This may not be what you want to hear, but your tricks, tips, and techniques do not matter. Even if you all like to sport your white hats, your ace-in-the-hole, top-secret tactic is useless. Let’s be honest with each other—it’s okay, no one’s listening. Your newly discovered SEO trick isn’t really earth shattering or even groundbreaking. Is there anything really new to SEO?
The long-term profitability of any individual SEO will always rely on the innovation of strategy. All of us could throw tactics and tricks at our clients, but a coherent, forward-looking strategy is what it takes to win. To be the best, you must have a strategy that avoids becoming obsolete by continuously creating the new.
Very rare are the “a-ha” moments in life which seem to create new ideas out of thin air. An SEO cannot rely on these infrequent instances in life. How do you plan for continuous innovation in
the dynamic environment of digital marketing?
The irony of creating cutting edge strategies is that success depends on failure. This requires experimenting, learning from experimentation, and adapting quickly. In the realm of science, scientists use the scientific method. However, not all business innovations can be tested using this method with complete clarity in a practical way. Changing search engine algorithms and user trends are difficult experimental environments to learn in.
In order to open the door of learning and strategic innovation in Search Engine Optimization, I apply 5 changes incorporated into Theory-Focused Planning.
1. Minimize Detail
Typical plans within current SEO strategy include breakdowns of link popularity, search engine ranking, keyword density, etc. This makes it easy to troubleshoot problems with the use of tactics. For example, our “ACME roadrunner trap” landing page ranking has fallen on Yahoo! due to a competitor’s superior use of div tags and higher quality links. Again, I could fire tactics at you all day, but this troubleshooting method depends on the reliable predictability of search engine algorithms. Strategy should focus on solving critical unknowns that will make or break your campaign. How will search engines use bookmarking in their search algos? Does our target audience and environment call for the use of RSS feeds?
2. Predict Trends
Typical clients ask for a prediction of the bottom line—search engine rankings. This would make sense if search engines interpreted the sites the same every quarter. However, we are subject to the extraordinarily dynamic function of algorithms. More important than the specific ranking over any time period is the underlying trend over that period.
3. Focus on theory, not rankings
In most reporting documents sent to clients you will find endless numbers offering current rankings for each keyword on each search engine. But in our business, the theory used to achieve those numbers is far more important than the numbers themselves. Rankings, placement, and ROI have little utility in an ongoing SEO strategy. Rankings give little insight into SEO planning, especially in the early stages. Trends and performance related to the interdependent SEO operations—coding, copywriting, and linking—will provide earlier signs that a strategy is either winning or losing.
4. Review very frequently
The winning SEO will not be the first to start or the one with the best initial strategy, but the one that learns the quickest. As an example, an SEO that reevaluates his or her plans monthly rather than yearly has the potential to learn 12 times faster than a competitor.
5. Hold yourself accountable for learning, not results.
Clients, corporations, and SEOs themselves must understand that the plan is a hypothesis and the goal is to adapt as quickly as possible. In this type of environment SEOs will evaluate themselves on how quickly they learn and will be able to more effectively validate their thought processes and utilize their ability to adapt in an experimental environment.
Some may disagree with taking Theory-Focused Planning and applying it to Search Engine Optimization. To some, theory does not equal practicality. However, the tactics and techniques you use are based on some theory of what will work and what will not work in the future. Your reputation, your services, and your profitability are all being wagered on this theory. Therefore, a practical approach is to continually test and adapt the theory upon which you place your bet.
The SEO Article You SHOULD Read—5 Reasons Accountability Matters
Three weeks ago, the most popular article in the running for the SEM Scholarship was Nick Urbani’s “The SEO Article You Shouldn’t Read.” While I agree with many of the points he makes, we differ in several areas. I agree that a “coherent, forward looking strategy” is important in SEO. Furthermore, I like to win as much as everyone else—but what does it mean to “win”?Is it just about getting a number one ranking?
What I love about SEO is not just the thrill of getting a number one ranking, but the accountability that we have to our clients. This is the biggest thing that Urbani’s Theory Focused Planning is lacking—accountability. He mentions holding yourself accountable for learning in his last point, but is that all accountability is or should be?
1. Predictions + accountability = rankings, leads, sales
Predicting trends is not just about rankings, whether in the short or long term. Yes, we are at the mercy of the search engines and algorithm changes might drop rankings you’ve worked for months to obtain. My challenge is this—a client asking for predictions solely regarding rankings isn’t asking the right question. More importantly, if you answer in terms of rankings, you’re not being accountable to the work you’re doing for your client.
Ranking number one doesn’t matter if it’s a term that no one queries. Rankings matter in terms of their impact on your client’s bottom line. Over the long term (accounting for monthly ebbs and flows and giving you time to adapt to algorithm changes), you can look at how you’ll improve your client’s rankings, but the more important factors that you should hold yourself accountable for are the increase in amount and quality of traffic those rankings drive for your client, as well as increases in leads and sales.
2. Focus on measurable results
I agree with Urbani that a keyword ranking report is not the determining factor of a successful SEO campaign. However, he dismisses ROI as having “little utility in an ongoing SEO strategy.”
I understand that ROI won’t help you get terms ranked, but rankings won’t matter if they do not increase the client’s site traffic, leads or sales.
Moreover, what does a client really care about your SEO theory? If you can’t return a positive ROI for your client, rankings will not matter. In the end, analytics and measurable results will keep you accountable to your SEO theories and rankings (and your clients)—then you’ll know whether you have a winning or losing strategy.
3. Patience is a virtue
As SEOs, we belong to a community of learners. However, it’s not enough just to read and learn. You have to know how to implement, and more importantly, when to implement changes and strategies. Reviewing the status of a campaign monthly is a good thing. You want your clients to do well, your clients want to see results. However, constantly re-evaluating and changing your strategies may not be a good idea.
You cannot force the search engines to pick up your keywords or changes. Being accountable to your clients means knowing when to tell them it’s going to take more time to obtain rankings and how long is long enough to wait before making another round of changes.
4. Be accountable for learning and results
Search engine optimization is a dynamic process. Those of us who have been doing this for 6 months and those who have been doing this for a decade can improve upon current strategies. Clients have to understand this is not a perfect process. When Urbani addresses accountability,he talks about being accountable for learning, not results. He states, “The goal is to adapt as
quickly as possible.” However, you can run into problems if you implement new ideas too quickly.
What happens when an engine’s algorithm change starts returning spammy results while your client’s keywords drop? I would hope you aren’t immediately compromising the integrity of your client’s site to obtain a higher ranking. Accountability means sometimes taking a hit in the rankings for a little while, explaining it to the client, and continuing to research the issue and a solution. This shows the importance of focusing on your long term ability to return a positive ROI for your client in terms of rankings, leads, and sales.
5. Accountability to Everyone Involved
I love the competition in SEO. Who doesn’t love beating someone else for a top ranking? At the same time, there is a lot of responsibility that comes with being involved in SEO, which we don’t always acknowledge. You have to remember that you are accountable to:
· The rest of your SEO team. You always have to bring your “A” game. Your colleagues rely on your ideas and learning as much as your clients do. There is only one number one spot on Google, and for a competitive keyword, you probably are not the only SEOs trying to target it.
· Your clients. Clients need your help choosing keywords that they can not only rank well for, but that will also drive meaningful site traffic as well as produce leads and sales.Hold yourself accountable (and prove your value) to your clients with measurable analytics.
· Searchers. The keywords that your clients are ranking for are terms that actual people are looking for. Are you helping them complete their search? If your client ranks well for “blue widget parts,” is there relevant content there? Or will the searcher leave immediately for another site?
As Urbani points out at the end of his article, “to some, theory does not equal practicality.”Maybe I’m a person who thinks analytically, but I’ll take practicality over theory. I want to be accountable for my work product and able to prove value to my clients—and to me a winning SEO strategy means going beyond theory and rankings to measurable metrics like ROI, leads and sales.
The long-term profitability of any individual SEO will always rely on the innovation of strategy. All of us could throw tactics and tricks at our clients, but a coherent, forward-looking strategy is what it takes to win. To be the best, you must have a strategy that avoids becoming obsolete by continuously creating the new.
Very rare are the “a-ha” moments in life which seem to create new ideas out of thin air. An SEO cannot rely on these infrequent instances in life. How do you plan for continuous innovation in
the dynamic environment of digital marketing?
The irony of creating cutting edge strategies is that success depends on failure. This requires experimenting, learning from experimentation, and adapting quickly. In the realm of science, scientists use the scientific method. However, not all business innovations can be tested using this method with complete clarity in a practical way. Changing search engine algorithms and user trends are difficult experimental environments to learn in.
In order to open the door of learning and strategic innovation in Search Engine Optimization, I apply 5 changes incorporated into Theory-Focused Planning.
1. Minimize Detail
Typical plans within current SEO strategy include breakdowns of link popularity, search engine ranking, keyword density, etc. This makes it easy to troubleshoot problems with the use of tactics. For example, our “ACME roadrunner trap” landing page ranking has fallen on Yahoo! due to a competitor’s superior use of div tags and higher quality links. Again, I could fire tactics at you all day, but this troubleshooting method depends on the reliable predictability of search engine algorithms. Strategy should focus on solving critical unknowns that will make or break your campaign. How will search engines use bookmarking in their search algos? Does our target audience and environment call for the use of RSS feeds?
2. Predict Trends
Typical clients ask for a prediction of the bottom line—search engine rankings. This would make sense if search engines interpreted the sites the same every quarter. However, we are subject to the extraordinarily dynamic function of algorithms. More important than the specific ranking over any time period is the underlying trend over that period.
3. Focus on theory, not rankings
In most reporting documents sent to clients you will find endless numbers offering current rankings for each keyword on each search engine. But in our business, the theory used to achieve those numbers is far more important than the numbers themselves. Rankings, placement, and ROI have little utility in an ongoing SEO strategy. Rankings give little insight into SEO planning, especially in the early stages. Trends and performance related to the interdependent SEO operations—coding, copywriting, and linking—will provide earlier signs that a strategy is either winning or losing.
4. Review very frequently
The winning SEO will not be the first to start or the one with the best initial strategy, but the one that learns the quickest. As an example, an SEO that reevaluates his or her plans monthly rather than yearly has the potential to learn 12 times faster than a competitor.
5. Hold yourself accountable for learning, not results.
Clients, corporations, and SEOs themselves must understand that the plan is a hypothesis and the goal is to adapt as quickly as possible. In this type of environment SEOs will evaluate themselves on how quickly they learn and will be able to more effectively validate their thought processes and utilize their ability to adapt in an experimental environment.
Some may disagree with taking Theory-Focused Planning and applying it to Search Engine Optimization. To some, theory does not equal practicality. However, the tactics and techniques you use are based on some theory of what will work and what will not work in the future. Your reputation, your services, and your profitability are all being wagered on this theory. Therefore, a practical approach is to continually test and adapt the theory upon which you place your bet.
The SEO Article You SHOULD Read—5 Reasons Accountability Matters
Three weeks ago, the most popular article in the running for the SEM Scholarship was Nick Urbani’s “The SEO Article You Shouldn’t Read.” While I agree with many of the points he makes, we differ in several areas. I agree that a “coherent, forward looking strategy” is important in SEO. Furthermore, I like to win as much as everyone else—but what does it mean to “win”?Is it just about getting a number one ranking?
What I love about SEO is not just the thrill of getting a number one ranking, but the accountability that we have to our clients. This is the biggest thing that Urbani’s Theory Focused Planning is lacking—accountability. He mentions holding yourself accountable for learning in his last point, but is that all accountability is or should be?
1. Predictions + accountability = rankings, leads, sales
Predicting trends is not just about rankings, whether in the short or long term. Yes, we are at the mercy of the search engines and algorithm changes might drop rankings you’ve worked for months to obtain. My challenge is this—a client asking for predictions solely regarding rankings isn’t asking the right question. More importantly, if you answer in terms of rankings, you’re not being accountable to the work you’re doing for your client.
Ranking number one doesn’t matter if it’s a term that no one queries. Rankings matter in terms of their impact on your client’s bottom line. Over the long term (accounting for monthly ebbs and flows and giving you time to adapt to algorithm changes), you can look at how you’ll improve your client’s rankings, but the more important factors that you should hold yourself accountable for are the increase in amount and quality of traffic those rankings drive for your client, as well as increases in leads and sales.
2. Focus on measurable results
I agree with Urbani that a keyword ranking report is not the determining factor of a successful SEO campaign. However, he dismisses ROI as having “little utility in an ongoing SEO strategy.”
I understand that ROI won’t help you get terms ranked, but rankings won’t matter if they do not increase the client’s site traffic, leads or sales.
Moreover, what does a client really care about your SEO theory? If you can’t return a positive ROI for your client, rankings will not matter. In the end, analytics and measurable results will keep you accountable to your SEO theories and rankings (and your clients)—then you’ll know whether you have a winning or losing strategy.
3. Patience is a virtue
As SEOs, we belong to a community of learners. However, it’s not enough just to read and learn. You have to know how to implement, and more importantly, when to implement changes and strategies. Reviewing the status of a campaign monthly is a good thing. You want your clients to do well, your clients want to see results. However, constantly re-evaluating and changing your strategies may not be a good idea.
You cannot force the search engines to pick up your keywords or changes. Being accountable to your clients means knowing when to tell them it’s going to take more time to obtain rankings and how long is long enough to wait before making another round of changes.
4. Be accountable for learning and results
Search engine optimization is a dynamic process. Those of us who have been doing this for 6 months and those who have been doing this for a decade can improve upon current strategies. Clients have to understand this is not a perfect process. When Urbani addresses accountability,he talks about being accountable for learning, not results. He states, “The goal is to adapt as
quickly as possible.” However, you can run into problems if you implement new ideas too quickly.
What happens when an engine’s algorithm change starts returning spammy results while your client’s keywords drop? I would hope you aren’t immediately compromising the integrity of your client’s site to obtain a higher ranking. Accountability means sometimes taking a hit in the rankings for a little while, explaining it to the client, and continuing to research the issue and a solution. This shows the importance of focusing on your long term ability to return a positive ROI for your client in terms of rankings, leads, and sales.
5. Accountability to Everyone Involved
I love the competition in SEO. Who doesn’t love beating someone else for a top ranking? At the same time, there is a lot of responsibility that comes with being involved in SEO, which we don’t always acknowledge. You have to remember that you are accountable to:
· The rest of your SEO team. You always have to bring your “A” game. Your colleagues rely on your ideas and learning as much as your clients do. There is only one number one spot on Google, and for a competitive keyword, you probably are not the only SEOs trying to target it.
· Your clients. Clients need your help choosing keywords that they can not only rank well for, but that will also drive meaningful site traffic as well as produce leads and sales.Hold yourself accountable (and prove your value) to your clients with measurable analytics.
· Searchers. The keywords that your clients are ranking for are terms that actual people are looking for. Are you helping them complete their search? If your client ranks well for “blue widget parts,” is there relevant content there? Or will the searcher leave immediately for another site?
As Urbani points out at the end of his article, “to some, theory does not equal practicality.”Maybe I’m a person who thinks analytically, but I’ll take practicality over theory. I want to be accountable for my work product and able to prove value to my clients—and to me a winning SEO strategy means going beyond theory and rankings to measurable metrics like ROI, leads and sales.
Laura Lane
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