Re:If You’re "Blogging" For SEO, You’re Doing it Wrong
by aerosmile on Saturday January 25, 2014 @11:37AM
(#7121211)
Where in the flow above would you put items like: "Make sure that Google Authorship is set up?" Surely, you can't argue that this wouldn't help your content if implemented correctly. There is a long list of similar technical SEO items that smart publishers cover with every new article.
Your sentiment is just a reflection of the damage that SEO snake oil salesmen have created in our industry. These days, everyone claims to be a knowledgable SEO, and there are no straight forward ways to prove that (unlike, say, when you say "I know a lot about natural language processing"). Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater - good SEOs are still generating a ton of value at the top companies in the world.
It has been explained repeatedly but I'll repeat it again. Optimizing for search engines is to a great extent wasted energy.
Create just interesting content -> People will refer to it automagically -> Ranking on search engines will automagically improve -> More people will come to your site and more people will recommend it.
Optimizing things for search engines -> People don't find what they are hoping for -> You have to "optimize" more and more. This is a vicious circle.
I hope that smart people use their ability to create beautiful things and not waste it by performing tricks.