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Great story. I gotta ask though, how can ANYONE love SEO ??

by babel17 15y ago

momotomo 15y ago
It has visible short to medium turn returns? I don't do SEO, but it seems like it's a case where you can do some analysis, engineering and tuning, then fairly immediately see some results. Beats the pants of slower cycle stuff where you need to work for months on the assumption that all your planning and resourcing will actually produce something that is sustainable.
Ixiaus 15y ago
Generally speaking, I agree with you. I down voted though because it's a silly statement to make when you really think about it in a more dynamic way: * Perspective is subjective * SEO isn't everything you think it is I'm an engineer and I'm actually building an SEO company; "SEO" (I really hate that acronym) is many different things. For some people it's a slimy practice, for other people it is marketing but on the internet ("Internet Marketing" and "SEO" pretty much go hand in hand these days). You might even be interested to know that YC funded an SEO startup (http://www.ginzametrics.com http://www.ginzametrics.com) - they are an SEO tools company (my competitor). So, can you love SEO? Sure you can, as an engineer, building useful SEO tools is rife with fun and interesting problems. Just gotta change your perspective a bit. BUT I agree with you in that on a big philosophical whole, SEO is not something I will be doing my whole life; matter of fact I see it as a stepping stone to interests that matter to my spirit and not just my intellect (interesting engineering problems) and my ego (money and stuff).
randfish 15y ago
I've loved SEO with every fiber of my being for close to a decade. It's an absolutely phenomenal field filled with complexity, challenges, rewards for creativity, attention to metrics and execution. It's hard to find or imagine a business endeavor that produces such remarkable return, nor one that has so many interesting elements (the detective work of uncovering why a site's rankings went up/down, the excitement of a content marketing play, the variety of tactics that can be used to approach a challenge). How can anyone NOT love SEO? That's the more salient question.
- Ixiaus 15y ago
  As an engineer building an SEO company, I can think of plenty of reasons NOT to love SEO. Every coin has two sides (which is, effectively, what I said in the other comment) :)
  - BharatiAhuja 15y ago
    If SEO loses its importance and existence then the search engines will lose their true meaning for ranking websites keeping the quality web parameters in mind as they will become a platform for just displaying Ads. Only those search engines will survive in the long run which can rank quality searches and help people find what they are looking for on the search engines. Else search engines will be the domain of those corporates who can spend more for visibility. SEO helps in making the web a better place and focus on quality rather than make it a money making machine only for some. As the SEO techniques offer a global platform and equal platform for SMEs who have limited budgets and is one of the best web presence stategies for SMEs. As search engines do not rank websites on organic search on the basis of their fame or strong balance sheets but on the basis of the quality aspects of the websites. But as earlier said every coin has got 2 sides there are some people who misuse this but that does not reduce the value of SEO in any way.
briggsjustin 15y ago
As the writer of the story, I guess I should answer this. I think the acronym "SEO" feels a bit outdated. The problems and strategies involved in SEO are far more involved than it often gets credit for. There are a number of people who do the name a disservice and do bad SEO. But the type of work I do at Distilled is working on incredibly creative projects. It might include projects like managing domain consolidation across 3 domains comprising of pages in the millions without allowing for a massive drop in traffic. To solving speed optimization issues, to account for crawl budgets that limit indexation. Or determining IA on large scale sites. Or helping optimize a site running on a 16 year old CMS that won’t switch. And in the same day, I may switch gears to brainstorm some of the most popular viral content on the internet. Then I'll work with a client on their customer service center problems, because it's leading to reputation issues online. Then later that week, I'll be on the phone with the CEO of a cool startup talking through strategic business ideas. I get to help work on strategies that fall well outside the acronym of "SEO" that help lead to the success of some great brands. As an ex engineering, math, and science fanatic - I love the problems that force me to just sit in front of a whiteboard for 2 days straight until I come out with a solution I think will work best for a client. I love the complexity of the problems. However, in the industry, I'm more known for "building links" which is the aspect that allows me to be creative. Also, my "hustle" has made me successful at getting my clients coverage. But in link building, you get to work on projects like data mining and analysis on client data to create interesting content. Then I get to take that same content and pitch it to publications. It's such a dynamic process for one content piece to cover everything from brainstorming concepts, to data analysis, to outreach. So yeah, I love SEO.
- will_critchlow 15y ago
  I'm one of the founders of Distilled (mentioned in the story) and I also come from a technical background (maths mainly). The thing I love about SEO is that we get to work on harder problems in more fun ways than any other industry I've come across. You can make it whatever you want - Justin is a great example of this. And, yeah, he rocks - but you all worked that out already.
  - Ixiaus 15y ago
sid6376 15y ago
I have the same impression about SEO and also about a lot of other things. While I was in college, I thought web development was easy and for people who couldn't program in C/C++. I was dumb. Now i know otherwise. It can be the same with SEO. And that's beside the point, the story is about determination and hard work. What he chose to do is a sidenote.

Great story. I gotta ask though, how can ANYONE love SEO ??

by babel17 15y ago

Great story. I gotta ask though, how can ANYONE love SEO ??

It has visible short to medium turn returns? I don't do SEO, but it seems like it's a case where you can do some analysis, engineering and tuning, then fairly immediately see some results. Beats the pants of slower cycle stuff where you need to work for months on the assumption that all your planning and resourcing will actually produce something that is sustainable.

Ixiaus 15y ago

Generally speaking, I agree with you. I down voted though because it's a silly statement to make when you really think about it in a more dynamic way: * Perspective is subjective * SEO isn't everything you think it is I'm an engineer and I'm actually building an SEO company; "SEO" (I really hate that acronym) is many different things. For some people it's a slimy practice, for other people it is marketing but on the internet ("Internet Marketing" and "SEO" pretty much go hand in hand these days). You might even be interested to know that YC funded an SEO startup (http://www.ginzametrics.com http://www.ginzametrics.com) - they are an SEO tools company (my competitor). So, can you love SEO? Sure you can, as an engineer, building useful SEO tools is rife with fun and interesting problems. Just gotta change your perspective a bit. BUT I agree with you in that on a big philosophical whole, SEO is not something I will be doing my whole life; matter of fact I see it as a stepping stone to interests that matter to my spirit and not just my intellect (interesting engineering problems) and my ego (money and stuff).

randfish 15y ago

I've loved SEO with every fiber of my being for close to a decade. It's an absolutely phenomenal field filled with complexity, challenges, rewards for creativity, attention to metrics and execution. It's hard to find or imagine a business endeavor that produces such remarkable return, nor one that has so many interesting elements (the detective work of uncovering why a site's rankings went up/down, the excitement of a content marketing play, the variety of tactics that can be used to approach a challenge). How can anyone NOT love SEO? That's the more salient question.

Ixiaus 15y ago
As an engineer building an SEO company, I can think of plenty of reasons NOT to love SEO. Every coin has two sides (which is, effectively, what I said in the other comment) :)
- BharatiAhuja 15y ago
  If SEO loses its importance and existence then the search engines will lose their true meaning for ranking websites keeping the quality web parameters in mind as they will become a platform for just displaying Ads. Only those search engines will survive in the long run which can rank quality searches and help people find what they are looking for on the search engines. Else search engines will be the domain of those corporates who can spend more for visibility. SEO helps in making the web a better place and focus on quality rather than make it a money making machine only for some. As the SEO techniques offer a global platform and equal platform for SMEs who have limited budgets and is one of the best web presence stategies for SMEs. As search engines do not rank websites on organic search on the basis of their fame or strong balance sheets but on the basis of the quality aspects of the websites. But as earlier said every coin has got 2 sides there are some people who misuse this but that does not reduce the value of SEO in any way.

briggsjustin 15y ago

As the writer of the story, I guess I should answer this. I think the acronym "SEO" feels a bit outdated. The problems and strategies involved in SEO are far more involved than it often gets credit for. There are a number of people who do the name a disservice and do bad SEO. But the type of work I do at Distilled is working on incredibly creative projects. It might include projects like managing domain consolidation across 3 domains comprising of pages in the millions without allowing for a massive drop in traffic. To solving speed optimization issues, to account for crawl budgets that limit indexation. Or determining IA on large scale sites. Or helping optimize a site running on a 16 year old CMS that won’t switch. And in the same day, I may switch gears to brainstorm some of the most popular viral content on the internet. Then I'll work with a client on their customer service center problems, because it's leading to reputation issues online. Then later that week, I'll be on the phone with the CEO of a cool startup talking through strategic business ideas. I get to help work on strategies that fall well outside the acronym of "SEO" that help lead to the success of some great brands. As an ex engineering, math, and science fanatic - I love the problems that force me to just sit in front of a whiteboard for 2 days straight until I come out with a solution I think will work best for a client. I love the complexity of the problems. However, in the industry, I'm more known for "building links" which is the aspect that allows me to be creative. Also, my "hustle" has made me successful at getting my clients coverage. But in link building, you get to work on projects like data mining and analysis on client data to create interesting content. Then I get to take that same content and pitch it to publications. It's such a dynamic process for one content piece to cover everything from brainstorming concepts, to data analysis, to outreach. So yeah, I love SEO.

will_critchlow 15y ago
I'm one of the founders of Distilled (mentioned in the story) and I also come from a technical background (maths mainly). The thing I love about SEO is that we get to work on harder problems in more fun ways than any other industry I've come across. You can make it whatever you want - Justin is a great example of this. And, yeah, he rocks - but you all worked that out already.
- Ixiaus 15y ago

sid6376 15y ago

I have the same impression about SEO and also about a lot of other things. While I was in college, I thought web development was easy and for people who couldn't program in C/C++. I was dumb. Now i know otherwise. It can be the same with SEO. And that's beside the point, the story is about determination and hard work. What he chose to do is a sidenote.