The ultimate SEO factor: the human factor.
I was lucky to attend the ProSEO Training Days by Distilled/SEOmoz in London on the 25th/26th of October. It was a wonderful occasion to see so many things recapped, that I have read in blogs, forum and chats; to learn some new things about SEO and to finally meet the people I talk with (too much?) online.
When Jen asked in a tweet if anybody was going to write a YOUmoz post about the event, I literally felt her eyes looking at me: being one of the biggest contributors to the long tail of SEOmoz maybe it was my obligation to write something about the London event.
So here I am. BUT I won’t write anything about the sessions themselves (all interesting for one reason or another). Therefore, if you are looking to read something about what Rand said regarding the Overcoming Twitter cannibalization of the Link Graph, or the Will’s tips about Sexing up your reports, better you skip this post and go elsewhere (you have just to Google "ProSEO Distilled").
Nope, I am going to write about what I firmly believe it was the biggest - even not officially affirmed - best rule for us SEOs preached at ProSEO: be human.
The Human Factor – 1: None is an Island
Wiep Knol reminded us how networking is one of three keys for obtaining links. And networking essentially means, “act like a human being”.
John Donne said once that none is an island, therefore none is unreachable and Webmasters and Influencers are human like you, which means that for sure there is something you both like and are enthusiast about.
Human factor – 2: Be enthusiastically genuine
Again, the human factor came out in the session by Caitlin Krumdieck (“Lessons from Sales”). One of her slides was urging us to be genuine, to be good listeners and passionate. Isn’t this again a call to be human? Be yourself with your clients and make them passionate about your ideas, make them believe yours ideas, as they were theirs; pick up the phone and talk to them.
And do the same with all the people who work with you: the web designers, because they can make beautiful art and be SEO respectful at the same, and the devs, because SEO can be the perfect excuse to experiment with the most interesting trends in programming (as said by Leonie Wharton and Andy Davies in “Top 10 tips Design for SEO”).
Human factor – 3: Be Overly Curious
“Humanity” as an essential factor for SEO was then evident in many of the speakers.
Let’s take Ben Hendrickson. What can make someone wanting to understand how the search engines work the way Ben does want? Human curiosity. The same curiosity that makes kids breaking things to see how they are done and - after - try to rebuild them. The same curiosity that made Newton asking why that apple fall on his head and Einstein wondering why a person sitting on a running train is perceiving things differently than another man looking at him from the station.
Curiosity killed the cat, someone between you is maybe thinking, but is curiosity what made us advance in knowledge. I know that I don’t know, Socrates said: this is the reason why we struggle to understand and to experiment, as Richard Baxter with his keyword tool (still in beta) or Martin MacDonald with his experiment about the Mayday Update.
Be human and let your curiosity free, this way you will be better SEOs and offer better solutions to you clients (or to your boss).
Human factor – 4: Creativity
You can Create demand (Rand Fishkin).
This phrase Rand said almost in a rush during his turn in the face-off against Will Chrichlow touched a sensible chord in me, and made me understand that what we were finally talking about for two days was essentially the Human Factor.
The ability to create things is probably what really distinguishes us as Humans, and to stand out in marketing it is what makes a product dominate over all the others .
And to stand out is essentially an art, in the sense of creation of beautiful or significant things. Aren’t beautiful or significant things what we as SEO call content? Content that will be the base of our inbound marketing?
The conclusion: SEO is not about Search Engines, SEO is about human beings.
Yes! It may seem a contraddiction to say that SEO is all about humans; but it is not.
In order to be better SEOs we must be able to copernically revert the way we think. When we do SEO, actually we work on how people search, wander, desire, and learn on the Internet. And that can also explain why the trend is now over the Social Signs.
Only if we SEOs will be able to think out of the box and to be outstanding, then we will be able to be those Linchpins businesses are looking for.
And this is the most important lesson I've learnt at ProSEO.
"SEO is not about Search Engines, SEO is about human beings"
I totally agree! It's easy to forget when your in front of your analytics 'scoreboard' that SEO is about helping people find stuff and solve problems. Forgetting the human interaction is too easy...
People don't search for 'cheap flights' because they want a cheap flight. They want to know whether they can afford to take their family to Disneyland, or to a family wedding or to see other family. People don't search for 'learn seo' because they want to learn SEO. They want to figure out how search marketing can help their business take off, or get them promoted. People don't necessarily attend awesome SEO conferences for the content, but for the connections and networking that comes bundled with it. I think of SEO as more of an art, than a science precisely because of that. A social science, perhaps?
Linchpin is fantastic book - it definitely helps explain the 'human factor'. For those who haven't come across Seth Godin's latest (and last!) book, I strongly recommend taking a look at this: https://www.squidoo.com/linchpin
Thanks Fryed,
cannot agree more with you. Social Science can be a good definition for SEO, or Online Marketing in general, as it is scientific in its methodology in the primary meaning of Science as a knowledge based on observation, test and experiment. And social because it's all about human interactions.
And Art... that's sure: because everything that is outstanding is Art. And Science (or Math) can be art too... just think to Fractals.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
More posts on this and other SEO watering holes treat people like percentages, hits, visitors, metrics fodder, much to the detriment of client site performance.
This post and this response put people first, bots a distant second. Sure, SEO gets people on site, but bots don't buy a thing.
Power to the people. ( Sorry, is my age showing?)
Great post. Excellent assessment.
Have a great weekend, all.
Paul
Thank you for your enthusiastic comment... even if I wouldn't be so radical (sorry, is my age showing?).
%, numbers, conversion rates, ctrs, bounce rates, stats in general are essential, because without them we cannot say if our Art as web marketers and SEOs was really right, or the vision of a fool.
And, listen to me, analysts as Avinash Kaushik are far more Artists than many supposed Marketing "gurus" out there :)
I love human beans. They're yummy.
JK, I really do believe that being a social person + having something interesting to say makes your seo way easier. And more pleasurable ;-) Appreciate your post Gianluca.
@jennita - I vote y'all promote this post to the main blog. It's all about the ProSEO London and it has a very thought provoking slant.
@all my fellow mozzers - Thumb this baby up! Let's get it to the main blog so it can get more exposure!
Disclaimer: I did not pay GNC a buck. But thank you for your kind words.
Oh snap! Note to self: Don't forget to ask for €20 before commenting!
Loving this post! It explains why SEO is part of marketing, and why the best SEO emphasizes the fact that we're all selling to human beings.
Thank Ian for your kind comment.
Yes SEO is Marketing too and it's a strategical marketing tool, as it acts right there the business is right now; we have just to see the 115.000 millions € !! generated by online business just in the UK this year.
Hi!
Great post. This event was amazing, all the presentations were useful and really helped out. I've found that some of the best snippets of information sometimes come from a quick chat over a coffee, or standing outside the pub so I think you're spot on with focusing on people. This event made networking very easy indeed...
Cheers!
To not say that - as Latins were used to say - wine makes people tell the truth, and alcohool and SEO seem connected, especially in London ;).
Seriously, any SEO needs networking as a fundamental tool for growing in knowledge..
Hi Gianluca!
It's really great when we see someone thinking "outside the box"... when you said "When we do SEO, actually we work on how people search, wander, desire, and learn on the Internet." - This is completely true!
One time I heard Matt Cutts saying that we should not care what Search Engines are doing or how they are "acting" but we need to care with people. If we listen and understand PEOPLE we can predict what Search Engines will go to do.
Really liked your article!
Fabio
Couldn't agree more... and also because you say what are my thoughts better than I am able to do :).
That is why I used the words "copernically revert", because our daily work on Search Engine Optimization can make us forget what is the real target of our 'art', which are not the Search Engines, but the people who use them.
I think I'll put this on a 3x5 card on my desk:
If we listen and understand PEOPLE we can predict what Search Engines will go to do.
Nice input, Fabio!
It was great to meet you finally. I'm glad you had a good time in London. Thanks for bringing this theme / thread together into this post.
Equally great was to meet you, and meet Tom and Duncan as well.
You did a great work organizing the ProSEO event... in this sense - and following the thread of my post - you did a wonderful human resource job putting together so many not-obvious people sharing their views with other 350+ great human beings.
Well written! Great yes, The ultimate SEO factor is the human factor.
Right from the time we do keyword research to we get the rankings and monitor them we are all trying to appeal to the about the human mind and try to judge human behaviour.
The humans are the ones searching on the search engines and the search engines are also trying to program the bots more and more in a way a human might think while performing a search .
If the search engines also have to make their spiders think like humans then undoubtedly SEO is all about human beings as every search caters to the human mind from both the ends from the searcher side (demand) and the search engine side (Supply).
Thank you :)
And talking about Search Engines evolution, I wonder whenever they will start to apply neural computing theories to searches and data mining.
A very interesting post which reflect on the dynamic behavior of users on the web and SEO / SEM specialist. I think the human factor today is synonymous with creativity, user involvement and consolidation of the interactive websites. In a time when the comments and user-generated content makes the difference is crucial symbiosis between webmasters and users.
Good point Antonio.
Yes, the human factor is indeed essential when UGC is becoming such an important SEO factor. To dialogue is essentially an human art and it is overly important in order to transform your clients in your first commercial force. And this mean that the dialogue must be a mind seduction tool.
Way to go in capturing the human factor, Gianluca! I especially Wiep's comments about "networking is one of three keys for obtaining links." Relationships and treating other properly are key - reminds me of Jen's 5 Ways to Build Lnks at an SEO Conference.
Our industry is not for those who want to sit behind a computer and only interact with code. Marketing is about people, caring and understanding what they want and desire. I especially like the "Social Science" comments above.
Your interweaving of the technical aspects of SEO along with the keys of inbound marketing is like poetry. SEO is all about people.
How do I double thumbs up this?
Your interweaving of the technical aspects of SEO along with the keys of inbound marketing is like poetry.
Your comment got me thinking Dana. Between Design, Coding, Usability and SEO, they are all "art" forms yet different.
Design would the artist that paints intricate oil paintings. Lifelike in detail and moving.
Coding would be similar to an author of a novel. Still an art form, but requiring focus and discipline.
Usability would be like the artist that paints caricatures. They are able to "get" the essence of their human subject in a few lines.
SEO would be like poetry which is an under appreciated art form. It combines the skill of the oil painter to move the readers heart, and the skill of the writer to have command of the words.
You are right GNC... and do you know what is the best of all you are saying? That it a wonderful discipline to develop in group. A symphony of skilled people/artists creating something unique.
Post Scriptum: with comments like this one, I still wonder about your resistance in proposing a YOUmoz...
Nice "mini YouMoz" post, GoodNewsCowboy! Wow! We have two poets in the house!
I'm really enjoying this human factor discussion!!
Thank you Dana,
I don't know if it's poetry, maybe it's me being italian and therefore used to see humanism in everything surrounding myself.
The sentiment in this post is spot on and is reflects a prominent theme of the event in London.
All too often SEO is loophole chaseconomics and technical navel gazing - fine on some levels - yet the real gold is now more than ever in the sustainable relationships and gratituitous karma that can bestow you links that money can't buy.
Thanks for the article !
Following the seminar from Twitter, this summary around "being human" is really helpful to understand what was the main line of it.
And also thank you for all the tweets about every speech, lots of tips and knowledges acquired through it.
You're welcome Jeremy. I'm glad my delirious tweeting about ProSEO was useful at least for 1 person :)
Make that useful for 2 people G. You were a tweeting machine and I really appreciated it as I was unable to attend in person.
A nice rememinder that there are about 7 billion reasons on the planet to act like a human and that machines serve links, but humans buy your widgets, donate to your charity, or subscribe to your blog.
Totally right.
Sometimes I feel that we as SEOs and web marketers tend to look too close to the mechanisms of Search, forgetting the human bases that created those mechanisms.
great article. Sometime the devil is in the detail, but all to often analysis paralysis is the order of the day. I guess what I take away from this is always try and see things from the other side of the fence. And remember that is not just the googlebot at the end of the day, its just a means to a end.
Nice Topic posted here. If you don't really understand how important to relate SEO through yourself then your making things complicated. It's like your trowing a stone anywhere and you really don't know where it hits. SEO it's not just optimizing a website but it's also a profession that's make us human.
GREAT post. It's too easy to become distracted by data and forget that, ultimately, the goal is to better serve customers (not the spiders). The best linking you will get is from genuine interaction with other industry leaders.
Great post!
I think the overall concept of what you wrote is very reflective of the SEO community; especially that of seoMOZ. Honestly I really can't think of any other industry besides SEO where experts frequently share their experiences and insight with one another. In my opinion the most successful people in SEO are those who focus on helping others, not just making money.
What an interesting and original take on #proseo Gianluca. Just like jeremybroutin above, I followed the tweetstream coming from the event and I got information, but your post portrays the heart and soul of the conference that tweets couldn't convey.
I totally agree with the concept of addressing people first, and machines second. IMHO "SEO" is more than SEO. It's a combination of SEO, design and usability which is all centered around people. The SEO anticipates the users needs (keywords the user will be typing) the Design convinces the person's subconscious they're in the right place (when they come to the site from clicking on the SERP result) and Usability effortlessly takes the person to a successful conclusion (they find what they want and make a purchase).
So I rambled on and on just to say this "Very insightful and thought provoking post Gianluca" Thanks.
PS - Double thumbs up :-p
Thank you GNC. Effectively your enlarged SEO vision is something I see as mine too (as I wrote in my previous YOUmoz post).
The secret, if we want to call it "secret", is to focus the correct objectives... in a eCommerce, for instance, is to make people find (search behaviours) and desire to buy your products and not skip to another site to buy the same ones (CRO). So is how the people search and how the people decide to take an action that is important to know... then to apply this knowledge to the medium, that can be the Search Engines, but can be also a Social Media profile or an Augmented Reality application.
Moreover, if you follow the line of these thoughts, you can also see why is not possible to talk of Death of SEO, because Search is going always to exist and Optimization always will be needed... what could change is the Engine, but that change is not enough to cause the sudden death of SEO.
Excellent post, Gianluca. Too bad that I also attended the ProSEO London seminar and we did not meet. Also, after reading your words, I was wondering whether starting a SEO consultant company in Spain in 2001 and naming it HUMAN Level Communications makes me a kind of prophet. Anyway, the idea behind this name for my company was: it does not really matter what is in between or the technological media we use to communicate. At both ends, there are always two persons so the human level is what really matters. Something that in SEO we often tend to forget.
SEO is about human beings? My wife thinks SEO is science fiction because all I ever talk about are spiders and robots.
(Congratulations on a great post on the main blog!)
Hey Cyrus. Nice shiny new avitar pic.
Thank you Student!
My wife call SEO "that thing you do", but I know she is happy when she sees me talking enthusiastically of some of ours geekeries.
The only really complaint is when she asks me whenever I will take seriously care of her small website about patchwork tshirts for kids :/
AWESOME post! Even thought they are important, it's good to keep in mind that after you learn what the algos are about, it's still gonna be a person at the end going to your site (or linking to you)
I am a begginer here and I would like to build effective links for my sites.
Thanks for all the information I gained from you.
Rose
In the post I've cited the session of Leonie Wharton and Andy Davies.
Unfortunately, when I was writing, I forgot to properly link the name of Andy to his profile on the Distilled site (sorry Andy, my fault).
So, here it is, if you want to know more about this very skilled developer (and fine speaker), whom any SEO would love to work with.
Nice info... Thanks :)
Congratulations Gianluca! No one deserved a promotion to the main blog more than you did.
Your subject matter of the humanity of our profession has engendered a thought stream in the comments that are coming from a completely different angle. Job well done Dude!
I have to thank you and all the other commenting the post, even though I was hoping to be able to make people react and enlarge my vision adding their owns. No statement is good enough if it cannot be bettered by the contribution of others.
Finally, I know this is not the classical SEO post, but I firmly believe that sometimes we have to stop and ask ourselves the fundamental reasons why we are doing what we are doing, call it refocusing over the basics.
And this is especially needed in those moments when everything seems nonsensical, when maybe we feel as loosing that first passion about our work because of the stress, of the clients, of the bosses, of the economy... strenght and honor, my friends, strenght and honor.
well i dont think tht anybody else provide good seo service better than you,u doing excellent work,so thanx from my self
Well... I think your kind compliment is directed to SEOmoz more than me, so I extend it to all the great SEOmoz staff.
Great post!
Okay, rule of thumb SE = Robot, SEO = Human.
Jurgen
Quite right, but a better equation should be:
SEO > Get what humans want from Searches
I've had a problem with the creative part lately... Is it just me or around 3 out of 4 linkbait attempts always fail...?
I hear you... and I think you would have liked to hear what Rand was saying about this in his session Overcoming Twitter cannibalization of the Link Graph.
To resume it, he was stating the same general consideration and noticing how same link baiting action or relevant post (he took as example the Matt Cutts blog) were generating more links around 2007/8 than now.
What was his conclusion? Today people tend more to share interesting links via Twitter (and in Europe, as I can state for Spain and Italy) via Facebook. That means that the link baiting actions in reality are not diminishing their value, but the effects are differents now than before. That is why - imho - it's important to follow the social signals, track them in order to further act with the link bait, creating a community of people who likes your "stuff", therefore they will start to visit your site to discover new interesting things.