I was chatting with my buddies in SEOChat the other day and were trying to come up with creative analogies for SEO. I tossed one out that I had heard Chad use around the office and another SEO in the forum really liked it. So I thought I'd blog on it here.
Chad said to me a few weeks ago: Ya know, SEO is like lobbying. And it hit me like a flash that he was right. How could I have missed this obvious search engine optimization analogy living here in Washington, DC? I don't know, but I had. And it was perfect. Allow me to expand.
As a bill is brought to Congress to be considered as a possible new law, there is an entire process that the government goes through to determine if it should be passed. In some rare cases, the bill flies through both houses and passes to be sent on to the President. In these rare cases, there is huge consensus that it is just a good idea. But that's not how things normally work. Normally, there are many competing forces and agendas that create problems and disagreements. As a result, lobbyists come into the scene. Their job is to run around and help promote the bill by broadcasting the positive qualities of the bill and who it will help. They gather information, have meetings and generally draw attention to the bill for as many legislators as they can. Furthermore, they were likely involved in the writing of the bill to make sure it was well-structured.
Well isn't that what SEO is? The search engines are like Congress as they decide what websites will get traffic. And a good SEO is like a lobbyist. They help make sure the site is structured to perform well. Then they work to amplify the positive qualities of a website and lobby the search engines to take notice and publish the website high up in the rankings.
How does an SEO lobby for a website?
Well this question essentially gets you right back into the onsite and offsite SEO tactics that we've covered in other blog posts about our SEO services. But the import take away here is that, just like a good bill without a lobbyist, it is very hard to be noticed online these days. Likewise, even the best lobbyist will have a hard time passing a bad law. All things come back to balance. True in government and SEO.
The best recipe is to have a high quality website with content that users really want. But then you also need a skilled lobbyist (SEO) to help amplify and broadcast the positive traits of the site or you will have a hard time getting noticed. In the end, this will result in the best possible business results.