I recently read several forum posts arguing over the future of SEO. One person claims that it is SEO or death, another claims that there is no way to guarantee a number one ranking, and another felt that it was only a fad that would soon pass.

Don’t Obsess About SEO

The most intriguing position that was presented was this: worry about your visitors, content, layout and value proposition first. If you have time after that, work on search engine optimization.

It is my personal opinion that this is the correct position to take on SEO. Search engine algorithms are designed to create results that approximate what a human reviewer would come up with when visiting the page. People who try to spam a search spider are counting on flaws or nuances of a particular search algorithm. The programmers who write the algorithms will eventually improve their algorithm, or at least respond to spamming tactics.

Meanwhile, the search algorithm gets better and better at finding results that are relevant from normal, well-created, ethically run web sites. This means that anyone who wasted their time on “shady” SEO techniques is left behind, while those who worked on their content, conversions, and customer experience are doing better in both areas.

Don’t Ignore SEO, either.

This isn’t to say that you should ignore SEO. You should be careful about which tactics you use. Some of them are inherently flawed. Use some common sense when you choose which tactics to employ. One of the best rules is the classic, “if it sounds too good to be true… it probably is.”

The Correct Way to Think About SEO

Take-home advice: you’ll benefit far more from focusing on the meat-and-potatoes parts of your website. Make your message clear and consistent, and make sure you don’t offend the search engines. If you do this, the search engine rankings will be easier to attain, and the customers who come to your site will be happy!