The worst thing about the field is the name SEO. I mean really. If that naming system were used for the field of public relations, it would be called media relationship optimization.

SEO can be as simple as create content and keep adding content, so long as the basic mechanics of the site don’t make it invisible. So, if you’re using blogging software, you can just worry about your content.

But with most long-established sites, simply getting those basic mechanics right and good design — as simple as it sounds — is a much larger challenge than many companies can handle alone. Some very competent people who totally understand the good HTML/good usability proposition still scratch their head and wonder how to get more of the un-paid hits which are their due based on (sometimes) products and websites with worldwide name recognition.

The trick is that it takes discipline, negotiating politics, touching machinery that cannot/must not break. SEO is a graceful dance through the world of politics, technical issues, and aesthetic and usability concerns. What SEO USED to mean is overrated. What it means today is misnamed.

I think the phrase >>SEO is Bologna<< is a bit off the mark. You need SEO to get people to your site. Once they get there, if your content is lousy they’re going to leave.

I was reading Aaron Wall’s SEO Book in bed last night and it dawned on me that I was on page 50 and he hadn’t talked about SEO yet — that’s because getting your site ready for SEO is as important as SEO itself.

There certainly are extremes of opinion on this, and I just want to add that as an Italian American I am offended at the use of ‘Bologna’ to denote negativity. (Just kidding…no emails please).