by Ryan Faist
Big Idea Company, LLC
Sometimes I wish I didn’t have such a naturally low tolerance for BS. It gets me into trouble every now and then. But I can’t help it. I was born with an ultra- sensitive BS radar that emits violent shockwaves whenever it goes off. In fact, it’s going off right now.
For the past twenty minutes I’ve been online reading blogs, articles and website copy. Not because I care about what they have to say, but because it’s part of my job as a writer to know what the current literary climate is in cyberspace. I can sum it up in three letters: S-E-O.
If you have a business or organization that values a healthy web presence, you probably know that “search engine optimization (SEO)” is the process of making your website attractive to search engines. In case SEO is a new term for you, I’ll give you the 60-second version of how it works.
SEO is all about the words or phrases that people type into search engines when they’re looking things up on the internet. Say you’re searching for a nice restaurant in South Bend. You’d probably Google “restaurants in South Bend.” Therefore, if you owned a restaurant in South Bend, it’d be wise to include those same key words on your website. You see, when you search for something on Google, it scans thousands and thousands of websites for the specific terms you typed. Then it ranks them. The top 15 or so are displayed on your screen. The way Google ranks websites gets a little complicated, but let’s just say it pays close attention to “key words” in your web text, among other things. The higher your ranking, the better.
That’s SEO.
Now here’s my beef: it’s getting to the point where SEO seems to be the only thing web writers care about anymore. They want to get people to their website more than they want to write interesting content that their readers will care about. I know this from experience. Years ago I wrote for an online real estate company. I was always given a long list of key words and phrases that I’d have to build each article around. The only reason they wanted articles was to keep their website high up in the search engines. I did it. I found a way to use those key words in a way that appeared organic, as though they were the words I would’ve naturally chosen. But instead of feeling proud that I did my job well, I felt dishonest and even a little sleazy. A few months later I quit.
Web writers and marketers have turned SEO into a secret ulterior motive. I miss the days of reading an article online and knowing it was written solely because the writer had something interesting to say. Now writing on the internet is so bloated with search terms and key phrases that I can’t even go online without my BS radar blowing up in my face. But I can deal with that. What really bothers me is knowing that so much writing on the web has lost its purity. Doesn’t anyone care about that anymore?
Yes. There are still some web writers left who value things like honor, honesty and truth. I’m one of them. This blog is genuine. It contains no pre-determined key words or SEO strategies. Not that I’m rebelling against the use of SEO altogether. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with a website that helps generate business. After all, isn’t that the point? I just think there’s a way to incorporate SEO without crossing the line of deception. There must be a happy medium. I believe creating interesting content that readers will care about should dictate your SEO, not the other way around. If you’re writing about topics that matter to your audience, the search words will be there. Trust me.