HFTB Marketing Blog

Are you optimizing crap? And if so, how optimal do you expect crap can get?

David Meerman Scott points out that search engine optimization (SEO) without good website content is like optimizing crap. In his recent post, “Visualizing Crap,” David goes on to show an interesting visual created by Mark Smiciklas of Intersection Marketing Blog of the crap creation process. I’m including it below.

What’s interesting to me about the idea of optimizing a site that doesn’t provide stellar or exceptional content is that the practice is so prevalent.

So what accounts for the need for optimal crap?

For one thing, it’s easier to optimize a shoddy existing site than it is to go back, take a hard look and sink the money into developing great content and revising the existing site (or starting from scratch). It’s easier to bring in an SEO expert/firm and pay him/her/them to wave their magic wands and… voila, your crap is more findable. Congratulations.

I would make the case, and often do to those that at least are polite enough to feign interest, that SCO should preempt SEO.

What’s SCO?

Site Content Optimization (SCO). Not only does SCO come before SEO from an alphabetical perspective, it is also frankly, more important.

This is the point at which the SEO geeks stand up and throw out the “if you’re not indexable it doesn’t matter how good your content is,” excuse the term… crap.

This is partially true. But the interesting thing about good content is that it tends to get found. And assuming that a business has had some success selling its products or services to some market, there is a good chance that their content, if compellingly SCOed, will reach that market. That’s the beauty of the Internet; Google does a pretty good job of sniffing out the relevant content.

So in honor of all those that have ramped up the crap assembly line as so ably illustrated by Mark Smiciklas and further distributed by David Meerman Scott, let’s start hyping SCO – at least as a precursor to SEO.

Funny thing is, if you give SCO an honest go, you’re half way there with your SEO anyway.

After all, the world could use less crap… particularly the findable sort. Personally, I prefer my crap unfound.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!