Talk to Franz

Chapter 1 of 8 · Part I

What Is SEO?

Before we begin, it is important to understand what SEO is. I define SEO as:

  • the business of getting found
  • the business of getting found online
  • all business activities that contribute to the goal of getting found online

I class the first point above as a slogan, the second one as a clarification of the slogan, with the third being the proper definition. Although the definition sounds rather simple, there are many common misconceptions about SEO. Let’s put an end to these misconceptions! We will do this by firstly discussing what SEO isn’t, then what it is, followed by the two most important things you should take away from this book.

What SEO Is Not!

1. SEO is not free traffic

SEO does not come for “free.” You need to invest time, money and resources! You must have a goal in mind - do you want more traffic/users/clients/customers? To achieve this, you must do things differently. Very differently to how you would do things if SEO did not exist.

2. SEO is not PageRank™

PageRank™ was the original algorithm developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Google founders, to rank web pages according to their relevance. Their most important principles were:

  • pages with more inlinks (also known as backlinks) are more valuable than pages with fewer inlinks, and
  • links from pages with more inlinks are more valuable than links from pages with fewer inlinks.

That was in 1998 - that’s multiple lifetimes ago concerning the internet. Since then, the term has been used and misused in every possible way until it became an esoteric concept that can be used to prevent or encourage each and every action you see fit.

Want to do something? PageRank™! Don’t want to do something? PageRank™! Why? PageRank™! PageRank™ is thought-cancer and a frustrating distraction from our task at hand, so we will not use it. Just google [pagerank thought-cancer] if you want to hear more about it because I could really go on for hours.

Important Note: Whenever a term is within [square brackets], it is a user search query, so something you or any other user types (or sometimes speaks) into Google. It’s the same annotation that Google uses in their documentation. The square brackets symbolize the Google Search input field.

3. SEO is not a technology

The internet is a digital medium, and therefore everything on the internet is to some extent technology. However, SEO is not a technological challenge and cannot be “fixed” with technology alone.

4. SEO is not software

You can’t download SEO. While some content management systems (CMS), server software, website frameworks and shop systems are, from a technical point of view, more search engine optimized than others, let me make it very clear that you cannot download SEO.

5. SEO is not hardware

Although it is not hardware, SEO does have a hardware dependency. Let me explain: if your website is slow because your server is slow, then SEO is pointless. However, it is also important to note that even the best hardware will not make your site search engine optimized.

6. SEO is not rankings

With modern search engines, there is no consistent “No. 1” ranking in search engine results. Anyone who claims to deliver this is misleading. Users see different results for the same search terms, which vary based on factors such as:

  • their device
  • location
  • internet connection speed
  • individual search history
  • serendipity
  • and more.

Your goal cannot be the mere ranking itself. Above the fold rankings (the ones that are visible on a web page without scrolling) are a side effect of successful SEO, but not a goal in their own right.

7. SEO is not a service

You cannot outsource SEO. You can outsource certain tasks, but SEO in its entirety is and always will be the responsibility of your business.

8. SEO is not a tool

Most third party (non-Google) SEO tools (especially all paid SEO tools) deliver more or less made up figures about SEO, so-called “magic numbers.” None of them will do SEO for you, and none of them will lead to SEO success without your effort. Most of the time you will make poor business decisions because of them. Don’t use them.

9. SEO is not a product

You cannot buy SEO.

10. SEO is not a solution

SEO is not the easy solution to wider business problems. If your product, service or anything you want to make money with is shit, then SEO will not save you.

Although the original PageRank™ algorithm was based on the importance of inlinks, a current ranking is substantially more complex. However, sadly inlinks are still a relevant factor in search, and although they are just a tiny part of what you have to care about, they are not - as it is sometimes claimed - everything.

12. SEO is not a trick

Tricks don’t scale. SEO does.

13. SEO is not art

If you are reading this book, then you are doing so because you want to achieve a goal involving SEO. You will be required to execute tasks, you will check for feedback, and you will iterate. Art is not goal oriented, SEO is. Therefore, SEO is not art.

14. SEO is not a problem

SEO is solved! You just need to do it.

What SEO is!

1. SEO is a business

You will need to do things differently. You will invest time, money, brain share, development resources, content writing, marketing effort and more into this topic. You will need to implement new processes that will change how your company does business.

2. SEO is the business of getting found on the internet

Here’s the thing: if you don’t want to, you needn’t change a thing. But your business won’t be found as well as it could be on the internet.

SEO is a choice! The choice is yours. It’s not the user’s choice, nor Google’s, nor is it the choice of an overpaid SEO agency or your competition, and it’s certainly not the choice of this book.

If you don’t care about getting found, then there is no need for SEO. It must make sense to you that your users find you. You must care about it.

If you don’t have a product or don’t have a business goal, then create this first. Then, and only then, should you consider SEO. SEO involves all business activities that contibute to the goal of getting found online.

3. SEO involves all business activities that contribute to the goal of getting found online

SEO acts within these areas:

  • development
  • marketing
  • content

You will find out more (much more) about them in the SEO setup chapter to come.

4. SEO is solved!

SEO, like anything that has value, is 5% know-how and 95% execution. What you need to do is clear. You “just” have to do it. In nearly all cases, SEO does not fail because of too little knowledge, but because of flawed or non-existent execution. Knowledge without execution is meaningless for businesses. Focus on execution!

5. SEO makes sense!

SEO makes sense, and everybody can and should understand it. So if you encounter something that claims it is “SEO”, but does not make sense, don’t do it. I use the term “sensemaking” in this book, so in other words, something has to be sensible, rational or logical.

6. SEO is a choice!

There are thousands of good and valid reasons not to do things the search engine optimized way. You can have the best, coolest, most awesome, perfect website without SEO! You can make all the right technical choices, you can create great content and have an effective marketing approach, but the result might not be search engine optimized in a way that leads to sustainable, sensemaking and growing traffic. Only a search engine optimized website is search engine optimized.

“Tell me the latest SEO trick!?!”

People often ask me for the most recent SEO trick. And I say to them: “SEO is a business!” and I recommend them one of my excellent SEO workshops or this awesome book or both.

However, there is one strategy (with two action points) that is more important than anything else you could do for your business SEO wise. If you do these two things, you will probably be miles ahead of your competition, and you will prevent a lot of frustration, lost time and wasted money. In fact, if you just take two things away from this book, let it be these:

  1. R.T.F.M. (Read The F*cking Manual!)
  2. if you do something, be sure to get feedback.

R.T.F.M.

If you want to perform well in Google Search, just read the f*cking official manual. There are more than 400 technical specifications, recommendations, documents, articles and tools about how to do well in Google Search. They are written and published by Google (and yes, I counted them, stopped after 400, so that’s how I know it’s more than 400).

That doesn’t take into account specifications (also called “specs”) and recommendations published by initiatives like schema.org, webpagespeedtest.org, and others where Google is a leading member. Do you want to know how to optimize your site for mobile search? There is a spec for that and a Google tool! Multiple languages? Just check the spec. URLs? There is a spec!

Unfortunately, not all specs are in one place, but you can find most of them in these sections of Google’s webproperty:

Pro-tip: Always read the English versions, as they are the most up-to-date and have the clearest wording.

Now that we’ve discussed R.T.F.M, my next piece of advice is: don’t read SEO blogs! There are 400+ official documents directly from Google. There are 488,000,000 opinions about SEO.

A Google results page for the query SEO: the definition box, People also ask, and the Moz and Search Engine Land results

Here’s why you shouldn’t read SEO blogs: 80% of everything that is written about SEO on the internet is bullshit. You have an “80:20 ratio” when it comes to SEO blog posts: that is, an 80% chance of reducing your understanding of SEO because it is either rubbish or just plain bullshit, and only a 20% chance of it being valuable.

However, with Google specs, the chances are much better with a “20:80 ratio”: that is, a 20% chance that the spec is outdated or deprecated, but an 80% chance that the spec will give you valuable and actionable insights. Therefore, it is always a much better investment of your time and resources to read Google specs. Ignore blogs, read the specs!

Is this book part of the 80%? In my workshops, I always start with the line “SEO is 80% bullshit and 20% valuable parts!”. There is always one clever person that asks something like, “How do we determine that this workshop is not part of the 80%?” Well, I can’t decide that for you. Only you can. After you have read this book cover to cover, SEO must make sense to you.

Be Sure To Get Feedback!

Now to the second action point of the “SEO trick” strategy: action and reaction - whenever you do something on your webproperty, make sure you get feedback. As a minimum, always check:

  • Google Search Console
  • Google Analytics (or another user-friendly, accessible analytics tool)

And, for every actively maintained webproperty, you should review these:

  • at least half an hour per webproperty
  • after every (development, content or other) release
  • at least every two days
  • forever

Click around in Google Search Console, browse the tables and beautiful charts, and if you see something that makes your head scratch, please just R.T.F.M. Most of the time there is a “?” right next to the charts, and it leads you to the relevant documentation.

If you do these two steps - R.T.F.M and get feedback - right, you will make fewer mistakes, and when (not “if”) you make mistakes, you will recognize them sooner rather than later. And you will learn from them. If you make the right decisions, you will see the positive impact, which will encourage you to learn and do more. You can only win.

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