SEO is everything. Except when it’s not.

Search Engine Optimization is a topic that comes up early and often in our conver­sations these days. Is our current obsession with search­a­bility warranted? I recently discussed the subject with Online& collab­o­rative partner Rob Barth of Barth and Co Design. A recent project of Rob’s might just be the exception that proves the rule.

Rob Barth: Glenn, in our work together we deal with SEO all the time. We go to great lengths to assure our clients that SEO consid­er­ations play a critical role in the planning and execution of their sites. So here I go winning a design award for the Englander Cabinetry site—a web site that by design pays almost zero attention to SEO. Naturally, I’d like to feature the award in my next promotion … but I’m concerned that people might get the wrong idea and think we don’t consider search­a­bility important. Are you going to treat me as a pariah and pretend to not recognize me if we pass on the street?

Glenn C. Devitt: Fear not, Rob, I will still be happy to bask in your reflected glow of success. Congratulations on your latest design award! I presume that you and your client were aiming for a specific goal with www.EnglanderCabinetry.com by creating a conceptual piece that does a great job of commu­ni­cating your client’s attitude, history, and skill. The video clip and atmos­pheric audio draw me in and give me a clear sense of the quality of their crafts­manship. What were the business goals for the site that gave you the unusual freedom to disregard SEO?

Rob Barth: Phil Englander was very clear about what he wanted his site to do. He had a page of notes that served as the basis for our creative brief. It boiled down to this: he wanted the site to be unique and compelling from a design standpoint; he wanted it to be welcoming and friendly; he wanted it to showcase his work; and he wanted it to have an element of fun. What made it different from a business — goals perspective was the fact that Phil is an artisan whose work comes to him via referral—he’s not a mass marketer looking for a huge audience. The site was intended to act as an intimate portrait of Phil and his charming shop in Brooklyn’s Park Slope. So, with our client’s blessing, we felt comfortable thinking about art first and commerce second. Thus our somewhat eccentric approach and the softening of the SEO requirement. And thus our comfort level with making it a Flash-based site, which we’d been avoiding recently for SEO reasons. Not to mention there’s literally no text. Not even a menu!

Glenn C. Devitt: Well you definitely nailed Phil’s goals—which is exactly what we want to do for every client, right? And that solves your quandary about using an approach that differs from our usual advice. Englander Cabinetry is a local business, already very successful, and (I presume) not looking to expand. So generating lots of unsolicited inquiries through their website would be a distraction from business. (Online& uses a similar model : 95% of our clients come through referrals, and that’s how I want to continue to grow the business.) But as you mentioned, the vast majority of our clients should take a different approach to generate as much quality, targeted traffic to their websites as possible. That’s where SEO enters the picture. Our basic advice for good search rankings includes :

• Post fresh content, regularly.
• Get incoming links from other legitimate sites.
• Post infor­mation your audience wants, not only what you want to say.
• You cannot game the system. Don’t buy snake oil from shills who ‘guarantee’ high rankings.

Rob Barth: I recall that caveat emptor warning from one of the white papers you released not long ago. Yet those “guaranteers” persist. Sometimes clients forward solic­i­tations to me that are clearly bogus. I just feel like saying “Look, this is a scam. Forget about it.” But that can sound defensive and I feel like I owe them a better expla­nation than that. The concept of a system that can be gamed is very appealing to a client who is thirsty for increased traffic. Is there a good way to explain that it’s a waste of time and money?

Glenn C. Devitt: I think most business­people understand when it’s put this way :

• Google is currently valued at $130,000,000,000.
• GOOG stock is trading at $579 per share.
• One of Google’s most valuable assets is the integrity of the search algorithms that consis­tently return relevant results.

So can any SEO consultant really promise to ‘beat’ their system, at any price? Over the years ‘black hat’ attempts to do that have been temporarily successful — like ‘link exchange’ schemes. But as soon as Google detects this sort of technique, not only does it adjust its algorithms to block it, it actually penalizes sites that use it. Earlier this year JC Penney got busted and their search rankings dropped dramat­ically. (We could debate whether either Google or JC Penney has a right to exert such influence over the search marketplace, but that’s a topic for another time.) So once we dispel the myth of magical SEO techniques we help our clients develop an effective, sustainable, achievable plan for search visibility. Honestly, I think that requires more effort offline than online. What kind of approaches do you recommend based on your extensive experience in branding and marketing?

Rob Barth: You’re right. SEO per se is only one tactic in the mix. I tell clients to avoid getting so laser-focused on search that they miss other oppor­tu­nities to promote their sites. It sounds elementary, but don’t forget to simply advertise in the most tradi­tional sense. Place an ad. Put up a banner. Plan an event. Hire a sky-writing plane. No budget? Spray-paint your URL on a bridge! What we’re really talking about here is getting people to your site (period). And search is only a part of that. Even SEO companies recognize this. SEOmoz, one of the largest providers of SEO tools and services recently stated that roughly only a third of their traffic comes from organic search results!

Speaking of tradi­tional, Online& has been been active with direct-mail lately, sending out greeting-card styled pieces. I find them refreshingly personal—and they really cut through the clutter of same-old business mail. The very fact that they are sort of “old school” is what makes them feel new! How did you think of that and what kind of reactions have you had?

Glenn C. Devitt: Rob, did you just call me old?

Basically, I decided to practice what I preach. For the look & feel of the cards, I’m simply trusting my instincts and using ideas that I like. Not everyone shares my taste of course, but—like Englander Cabinetry—I am not seeking mass-market appeal. While deciding on how to present Online&, and even while selecting the name, I thought a lot about how I like to be treated as a customer and why I want my firm to be more than just an entity in pixels. It’s an inten­tionally small company and customer relationships are everything. And I don’t mean that in a cheesy ‘Walmart is a member of your family’ kind of way.

Hopefully some genuine personality comes through. It was a huge leap of faith for me to bring that personal touch into our commu­ni­cations materials. In particular I was more than a little queasy about using a head shot : Brad Pitt I am not.  More like Peach Pit. It helped to work with an amazingly kind and creative photog­rapher, and I think even that little photo helps convey that, like Soylent Green, Online& is people. The response has been great. I’ve heard from business contacts I hadn’t been in touch with for years.  Though I regret having neglected those relationships for too long, by reaching out now in a variety of ways Online& has become a case study for why frequent commu­ni­cation through a variety of channels is important.

Rob Barth: Well, your recent promotions prove the point. And I think by working through your initial discomfort with making them more personal, you’ve successfully emphasized that what’s done offline matters as much as what’s done online. You’ve shown through example that leveraging both channels can truly maximize customer response. By actively embracing a multi­channel approach to marketing, you’ve truly put the “&” in Online&!

I’m glad my discomfort with straying from SEO inspired this conver­sation. I’m already “back to reality” with the new sites we’re working on, but my dalliance and the resulting discussion has reframed the bigger picture for me.

Glenn C. Devitt: Me too. By questioning the accepted norm, you reminded me that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.  We serve our clients best by collab­o­ra­tively evaluating their individual needs. Good stuff.