SEO - Time for a re-think

The rules of SEO are changing and it's time for us all to change our ways. 

In every sense, this has to be right. Why should keyword manipulation, back-link building and all the arcane arts of "deliberate SEO" practised under the dashboard be rated more highly than great content and stunning design. With apologies to those who would rather "raise the hood" than drive the vehicle, the rest of us want to be able to have a great web experience, and to find the best products, service and educational content we can. (Note to Google - when are you going to attribute a real value to image-based media and not just to the words on the page?).

If websites that traded in links and harvesting have bombed, so what? The world is hardly worse off for that. Speaking for myself, I would rather walk into the front of the store than be led there by a lot of time-wasting side-roads.

• The rapid expansion of mobile devices
• The increasing value the user places on images, video and mixed media
• The blurring of the lines between social media and business. 
• The infiltration of old media (such as TV) into the web and vice versa.

SEO has to start to reflect these changes. It needs to start to balance the needs of the people who buy, browse and learn on the one side with the organisations that provide, sell and design on the other.

As a designer, I want my client's products and services to be found without having to jump through hoops; my client clearly wants them to be found as well; and if I was in the market for the product my client makes, I would want to know those products featured somewhere where I could easily find them.

For designer and client alike, the starting point has to be: "what would be truly useful to you if you visited your site?". The questions you should be asking are:

• Should you add interactive features to guide the visitor through the site?
• What problems could your website solve?
• What is the best way to demonstrate the product or service?
• How are you catering for the searcher on the move?

So snakeskin oil pedlars, I hope you continue to have a dreadful time. Long live a clear and well-communicated web! Google, Facebook, Bing and the rest of you, reward simple, well-thought through content and design as this is what your users want.

If you have a choice between spending your money on a fantastic website that beats the competition, or on an ordinary site with lots of SEO, spend it on the fantastic website. If your designer has done their job, the SEO will be there already.