Don’t get me wrong, I love Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I love looking for the perfect keywords or keyword phrases; I love tracking the links and analyzing site structure and seeing what opportunities exist on page or off. I love finding that one thing—the internal linking structure, the deep site pages, the presence or absence on key directory sites, the follow or no-follow links—that can make the difference between a site that will rank well on Google and a site that won’t. I love the analysis; I love the puzzle; I love the game; I love the win.
So you might wonder what possessed me to declare the death of SEO.
I refer to the announcement I made in September 2013 on mediaShepherd.com, a new website dedicated to providing information and resources to the media business. And I admit, I didn’t really mean the SEO was moribund. In fact, like the premature report of Mark Twain’s death, this statement regarding the death of SEO was exaggerated.
A Misunderstood Tool
In meeting after meeting with SEO clients, I was finding myself explaining, from the ground up, some concepts that were fundamental in my understanding of SEO but widely misunderstood. My clients were convinced that creating content that could be searched and found online was equivalent in some way to creating shoddy or debased content (it is not). They were convinced that SEO would undermine their unique editorial voice or journalistic integrity by replacing it with keywords. (It will not because those keyword density formulas are no longer part of the Google search algorithm and haven’t been for a number of years.)
They were puzzled as to why they should bother with video or other forms of rich media for audiences that seemed to prefer text (for many reasons, but one is to support SEO); they were puzzled as to the role of apps. They thought the process of creating links to their sites was a numbers game; that where links are concerned, more is better, regardless of link quality (not so).
Most of all, they saw SEO as a discipline quite separate from the work that they needed to do to create their content and develop relationships with their audience. I realized that many of my clients saw SEO as existing in its own silo—separate from the greater strategy and goals of the site itself.
Beyond Keywords and Links
What my clients needed was a broader, more inclusive, more integrative system. I call the concept OAO (Online Audience Optimization), and I launched it because, far from being at odds with what the content publisher was trying to achieve, it ties into the core of a publisher’s work. It brings together content and audience, the two elements that make up the lifeblood of websites. It aims to build audience loyalty, trust and participation. Its goal is not to bring the maximum number of random people to a site, but the maximum number of targeted people who need and want what the site offers.
OAO is natural. It is organic. It does not discard the core principals of SEO, but it includes broader goals—goals that are important to content publishers. The goals include consistency in branding throughout a resonant online presence, both on and off page; an organic and audience-centric approach to building that presence; and building relations through interactivity with the content on-site and off that will lead to increased reader engagement, audience loyalty and longer, more repeated engagement with the site and its content.
A Case Study
A publisher of a site having to do with research and development came to me wondering why he wasn’t achieving the success he should have, given his SEO efforts. He had many links throughout the Internet—tens of thousands of them—and the links used high-ranking keywords to direct people to his site. He had always enjoyed a high place on page one of search engine results pages, but was discovering people came to his site but didn’t stay long, didn’t engage with the content, and the content wasn’t receiving the citations it deserved. Why?
An analysis of the site indicated the SEO techniques used were delivering high rankings, but weren't targeting his audience. He was essentially bringing many people to his site, but they were the wrong people. Many or most of them weren’t looking for his high level of content and were leaving quickly. Further, those who did find the correct content weren’t engaging with it. An OAO approach to his difficulties involved working offsite to more appropriately brand and target his links and signals, and working onsite to create clearer opportunities for audience participation.
Traffic Signals Evolving
One of the brilliant aspects of publishing content online is your goals as a publisher dovetail neatly with Google’s. For years, Google has been moving away from keyword stuffing and toward a more natural use of language. Google’s recent Hummingbird update represents a continuation of this direction, with intention, rather than specific keywords, being the core driver. Visitor intention may be signaled through context and keywords; through longer keyword combinations; search history; and originating pages and links.
Remember, building and optimizing online audiences takes into account factors other than search engines and how they behave. Social media sites bring many visitors directly to websites, bypassing search engines. Mobile personal assistants, such as Siri, search apps and the web; may bypass search engines entirely to use location-based services and user-review apps. These personal assistants helped lead the way toward more intention-based, less keyword-centric audience building.
If we are developing audience beyond search engine results pages; if we are bringing people to our sites through Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest; if we are driving more direct traffic to our sites; if, in short, our approach to audience building reflects efforts far beyond what we understand as SEO, surely we are justified in creating a new phrase to reflect this greater breadth.
When I launched the concept of OAO, I was speaking to my tribe of content publishers. In my mind’s eye, I saw those clients I had spoken and worked with over the years, and I offered OAO as a solution to their SEO concerns. I was unprepared for the article to go viral and for the backlash it created. Yes, I understand that it’s paradoxical for someone to write about SEO and not realize the SEO value of the article itself until it exploded across the Internet. But, well, welcome to the world of OAO.
Linda Ruth is president and CEO of PSCS Consulting in Peterborough, which advises on audience development. She can be reached at www.PSCSConsulting.com, www.facebook.com/pscsconsulting, on the PSCS Consulting LinkedIn company page or on Twitter @Linda_Ruth.
Current Issue - April 2024