“Search Engine Optimization is part magic, science and art not unlike the ancient concept of alchemy. Take a product or service and transmute its online image into a golden page-one site. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes to reach that coveted gold standard; no recipe is the same, which is why you need a team equipped with a talented alchemist. Ranking a website consists of many factors including links to the site and how the site is structured, but the key ingredient of user experience is often left out, which directly impacts crucial user signals like dwell time and bounce rate. If a website isn’t user optimized it’s not really optimized for search engines.”
The user is what the search engines were built for. Google includes quality guidelines that clearly state “Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.” The purpose of the search engine is to understand search intent and determine what result is most likely going to be helpful to the user.
While technical SEO factors like site structure and links are critical, it’s important to remember that solid on-page SEO should always benefit the viewer’s usability of the site. Backlinks to your site are super important because they show that other websites think you have valuable content, saying to a user, “this is something you might want to look into.” If a link is only placed for search engine value, it’s a sub-par website recipe. We take an individualized approach to all of our clients and help create a recipe that works for their brand. Nowadays social media platforms are starting to have a bigger role in rankings and it’s because that’s where the internet users are. Google and their algorithms follow what will potentially benefit the user which now includes what users are discussing or sharing on social media sites. But social media is an off-page seo strategy for another post.
SEO the Science
The science aspect of SEO comes from interpreting user experience metrics. This includes technical performance benchmarks like Core Web Vitals, analyzing the click-through rate from search results, and a detailed analysis of the site’s user base. For example what are your most popular pages, products or services? These are the questions the data can answer.
SEO the Magic
A lot of the mysticism around seo comes from the fact that no one knows google’s algorithm or secret sauce. This is definitely a good thing or we would have spammy spammertons across all google searches, and the intellectual library of human knowledge and cat videos would be ruined. This means when it comes to the site it’s important not to lose the forest to the trees and to heed the oracle google wisdom to put the user’s interest first in your actions.
SEO the Art
The art is catering to the user, fostering the positive engagement that search engines aim to reward. People don’t always know what they want but it’s an SEO expert’s job to build a site that is visually appealing and offers an experience that is natural. This means balancing function with a form that makes your site stand out from all the other hundred sites seeking the same coveted spot in position one. This often takes the form of making educated guesses based on experience.
