Gerry McGovern : "I would never design a website from a purely SEO point of view."

How can SEO experts and web content managers work together for the sake of web content ? Gerry McGovern, the bright author of Killer web content, gives us his point of view. Exclusive interview! Read in French.

Are you agree with the fact that SEO and web content experts both work for a better web content quality ? (Even if not for the same reasons ?)

Yes, they are both very interlinked. Search words will bring a person to a website but then we need another set of words that will help them complete the task they came to the website to complete. This is what I call carewords. We cannot simply focus on SEO; just bringing people to the site. It is even more important to help people once they've arrived. Otherwise, they will leave with a bad impression of us.

Do you think web editor and SEO experts should work together for the sake of web content ?

Absolutely. Too often there is an obsession with SEO and it results with webpages that may rank well but give a horrible impression to customers once they arrive, due to poorly written, overly repetitious content. We must focus on quality content that works for the customer before we focus on content that works for the search engine.

Should web editors define a large or a small lexical/semantic corpus before thinking and writing the content of the web site ? What is more efficient, according to your experience ?

Focus on the needs of the customers. What sort of content do customers need in order to complete the tasks they came to complete. That will define the amount and type of content you need. Generally, the simpler and more precise the better. Keep the content focused on single ideas, get to the point as quickly as possible. Focus on active content at all times.

Let's say the SEO strategy of a given website focuses on 10 particular keywords that aren't the "carewords" of this website because the SEO expert thinks it is easier to get a good position on Google with those. Like "house made of trees" instead of "wooden house" for an example. But the users do think "wooden house" when they enter the website and they look for informations about "wooden house". How do we deal with that ?

This is the trade off. Use words that might increase the volume of traffic to your site, or else use words that people actually understand. I would never design a website from a purely SEO point of view. I think it's a very short-term, crude focus that can create truly horrible spammy websites. Focus on website use.

Look Google. What would the Google homepage look like if it was given to an SEO company? It would look horrible, full of repetitive words and lists of top searches. Google succeeded because it focused on helping customers search. Understand a need. Meet that need with a relentless focus. That's the best SEO strategy of all.

Thank you for your answers :-)

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Gerry McGovern : "The Web is a doing place and great content facilitates a task."