4 ms·

Nicely deconstructed. They're definitely using SEO on a deeper level.

by ludwig 17y ago

joshwa 17y ago
I think the term you're looking for is 'trolling'.
- ludwig 17y ago
  We've already established that they're trolling. The real question is whether they've set out to increase their page rank through those means, on purpose. They are a business, after all.
  - access_denied 17y ago
    Call me naive, but I believe 37sigs want also to change how american small businesses operate. It's not just trolling they really want to change how certain people think.
- run4yourlives 17y ago
  Having a valid opinion that is against the grain is not "trolling". Innovation isn't trolling.
  - Xichekolas 17y ago
    Well really, trolling isn't trolling when it's done by a for-profit business... At that point we start calling it by fancy terms like brand awareness, or, in general, marketing. Aside from that, who is trolling more here? 37signals for writing the original article? Or this bplans guy, to whom we are paying attention only because he picked a fight with 37signals?
  - whughes 17y ago
    That's not the same as writing in an intentionally inflammatory manner to garner attention and get responses. There's a difference between your opinion and how you choose to convey it. For me, trolling is entirely a question of the latter and not the former.
wmeredith 17y ago
That's not SEO (Search Engine Optimization). That's SEM (Search Engine Marketing) aka link-building/trolling/link-baiting/viral marketing... whatever you want to call it, it's about putting compelling content on your site that gets passed along on its own merits attracting links. SEO is done on-site and is a process of organizing your information architecture so it is search-engine-friendly, and then creating content that is relevant to your target market. That way you can get indexed for the terms you want, so that you appear on SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) exposing you to your target market at their time of need. Once that's done, SEM begins which is about attracting off site links that get you ranked high on those SERPs so you get traffic. (There's another side of SEM that's about PPC.) SEO and SEM go hand-in-hand, but they are still two different things. (Not being snarky, just pointing something out. I'm an online marketer and client education is the biggest challenge of my field.)
- ludwig 17y ago
  Interesting distinctions. I guess I misunderstood the term SEO when I first heard it. If optimization refers to rearranging your content so that search engines can parse it more easily, then I can see where you're coming from. I thought it referred only to the end result, i.e. improving your site's rank. Thanks for the correction.
  - KWD 17y ago
    You're right in your definition. SEO (search engine friendly design, link building, etc.) is a subset of SEM. SEO is about improving your organic (non-paid) search results. SEM generally refers to a combination of SEO and PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, and other online marketing methods. That said, I think things like the 37 signals post are too easily classified as SEO when it's really just publicity seeking with no real intent on improving the sites rankings.
- webwright 17y ago
  That's a semantic quibble which I don't think adds a ton to the conversation. Besides that, it might just be WRONG. Just about every SEO professional I know would include copywriting, linkbait AND markup under the umbrella of SEO. From Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing ) "Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.[1]. The industry peak body Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), also includes search engine optimization (SEO) within its reporting, but SEO is a separate discipline with most sources, including the New York Times defining SEM as 'the practice of buying paid search listings'.[2][3]" http://is.gd/16x87 http://is.gd/16x87 (GoogleFight! ;-) ) http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engi... (intro to SEO article which talks about linkbait). Note: Not being snarky. I've been an online marketer and spoken on SEO. I think client education is important-- but we should focus on what's important and not the subtleties of acronyms.

Nicely deconstructed. They're definitely using SEO on a deeper level.

by ludwig 17y ago

Nicely deconstructed. They're definitely using SEO on a deeper level.

joshwa 17y ago

I think the term you're looking for is 'trolling'.

ludwig 17y ago
We've already established that they're trolling. The real question is whether they've set out to increase their page rank through those means, on purpose. They are a business, after all.
- access_denied 17y ago
  Call me naive, but I believe 37sigs want also to change how american small businesses operate. It's not just trolling they really want to change how certain people think.
run4yourlives 17y ago
Having a valid opinion that is against the grain is not "trolling". Innovation isn't trolling.
- Xichekolas 17y ago
  Well really, trolling isn't trolling when it's done by a for-profit business... At that point we start calling it by fancy terms like brand awareness, or, in general, marketing. Aside from that, who is trolling more here? 37signals for writing the original article? Or this bplans guy, to whom we are paying attention only because he picked a fight with 37signals?
- whughes 17y ago
  That's not the same as writing in an intentionally inflammatory manner to garner attention and get responses. There's a difference between your opinion and how you choose to convey it. For me, trolling is entirely a question of the latter and not the former.

wmeredith 17y ago

That's not SEO (Search Engine Optimization). That's SEM (Search Engine Marketing) aka link-building/trolling/link-baiting/viral marketing... whatever you want to call it, it's about putting compelling content on your site that gets passed along on its own merits attracting links. SEO is done on-site and is a process of organizing your information architecture so it is search-engine-friendly, and then creating content that is relevant to your target market. That way you can get indexed for the terms you want, so that you appear on SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) exposing you to your target market at their time of need. Once that's done, SEM begins which is about attracting off site links that get you ranked high on those SERPs so you get traffic. (There's another side of SEM that's about PPC.) SEO and SEM go hand-in-hand, but they are still two different things. (Not being snarky, just pointing something out. I'm an online marketer and client education is the biggest challenge of my field.)

ludwig 17y ago
Interesting distinctions. I guess I misunderstood the term SEO when I first heard it. If optimization refers to rearranging your content so that search engines can parse it more easily, then I can see where you're coming from. I thought it referred only to the end result, i.e. improving your site's rank. Thanks for the correction.
- KWD 17y ago
  You're right in your definition. SEO (search engine friendly design, link building, etc.) is a subset of SEM. SEO is about improving your organic (non-paid) search results. SEM generally refers to a combination of SEO and PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, and other online marketing methods. That said, I think things like the 37 signals post are too easily classified as SEO when it's really just publicity seeking with no real intent on improving the sites rankings.
webwright 17y ago
That's a semantic quibble which I don't think adds a ton to the conversation. Besides that, it might just be WRONG. Just about every SEO professional I know would include copywriting, linkbait AND markup under the umbrella of SEO. From Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing ) "Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.[1]. The industry peak body Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), also includes search engine optimization (SEO) within its reporting, but SEO is a separate discipline with most sources, including the New York Times defining SEM as 'the practice of buying paid search listings'.[2][3]" http://is.gd/16x87 http://is.gd/16x87 (GoogleFight! ;-) ) http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engi... (intro to SEO article which talks about linkbait). Note: Not being snarky. I've been an online marketer and spoken on SEO. I think client education is important-- but we should focus on what's important and not the subtleties of acronyms.