Feb 24, 2007
People often ask what I do. A good question, I do lots of different things.I started off by saying I was a web developer - being the correct term for what I mostly do. But the term web developer means nothing to some people, so I changed my pitch to be "I make websites".
This works well generally, but I have recently been spending more time doing SEO than web development.
A typical interaction now goes something like this...
Friend: So what are you doing with yourself these days?
Me: I do SEO
Friend: Huh???
Me: Search engine optimisation - I tweak websites so they rank better in search engines
Friend: Don't you just pay Google do be number one?
Me: Actually, Google lists you for free, but getting a ranking better than the 10 million others is all about writing good content, building links and making sure your site is functioning properly.
Friend: So you develop websites then?
Me: Yeah, I'm a web developer.
Me: I do SEO
Friend: Huh???
Me: Search engine optimisation - I tweak websites so they rank better in search engines
Friend: Don't you just pay Google do be number one?
Me: Actually, Google lists you for free, but getting a ranking better than the 10 million others is all about writing good content, building links and making sure your site is functioning properly.
Friend: So you develop websites then?
Me: Yeah, I'm a web developer.
To old school people, SEO is still quite a new field, and I find it quite difficult to explain to them what I actually do.
SEO Sex appeal
Forget about the details of meta tags, anchor text and all the exciting parts, I'm finding people start yawning as soon as I try to explain that being on page one of Google is a good thing.I didn't start in the SEO industry to pull chicks, but I thought the idea of getting good rankings on Google for funny phrases would be looked upon as at least "mildly cool" if not "downright sexy".
