naturally to me ;)

Seriously, becoming a better writing and developing voice requires only two things:

1. Reading lots
2. Writing lots

That’s my suggestion though :)

Well, its seems a bit completed from the newbie point of view. But once you’re into it, it works like a charm. Nice post.

I don’t think this is controversial at all. All of the common SEO advice is that you don’t want to create one post that goes viral and sends millions of visitors your way for a single day only to drop off entirely the next, but if you’re creating content that’s going viral every day, you can’t lose.

You’re right. It shouldn’t be controversial.

The thing is, creating fantastic content is hard. Much harder than, say, the allure of simply tweaking templates.

But I couldn’t agree more. If you’re creating content that’s viral every day, you’re winning.

I agree, although I think how much “traditional” SEO you do is probably like any other decision: it depends on the nature of your site and what your goals are for it.

For example, the goal of my blog is to form a community of readers. I made a decision early on that I wasn’t going to worry about keywords, since it’s good content, not search ranking, that will bring people back. If I was blogging to market a product or service, though, I’d try to optimize, because I’d need a flow of new readers to keep my conversion rates high.

Good content can’t be replaced by good keywords, either way, but I think the combination is more flexible than all SEO or none.

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I’m new to all this, but maybe a fresh eye sees this others don’t? It seems to me, with my as yet limited knowledge that there are just so many web sites and blogs out there now, that people are beginning to get more chosey – and yes, will settle on the ones which provide good content, whatever genre it’s in.

I also think you forgot to mention something – the satisfaction that comes from creating good content. Nothing so satisfying as being creative!

You’re right: that’s actually something I left out of the article. In my stint of trying to painfully optimize every post, I lost all the joy that comes from actually creating stuff I was proud of. Once I realized that and just decided to have fun, then the fun came back :)

Good article. I’m hoping to do the same with some sites. Learning it’s not an overnight endeavor. But I’ll keep ticking away and adding content when I can.

I’ll definitely be checking out your site.

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I agree with you because life is more enjoyable when you are doing what you love and are doing your best. Writing is a great pleasure for me and I don’t want to be bothered or distracted by learning technical details on how to game the system. If you write something that is informative and entertaining they will come.
Riley

Agreed! If companies would reallocate the money they spend chasing Google’s search engine algorithms to creating better usable content, they’d be way ahead of the game. You’re going to get a lot of kickback from the whole SEO industry. You just dealt them a potentially fatal blow!

[...] The World’s Shortest (and Probably Most Controversial) Guide to SEO [...]

Yes indeed! Content is king. Lots of SEO advice are like “Quick rich schemes” They work in the short term but not in the long haul.

Agreed. And this is exactly what I tell all my clients (I’m an interactive copywriter by trade). But so far, no one really wants to believe me.

It’s frustrating.

It’s so much easier to believe that something complicated will work better. After all, if the solution is easy, it means that they really don’t have any excuse for it not to work.

Complicated solutions take the burden off :)

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Thanks Mike!

[...] The World?s Shortest (and Probably Most Controversial) Guide to SEO [...]

Although I agree with the core point, create great content, it’s not true it will guarantee you any kind of traffic or alone is a successful strategy. As the user above pointed out, SEO is a lot more than creating great content, it’s market research, competitive intelligence, good site architecture and off-site promotion. Building something good is a nice start, knowing who your market is, how they search, the type of site that will convert them to leads and the places they hang out would also be a couple of things to add.

“So much so that I’d spend as much time tweaking what I’d created than the actual time it took to create it.”

Spot on. That’s why I never made the time to perfect the SEO on my site. I’d rather create than act like I have to write in English the machine readable way (with the exception of assistive technologies).

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I like your guide. Creating good and great content is more than enough. Promoting oneself isn’t a bad policy though.

I think you nailed it. Quality content is the name of the game. If are aren’t writing something that you are proud of and that gives you a feeling of accomplishment then what’s the point. Marketing and promotion are necessary for success, but a job well done is necessary for a true sense of inner satisfaction. And the two (good product and marketing) don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Riley

[...] http://lifedev.net/2011/03/shortest-seo-guide/ Posted under: Uncategorized Dated: Mar 15 2011 [...]

Fantastic stuff, Glen. I have discovered that worrying too much about the details of readability, headers and opening paragraphs can get one stuck. Think too hard about how people will read and you risk forgetting what you wanted to say in the first place.

Yeah, when I first started doing sites, I cared a lot about SEO. Granted, some tweaking does help but it won’t make a difference if the substance isn’t there.

In fact, I’d go on to say that SEO matters even less than it ever has. With so much social media and people sharing content more than ever, you really need to step it up. Think, write, revise, revise, revise, and revise some more. The people will come.

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Thanks Albert!

Market intelligence like “My users are actually going to search for ‘create something that people will want to link to. repeat?’”

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