How to do SEO in 3 Steps

I often get asked how to do SEO and what tips I can offer. The short answer is, there are no SEO tips. Now I'm going to contradict myself, because there are 2 steps to SEO that EVERY webmaster NEEDS to know.

I'm pretty active in my professional community as an SEO manager and usability expert. Occasionally I get asked the question, "How do I do SEO?" I usually suggest starting here:
Google's SEO Starter Guide

Google is the gold standard of search, which is why searching is referred to generically as "googling". Google wants better websites on the internet, and they want to show those sites to their searchers. If they can show better sites and better content to their searchers, that re-enforces Google as a quality search engine. So, when the king of search engines writes an SEO guide and you want to learn about SEO, READ IT! In fact, read it twice.


1. Don't be do "SEO". Often when many people say "SEO", what they usually mean is that they want "tricks" that will make them come up higher in search results. Usually when people try SEO tricks, their site ends up looking spammy and visitors generally get an "icky" feeling. Yes, you should do things like put keywords in your link text, but you were probably going to do that anyway. Why pay someone $185/hour to tell you something you already know?


2. Good quality content. All the SEO in the world is wasted if users don't like your content. If you have good content, users will share your site with each other. When people share your site, it builds your link popularity, which is more powerful than SEO.

My favorite sites on this subject are:
Copy Blogger
Zen Habits


3. Good usability. All the SEO in the world is wasted if your site is difficult to use. A site that has good usability naturally brings in SEO techniques. I'm sure that must sound strange, but SEO is quickly becoming the science of building a website with common sense.

My favorite sites on this subject are:
UseIt.com
Webpages That Suck


Be careful, when it comes to SEO, there are a lot of BS and scam artists who will sell you a big box of lies and bad practices that will get your site banned from the search engines. Of course, I have to plug myself, because I think that I write some pretty good material on SEO and usability :
PageRank and Link Juice SEO Blog


Good luck,
Chris

3 Second Rule Gets Confirmation

Several months back I blogged about the 3 Second Rule. For years, I have considered the 3 Second Rule to be the single most important rule that I work by. In my experience, you either live by the 3 Second Rule, or you die by the 3 Second Rule. It's also my most commonly read blog entry, and for good reason; it's the single most important entry I have ever written. When I talk to new clients, work with interns, or other people who are entering the world of the web, I always start with the 3 Second Rule. If the 3 Second Rule were the only thing they knew about building a website, they would build a better website than most professionals.

After years of making noise about it, it's interesting to see that it's finally starting to be picked up by other marketers. If we can get this message to the designers, mabye we can finally start making the web easier to use, and more powerful.

Here are a few links and excerpts that I found recently that support the 3 Second Rule:

http://www.grokdotcom.com/2009/09/02/just-say-the-thing/

Google and the Internet have trained us to ruthlessly sort for relevance, and we now demand messaging formatted for, and adapted to, rapid sorting. If visitors can’t get on your website, perform a 7-second scan and immediately see exactly:

• what it is you do,
• what your offering, and
• why they should care,

those visitors will leave.

http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2006/press_110606.html

Akamai and JupiterResearch Identify '4 Seconds' as the New Threshold of Acceptability for Retail Web Page Response Times

http://www.grokdotcom.com/2006/12/20/deja-vu-web-rage-still-lurks/

Web Rage Only Takes 4 Seconds to Activate

What’s the root cause of Mouse Rage Syndrome? It’s primarily caused by badly designed and hosted Web sites, according to the research center.

The experts agree, live by the 3 Second Rule or die by the 3 Second Rule.

Cheers,

Chris