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What do you SEO guys actually do?

I went to a family reunion yesterday and got into the conversation of what I do for a living with a cousin I hadn’t seen for a while.

“I work at an SEO company and manage a team there”
“What’s SEO?”
“Search Engine Optimization”
(blank stare)
“Our company helps businesses show up higher in the Google ranks so they get more business”
“So when I search for a mechanic I find the right one?”
“Right”

Pretty simple. And as an SEO our job is pretty simple. Get people more business from the search engines – which usually entails getting them higher up on relevant terms. Right? Right! Some novice SEOs will tell you it’s just getting you ranked higher. Those SEOs with more experience know rankings need to improve on the right keyword for higher rankings to translate into more dollars for their clients. The real end game of SEO is ROI, anyone who says otherwise may be just taking your money. But I digress…

Here’s an awesome video that explains simply how Google works – spiders, indexing, snippets… the whole bit.

I love Matt Cutts, in the most appropriate way for the workplace. Thanks Matt.

So for everyone who asks me, “What’s that SEO thing you do?” I’d love all my team to know and understand it. And is it too much to ask for if all my clients watched it as well? Maybe for now.

My first job after high school was at pay-per-click search engine ah-ha.com (link shows what the site looked like when I started). Later, ah-ha.com became Enhance Interactive, which later became Marchex and Marchex Adhere, but that’s another story.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise I’m a bit of a search geek. While at OrangeSoda I entered Marin’s Biggest Search Geek contest and didn’t think much of my lackluster 70.8 out of 100 performance (because that’s a C, right?) until I got an email and badge saying I was in the top 10%. But not only was I in the top 10%, I was in the top 10! Number 6 to be precise. I know it looks 5th on the screenshot but this list didn’t include the girl who actually won. I later met and worked with James Z. on this list while working at FamilyLink.com.

This is the badge I got for my site:

Edit: Apparently Marin does this every year, I just missed the deadline this year. Drat!