Bad SEO advice: Site for people, not for search engines

in this article we will touch upon the concept of the SoUL ( Site For People ) and read the author's opinion of Rand Fishkin on this matter.

If you have been involved in search engine optimization for some time, then you probably heard the old advice :

If the site is made for people, then the search engine will also like it.

And based on this:

Sites made for search engines, and not for people, are considered to be those that try to manipulate search results (black / gray seo) and eventually fall under the filters or in the ban!

My opinion is that both of these statements are fundamentally wrong and deceptive .

When I began to investigate this question, I thought that perhaps earlier these statements were relevant, but after studying this question more thoroughly, I came to the conclusion that even this is not so:

Relative level of importance / value of SEO tactics focused on users in the time span

The importance of SEO tactics focused on search engines, in the interim

(please keep in mind: that schemes like these have always been my personal opinion)

When I followed the principle of “ do for people, not for search engines, ” the result of my work increased and fell, so I came to the conclusion that it was not exactly good advice.

If you look back in time, I’m pretty sure that at the seminars or in conversations with clients I myself mentioned this common misconception.

Now I can say the following directly - SEO is a task that requires close attention to what visitors and search engines want. Without this, you cannot make an effective promotion.

Just think how many different things we do with a site that we would never do, if there are no search engines:

• Title tag: Maybe we would write something in it, but did it fill it with keywords, make it unique for each page, bother with what signs to separate words? Something I strongly doubt it.
• Meta tags: None. It doesn't even make sense to bother with it.
• XML site maps: I am more than sure that no one will view this file to navigate the site.
• SEO Tools for Webmasters: Without search engines, they simply would not exist.
• Semantic core: I think it would be like copying an advertisement — think Angry Man.
• Keyword Position: Why bother with positioning keywords, except to increase conversion?
• Improved URL structure: There is no need for this - visitors will receive content for any URL.
• Available links: As long as you don’t care> 2% of visitors who don’t see Flash, keep linking to your site’s content from various applications.
• Robots.txt and Meta robots: There are no search engines, there is no point in managing a search engine.
• Link building up: Useless to get targeted visitors, why bother?
• Working with vertical search engines: This is a waste of time.
• Structure of information: This can be done only because of visitors. For other purposes it is useless.
• Redirect: Without search engines, we can use any method convenient for us - java script, meta update, 302 redirect - for users they have a slight difference.
• Rel = "Nofollow": Internal or external, it is no longer a necessary attribute.

I think that the main problem with “ made for people ” is that at first it seems quite logical and not without sense.

But only at first glance, if you investigate this issue more deeply, using knowledge and experience, then everything is completely different.

Many visitors have the impression that I am against sites for people - I want to assure that this is not so.

Web sites are created primarily for people , the visitor is the central figure that the webmaster should orient in when creating the site.

In my article, I wanted to focus on site optimization, in which the central figure is the search engines for which everything is actually done (XML site maps, link anchors, linking, using various CEO services and tools, etc.)

The tables and charts at the top, I did with the goal of showing that " people-centered CEO " is a missed opportunity.

Can you afford this improvement?