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I've met more than a few fraudulent SEOs, but you cannot support this generalization merely because their are a few bad apples in the cart. Every profession ha

by tdonia 18y ago

I've met more than a few fraudulent SEOs, but you cannot support this generalization merely because their are a few bad apples in the cart. Every profession has its share. I've also met some invaluable SEOs, especially in the magazine and publishing businesses, that thrive in large corporations as the bridge between the editorial staff and the tech team. These people can be characterized as smart, undervalued and overworked - as they often perform a largely thankless job that has direct impact on the bottom line. In many cases, these people are as close to a starter upper that you'll be able to find in otherwise stagnant labor pools.

jrockway 18y ago
I've also met some invaluable SEOs, especially in the magazine and publishing businesses, that thrive in large corporations as the bridge between the editorial staff and the tech team. Are these people really SEOs, people who optimize only for search engines, or are they UI designers, who make the site good for its users? If you are making the content good for humans, then you are not an SEO -- making a good site is not SEO, it's making a good site. It will probably be good for your search engine ranking though.
- tdonia 18y ago
  well, in this case i've only met them from my role as a ui designer who's been called in because of a need for ui design. that said - you're very right - given the circumstances, they were the closest position to a ui designer that these companies had. and they do tend to think more about the users than most other roles. their focus was though was on a traffic funnel with a rhythm dictated by crawlers, not the all of general interest. in companies with a strong editorial culture, these people are closer to the literal language of a site & copywriting than us diagrammers. they care about interaction design, but only as long as it's not annoying & isn't something the crawlers would have a problem with. i can't imagine it working in smaller companies with the same dynamics, nor do i think it would work well as a consultancy - but it some cases, it fits the given context extremely well.

by tdonia 18y ago

jrockway 18y ago

I've also met some invaluable SEOs, especially in the magazine and publishing businesses, that thrive in large corporations as the bridge between the editorial staff and the tech team. Are these people really SEOs, people who optimize only for search engines, or are they UI designers, who make the site good for its users? If you are making the content good for humans, then you are not an SEO -- making a good site is not SEO, it's making a good site. It will probably be good for your search engine ranking though.

tdonia 18y ago
well, in this case i've only met them from my role as a ui designer who's been called in because of a need for ui design. that said - you're very right - given the circumstances, they were the closest position to a ui designer that these companies had. and they do tend to think more about the users than most other roles. their focus was though was on a traffic funnel with a rhythm dictated by crawlers, not the all of general interest. in companies with a strong editorial culture, these people are closer to the literal language of a site & copywriting than us diagrammers. they care about interaction design, but only as long as it's not annoying & isn't something the crawlers would have a problem with. i can't imagine it working in smaller companies with the same dynamics, nor do i think it would work well as a consultancy - but it some cases, it fits the given context extremely well.