This post originally appeared at www.sendouts.com.

SEO:  Monitored by Robots, Made for Humans

 

Search engine optimization is all about providing worthwhile content for human readers, and structuring that content in such a way that search engines efficiently detect and accurately index it. If the job of a search engine is to connect human readers with content relevant to their query, the task of SEO is to help them perform that job better.

-Dr. Greg Mulhauser

The Dark Ages of SEO

In the dark ages of SEO, Black Hat SEO practitioners tried to “trick” the algorithm search engines used to index websites.

Black Hats would stuff pages with keywords and phrases that were searched for often.  But their content would not necessarily match the search terms.

Black Hats also improved search rank by generating keyword stuffed articles (spammy nonsense) and linking them back to their site.

It was scary out there on the web.

But not all hope was gone…

While Black Hat SEO tricksters were manipulating search engines, the White Hat SEO experts – the Gandalf to their Saruman – tried to keep their SEO practices above board and legit.

White Hats concentrated on building links and content organically.

They organized their content and pages.  They used titles, links, and meta tags as a way to accurately classify their content.

They generated relevant and interesting content.

Some of their most interesting content would catch fire and go viral amongst various social networks.

It was a good thing.

Enter Panda

In an effort to help White Hat SEO overcome Black Hat tactics once and for all, Google revised the way they ranked pages in what has become known as the “Google Panda Algorithm.”

So, if you relied on meaningless, keyword-stuffed articles generated by the content mills  & other avenues of Black Hat SEO, you took a big hit in search ranking.

Now, focusing on generating interesting content, and classifying it accurately helps to improve your ranking,  and makes website or blog SEO fairly easy.  No trickery required!

Search Engines – They’re Just Like Us!

Think of a search engine as your administrative assistant.

You give your admin the task of filing every page you create for your website.

Your website is organized – every page has a single topic, cross-references are present (aka links have unique anchor text that accurately identify what they link to), titles indicate what the page is about – and it is fast and easy for your admin to file all of your pages.

One afternoon, a candidate walks in, looking for information.  Your admin has no problem finding the relevant pages in your file.  The candidate leaves, happy because he found exactly what he was looking for.

But time goes on, and you let your website go for a while.  You stop creating or changing webpages.

Because there is nothing new, candidates and clients stop coming by your building to ask for information.

Soon, your admin has no reason to access the file box that holds your website.

It gets a little dusty, and eventually the file box gets moved to the storage closet in the basement of your building.

Every once in a while, someone will call, or come by and ask you for information.  But your admin is afraid of the basement of your building (there are spiders!), and it takes her a while to work up the courage to go down there.

Visitors move on, because they can access the information quicker and more easily somewhere else.

The Importance of Fresh, Circulating Content

In the meantime, you keep hearing rumors about this “blogging” thing.  Supposed to be good for business.  So you give it a whirl.  After all, you know A LOT about recruiting.

You start writing helpful articles about the recruiting process.  Candidates and clients are soon knocking down your door to get their hands on your useful content.

You keep sending your admin down into the basement to file your latest articles, and to retrieve them for your candidates and clients.

She finally gets tired of running the basement stairs in her heels, so she gets the website file box brought up to her office.

Soon, she just plops it down on the front desk, because it’s getting so much action.

It’s like being on page one of search engine results for “recruiting.”

With Good Content, You’re Standing on Solid Ground

You’re a recruiting firm, not SEO experts or web developers (unless maybe you are an SEO expert search firm).

SEO doesn’t have to be a nightmare.  With organized, compelling content, it’s easy to tackle the SEO details, like optimizing your recruiting website, or optimizing your recruiting blog.