Yesterday I got in a bit of a twitter debate regarding SEO and flash-based sites in particular.
While I will agree that flash-based websites suffer from an SEO standpoint (workarounds aside), I don’t always think that matters. And this is where the deluge of “WTF” started- largely from people that weren’t even following me.
I know, I should have expected it. Saying SEO doesn’t matter on the web today (let alone on Twitter, where the SEO folks tend to congregate) is social media suicide. But it’s true. Sometimes.
SEO can be a very time-consuming, exhausting practice, and that time may be better spent elsewhere depending on the intended use for your site. The thing to remember is that the search engines are but one channel through which people will find your content or website. If organic search isn’t an important channel for your uses, don’t pour the energy into increasing your search engine visibility.
“But increased visibility is always a good thing!” I hear you shouting. And it’s true. But is it necessarily worth the effort?
Example: My portfolio site, georgegumpert.com gets some search engine traffic (mostly people searching for me by name), but not much at all. Maybe 1-2 hits per day come from search engines. But I don’t care. My conversion rate from search engine traffic is a whopping 0%. I have yet to get a lead from search engine traffic, and know that even if I do, it will be at a rate of 0.5-1.0%- not really worth the trouble of optimizing to me. However, my conversion rate from other channels – face-to-face primarily, but the same can be applied to word-of-mouth, direct mail and video/print advertising – is much higher, around 70%. So why would I dump the effort into optimizing my site for search engines, when it’s already optimized for my uses?
So what is the take away? Yes, you should do what you can to make your site search engine friendly. But like everything else, do it in moderation. If it comes down to a choice between launching your campaign’s site effectively or making it as appetizing as possible to the spiders, ask yourself if search engine traffic is really a channel that you’re targeting. Don’t just listen to what the SEO guys tell you – search engines aren’t the only way to use the web, no matter how much they try to convince you otherwise. And always remember: focus on quality content first, and the social nature of the web will take care of your publicity for you.
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