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I've always understood that it was more important to have a good product than to have good SEO. Who cares if your site appears at the top of a Google search if

by astine 19y ago

I've always understood that it was more important to have a good product than to have good SEO. Who cares if your site appears at the top of a Google search if it isn't for what people are searching? They'll come across it, be like "this sucks," and not click on you again. SEO is only one aspect of marketing, which in turn is only one aspect of running a startup. I would argue that not mentioning SEO is not an act of negligence. Also, SEO has gotten a bit of a reputation for being dishonest, with people placing references to recent scandals in their html headers to attract hits. This can kind of stuff can be like spam and doesn't necessarily help users find something useful. Especially if what you are selling is a piece of crap. So it pretty clear why someone would not mention SEO in an advice column, even legit stuff: because they don't want to associated with crap.

danielrhodes 19y ago
I agree. Just by its nature, SEO is bad. Of course there are some simple things that you can do to make your page better understood by search engines, but using these self-proclaimed tricks and methodologies employed by most SEO companies is a total waste of time and money. Focus on putting something out there that's good, not trying to find shortcuts.
- jwesley 19y ago
  "Just by its nature, SEO is bad" This statement is ridiculous. You are a fool is you don't do everything you can to rank for relevant terms. This is the best, most targeted traffic you can get. Gaming the engines is bad, but not trying to rank in them is idiocy.
  - danielrhodes 19y ago
    I mostly meant the gaming part and the industry of SEO 'experts' who are involved with that. You are obviously right that search engine traffic is great. However, it is a waste of time focusing on doing "everything you can" to rank in the search engines, instead of for instance, working on making a good product in the first place. Search engines today usually use a QA feedback loop to figure out what ends up being the most relevant result for people. So if your site is good and the best, it will rise to the top anyways.
smopburrito 19y ago
there's a direct relationship b/w the level of commoditization of your product and the importance of SEO (let alone relevance of SEO). if i sell "shoes" SEO means one thing to me, if i sell [insert unique thing here] it means another. irrespective of the ultimate popularity of [unique item], if it is unique, what am i optomizing for? maybe another way to look at SEO primacy on this news site is to think about how much the dominant vision is to compete with "what else is out there in your space"- in terms of not only search results, but business model, services, footprint, pricing...- versus how "new" or original you are in addressing unsolved problems. i get paid by a place that cares about SEO and paid-placement services, and i know that if we simply bothered to innovate within our niche, SEO would take care of itself (i.e. be supplanted by the Real word-of-mouth, positive press, no-brainer reputation that comes with actually being 'the solution' as opposed to 'a possible solution, maybe, but we paid/tried really hard to have you look at us')

by astine 19y ago

danielrhodes 19y ago

I agree. Just by its nature, SEO is bad. Of course there are some simple things that you can do to make your page better understood by search engines, but using these self-proclaimed tricks and methodologies employed by most SEO companies is a total waste of time and money. Focus on putting something out there that's good, not trying to find shortcuts.

jwesley 19y ago
"Just by its nature, SEO is bad" This statement is ridiculous. You are a fool is you don't do everything you can to rank for relevant terms. This is the best, most targeted traffic you can get. Gaming the engines is bad, but not trying to rank in them is idiocy.
- danielrhodes 19y ago
  I mostly meant the gaming part and the industry of SEO 'experts' who are involved with that. You are obviously right that search engine traffic is great. However, it is a waste of time focusing on doing "everything you can" to rank in the search engines, instead of for instance, working on making a good product in the first place. Search engines today usually use a QA feedback loop to figure out what ends up being the most relevant result for people. So if your site is good and the best, it will rise to the top anyways.

smopburrito 19y ago

there's a direct relationship b/w the level of commoditization of your product and the importance of SEO (let alone relevance of SEO). if i sell "shoes" SEO means one thing to me, if i sell [insert unique thing here] it means another. irrespective of the ultimate popularity of [unique item], if it is unique, what am i optomizing for? maybe another way to look at SEO primacy on this news site is to think about how much the dominant vision is to compete with "what else is out there in your space"- in terms of not only search results, but business model, services, footprint, pricing...- versus how "new" or original you are in addressing unsolved problems. i get paid by a place that cares about SEO and paid-placement services, and i know that if we simply bothered to innovate within our niche, SEO would take care of itself (i.e. be supplanted by the Real word-of-mouth, positive press, no-brainer reputation that comes with actually being 'the solution' as opposed to 'a possible solution, maybe, but we paid/tried really hard to have you look at us')