Dear Odoo: It's Time to Embrace SEO
I've been fascinated by Odoo way back in college (like, 2013). Back then I was obsessed with trying out different operating systems, collecting OS CDs like they were prized possessions. That's when I found Odoo, this ERP software that worked on Ubuntu (version 7.0 maybe?) very few software are there which runs on Ubuntu at that time.
I’ve always loved open-source software and it felt great knowing there were people around the world who felt the same. Although I haven't used Odoo much since then, I remember their code being amazing.
Fast forward to after completing my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, I got into SEO. Naturally, Odoo was the first place I wanted to apply my new skills. Despite having a fantastic product, their marketing seemed weak. Back in 2017, I applied to help with their SEO, confident that I could make a difference. Sadly, my application was rejected and the interview never happened.
Odoo slipped off my mind until around 2019 or 2020 when a friend’s brother got a job at Odoo Gandhinagar. which got me curious, I checked their website again, hoping they had improved their SEO. To my disappointment, nothing had changed. I applied for a marketing associate role to show them their untapped potential but, once again, my application was turned down.
I stopped thinking about Odoo until I saw Fabien, Odoo's CEO, on a podcast with Ranveer Allahbadia . My SEO brain kicked in again, but a quick check showed no progress on their SEO front. I still enjoyed the podcast and admired Fabien's marketing efforts through various channels to promoting Odoo everywhere.
More recently, I’ve noticed Odoo's branding on cars in Rajkot and Bangalore, and on hoardings during a trip to Rajasthan. While I’m glad they are trying different marketing strategies, I’m not sure how effective these are.
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Today, YouTube recommended another podcast with Fabien, this time with Raj Shamani . Guess what? Before I even watched it, I checked their website again to see if they'd finally gotten around to SEO. Unfortunately, they’re still not ranking well for important keywords. For "accounting software," Odoo is at the 10th position, and for "accounting software free," they are at the 5th position. This is such a missed opportunity!
I am sure you definitely have SEOs for your site, but as an SEO myself, I can't see optimized pages on your website. It's kind of irritating and troubling to see why you are ignoring SEO. Still, your website is using outdated meta keywords tags and hasn't utilized structured data at all.
Look, Odoo has been a part of my tech journey, and I want to see it thrive. They have a great product and an active community, but they need to focus on SEO. Using their community data to optimize the website could lead to tremendous growth.
Fabien Pinckaers , if you’re reading this, please start working on SEO for Odoo’s website. It’s a simple yet powerful way to reach more people and help them discover your incredible product. While you might have a bigger vision for your brand, don’t overlook the benefits of SEO.
"Odoo has a special place in my tech journey, and see it reach its full potential through effective SEO would be incredibly fulfilling."
Odoo ecommerce specialist
5 个月Would it be possible to create a structured data configurator for products in Odoo? So maybe you can add attributes and use it as elements for structured data.
Director en Blanco Martin & Asociados. Consultor Certificado en Odoo. Odooizador de empresas.
5 个月Fabien Pinckaers I think that SEO should not be a concern for Odoo right now. The current focus is in the right direction. There are other things that the company is doing very well, like innovating in ideas and giving autonomy to teams. Vanity metrics are no necessary. I’ve been a witness of that during OXP.
Remote WAN Monitoring Technician for outage prevention
5 个月content is more valuable then form ... at least to results
CEO & Founder at Odoo
5 个月It's an interesting topic. Don't think we do nothing. We have done a lot: both for our users in our product, and for odoo.com. (6M visits per month) But you are right that the SEO of odoo's official website is not a key priority. There is a limit on what we are ready to do in the name of SEO: 1/ no web pages for the sake of SEO: defocus, our time is better used writing content that help the community 2/ the less pages we have on odoo.com, the easier it is to maintain it: we already struggle to keep everything clean and up-to-date 3/ we don't invest in link building strategies So, today, we focus on SEO tasks that matter to our users (performance, meta tags, clean urls, ...) but not on pure SEO tactics (link and content building). For example, when writing a page title, we focus on being the most clear possible for viewers, and not on SEO keywords we want to target. It's difficult to know if our strategy is right or not. I am still wondering if playing the SEO game might have a significant impact, or if it would be a defocus on doing "non valuable stuff" for our users / community.