How SEO stopped being science, and became art
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Headspace changes constantly. About as often as Google refines its SEO algorithms, Headspace is redefining what it means to hand over a website that’s actually modern and wicked effective. Right now, it means staying on board with a website long after it's launched.
When I say effective I don’t mean that it’s a stunner, or that it’s running clean code, or even that it’s savvy with mobile - these are all conditions that success necessitates, so they’re present when we ship a site. Simple. What I mean when I say effective is that a website can leverage the combination of those ‘success conditions’, and your hard work, to be valuable to you and your organization. In most cases this means generating leads or driving impressions, and both require good SEO.
For a long time, that meant building websites with informative page descriptions, keyword-rich corporate verbiage, and a back-end stuffed with full meta fields and tags. There was a science to scattering key terms across your headers and through the hidden pipework of your site. Like clockwork you could update these bits quarterly, or monthly, and await your just reward.
Then the cheaters of the world had to go and ruin things. The eager site manager could simply insert keywords way outside the realm of relevance to their website, in the hopes of snatching up some trending value. Google responded.
In a move that would mercilessly qualify websites, Google drained a great deal of the value from those routine keyword updates and generated an algorithm that could quantify your authority based on the regularity, reach, and impact of your content.
The change created a landscape that drove searchers to high-quality results from credible industry sources and ultimately improved the Google Search product. And that’s really the goal. It wouldn’t be long before Google expanded the algorithm to lend preference to content answering specific high-ranking queries, and again to punish websites who weren’t playing nice with mobile.
It’s easy to forget that the all-knowing search bar we rely on is a product for Google, and their goal is to keep it best in class. Informative answers from credible experts? Search results that only list-mobile friendly websites? All of it’s deployed with the searcher in mind, not the array businesses trying to get their attention.
For businesses, the result was a bizarre shift away from routine keyword maintenance and into a realm that most number crunchers never want to venture too close to: art. In a lot of ways content creation is just that, and where once a keen sense of trending topics was enough to update the verbiage on your home page, these businesses now needed production skills that were never a part of their roster.
Copywriters, video producers, social media managers, designers - Google was hellbent on their mission to deliver substance and value in its search engine results, and that meant critically rethinking whether or not you were equipped to run a website effectively.
Ultimately, the results have been spectacular. The web evolved rapidly, and the gimmicks that once plagued the internet have been nearly eradicated. From the dust came a new service that’s editorial column and shopping mall, business listing and forum. The value propositions are richer, but if you’re unable to meet Google’s standards of quality, you won’t be counted among them.
So it’s like that. Keywords are providing a lot less oomph, and your ability to write content, dedicate time to social media, and engage in a meaningful, industry-relevant, authoritative way will make or break your SEO value. Thankfully, there’s a wave of young web professionals emerging, and as many external organizations poised to lend their expertise.
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