No doubt you've received the emails. They typically start something like this: "You have a really good website, but we notice you are not placing very high on search results." The next phrase is then a pitch to engage the company or the individual on search engine optimization services, also known as SEO.
I'm not about to suggest that you disregard any SEO services. Instead, I'm asking you to think like a search engine before you begin the process of defining your own SEO strategy.
Years ago, I used to work at a search engine company called Infoseek. Not many people remember much about the company, except what seems to me to be a handful of silicon valley veterans. But Infoseek was definitely considered a search pioneer, and like many pioneers, they are soon forgotten. The company was eventually swallowed up by Disney Interactive, changed to Go.com, and then shuttered very soon thereafter. Now Go.com is powered, ironically, by Yahoo.
The big question was, how do I get better search results for my website. Companies like Infoseek and others had submit-your-site forms, and meta tags and meta keywords were thought to be very important. There were some no-nos, like making text color the same as the background color of your site. If you did this, you were tagged as a spammer and potentially banned.
But search engines today are more human, in a way. Meta tags, while helping a search engine to arrange your content, doesn't help much by way of getting you noticed. Getting noticed, that is the top goal.
Remember when Paris Hilton was all the rage, when she was in every one of those gossip rag mags that you pick up on the grocery store shelf while waiting in line? Why do you suppose she had so much exposure at the time? Because people loved her, hated her, laughed at her?
The answer is that she was available. In other words, because she was so active in public, the paparazzi had an opportunity to take pictures and journalists to write articles.
Combined with outrageous behavior and total availability, that is when the press coverage starts. And you can't go anywhere in public or on the Web without reading something about your celebrity du jour.
Take this attitude towards SEO. There are two rules here: You need to be active on the Web and you need to provide opportunities for search engines to notice you. How do you do this?
Provide plenty of content. This is why blogging is so important. And provide new content often. Do lots of social networking. Eventually people will talk about you more on public forums. If you have a business, get rated by your customers on Yelp. Put yourself on directories. Post pictures of your products in Flickr and other photo sites. Have a site that search engines can "read", with real, relevant content. Do stuff that people notice and then make yourself available. In short, get people talking.
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