Have you heard the news? Search Engine Optimisation is dead and Content is King!
I agree in part, Content is King, but SEO is the creepy-looking guy that whispers in the King’s ear and is very much alive. The anti-SEO lobby believe that good content should stand alone and not need the hassles of optimising this and that for mere search engines.
I disagree …
You have to have great content – that’s a given. But people have to find that content.
Say you wanted to open a Cut-Price Ming Vase Emporium.
If you open up in the backwoods of a slum, chances are you’re not going to prosper!
Why?
You have a great product and a great price – but nobody with the wherewithal to make a purchase is going to find you.
Same with your valuable prose – people have to be able to find it – and that means setting it out in the right way, so that it’s palatable to the Search Engines and making sure that they’ll return to sup on your literary feast. That doesn’t just happen …
You have to lead the way.
Search Engines don’t wander around peeking under rugs hoping they’ll find something – They index known sites.
When Search Engines index sites they don’t read through, make notes and then settle back to ponder what it all means – they check set criteria, determine some keywords and head off to the next site.
So optimisation is primarily about presenting your information in a manner that’s most likely to result in Search Engine rankings.