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Optimise for people not bots

Don't bother with SEO (search engine optimisation) Instead give EUO (End user optimisation) a go (Yes I just made that up).

You could try to second guess what search bots are looking for. Trying to understand these little critters and advising on how to best adapt a site to please them is a good living for many. But the way I see it, these constantly evolving, top secret search algorithms are designed to be like humans, so build for people not bots.

And by making sure your content is accessible to as many humans as possible you'll be on to a winner with both species.

HTML 9 months, 3 weeks ago Rob Winters 7 Comments

7 Comments Have your Say

  1. #: Scott Johnson - 9 months, 2 weeks ago

    In other words, the best site is one that people will remember. That way you don't care where you rank in the search engines because they can get back on their own or they have subscribed to your feeds. But failing that, if you don't really care about people, you could always just optimize for the bots.

  2. #: Amy - 9 months, 2 weeks ago

    I don't think there necessarily has to be a distinction between SEO and creating a site for the end-user. Semantic Markup and Accessibility are considered to be good practices with the users in mind, and an added benefit is that sites developed this way also tend to be optimized very well for search engines.

  3. #: Rob Winters - 9 months, 1 week ago

    @Amy Exactly my point. Only you said it better :)

  4. #: Paul Anthony - 8 months, 3 weeks ago

    Fact. Well written semanticly valid code and copy for humans doesn't necessarily generate traffic.

    *Shakes head*

    Yes the people who enjoy your content will get back on their own. Thats fantastic news if the copy you've put on your website which is well "written for humans" only generates one visitor a month. Bravo. Thats twelve visitors a year that "can back on their own".

    What about the rest of the web? How are they going to find you in the first place.

    SEO is about rewriting content in such a way that you appeal to the majority of humans. Its about working out whether a certain piece of copy results in a conversion. That's where the industry is now. Not in some dark age of mystical saucery that this tip seems to infer.

    Its time the design community got off their high horse, and realised that SEO isn't all snake oil, can and does work (as far as business objectives go) and as Amy says can peacefully co-exist.

    Frankly it doesn't really matter if your code validates, looks pretty or is semantically correct. If the site doesn't get visitors, its just another drop in the ocean.

  5. #: Rob Winters - 8 months ago

    *Shakes head also*

    Writing good copy that results in a conversion (someone buying something, signing up for a service or sending a lead) is not really a skill exclusive to the SEO world. I'm sure you'll agree that copy writing is a skill in its own right and people from many disciplines posses it at different levels.

    My tip refers to instances where perfectly good copy is injected with so many keywords, bloating the original copy into something that makes little sense to humans. And the "we need some more H tags on this page" drives me up the wall - I could go on..

    Having said that, I understand every industry has many levels of professionalism and competence and not all SEO'ers are cowboys. In fact I'm lucky enough to work with some great ones at my day job.

    On another note. Is it irony that the huge number of votes on this tip was probably caused by some type of bot hitting the vote button? :-)

  6. #: Melissa Albano - 7 months, 3 weeks ago

    Paul and Rob hit the nail on the head. As any reputable Search Engine Marketer will tell you that the key to website results is through a balanced, hybrid strategy of effective SEO techniques (to generate traffic) and human-focused content/images to convert prospects once they reach your site.

    The same way that a heavily optimized site may turn away prospective customers, a well-designed site with great content and lacking a search engine strategy will not generate the traffic for you to convert.

    A well designed site that lacks basic search engine optimization is the equivalent of an amazingly attractive billboard placed on a road that no one travels.

  7. #: Storemy - 2 months, 1 week ago

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