In 1992, James Carville, a key advisor to presidential candidate Bill Clinton, came up with a memorable slogan for the campaign: It’s the economy, stupid. As the battle rages over how best to incorporate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) into website copywriting, more and more SEO experts are returning to a basic idea that can be similarly summed up: It’s the content, stupid.
The “stupid,” is probably harsh, but there is no doubt that the SEO discussion is shifting from a focus on “technology” to an emphasis on “content.”
Here is what five SEO experts have to say on the subject.
Paul Boag (@boagworld) co-founder of Headscape from his Smashing Magazine article, “The Inconvenient Truth about SEO.”
- “We shouldn’t be optimizing for search engines at all. We should be optimizing content for people.”
- “Your primary objective should be better content, not higher rankings.”
- “In short, write useful content.”
He suggests you do this through white papers, blogs, research findings, case studies, user generated content and interviews among other things.
Gisele Navarro Mendez (@giselenmendez), Upstream Connections’ Social Community Manager in her In Social We Trust post “The SEO Way of Thinking Needs to Go.”
- “Instead of building links, try building relationships.”
- “People don’t care about SERPs or the way Google works. They will click on the links they want, but if you have failed at delivering good content /products /services /support, they will leave your site and never look back.”
- “People will find your site if there’s a network of happy customers supporting your business.”
Jonathan Gebauer (@jobebauer), founder Explore B2B in B2B’s article, “Debunking SEO: Jonathan Gebauer.”
- “Good SEO is natural SEO.”
- “Provide strong, engaging content that people are interested to read.”
- “Focus on being an entertaining and reliable content provider.”
Lisa Barone (@LisaBarone), VP of Strategy at Overit in B2B’s article “Debunking SEO: Lisa Barone”
- “Shift away from creating ‘unique content’ to ‘purposeful content.”
- “Content has always had the crown, but now it’s got the respect to go with it.”
- “Focus on the right party – customers, not the search engines.”
Melissa Fach (@SEOAware), CEO of SEO Aware and Managing Editor of Search Engine Journal in B2B’s article “Debunking SEO: Melissa Fach.”
“You cannot be successful without content and SEO combined. I know there are those that get a site at the top of page one with crappy content, but they have nothing in place for conversion and/or maintaining a solid audience. So even if you get to #1, without the right content, you fail anyway.”
What do you think? Technology or Content? How best to reach your prospect base?