How I accidentally became an SEO (and why I still hate jargon)
Nikki Pilkington
Non-wanky SEO and SEO Content. They say you can't know Technical SEO AND copywriting - I can. And do.
Heads up: If you're just here for the links and the bonus SEO tip, scroll down past my nostalgic ramblings and moans about the SEO industry...
So someone asked me the other day how I got into SEO, and I had to laugh. Want to know the truth? I was spectacularly bad at web design.
No, seriously. Back in the early 90s, I watched graphic designers suddenly rebrand themselves as "web designers" because they'd figured out how to make things look pretty on a screen. And WYSIWYG design tools such as Publisher and Frontpage were telling us all we could design websites with no HTML knowledge.
What those design programs DIDN'T tell us was that if you were shit at graphics and not willing to learn even a bit of HTML, you were still shit at design and not a coder, so the websites you produced would be... shall we say, sub-optimal...
But I kept meeting business owners who'd spent small fortunes on beautiful websites that they then didn't know what to do with. Nobody was visiting them, and definitely no enquiries were coming from them.
I mean, if you'd spent money on a fancy brochure, you wouldn't stick it in a desk drawer and hope someone might stumble across it, right? You'd get it into the right hands. Websites are no different.
So I started learning about directories (imagine phone books, but online - yes, I'm that old), and the search engines we had before Google was even a thought. Remember Alta Vista? Ask Jeeves? Infoseek? Those were the days, when you could submit your site, go make a cup of tea, and come back to see where you ranked.
Web designers back in the day didn't care what happened to your website once you'd paid your invoice, and why should they? Their job was design, not marketing.
And you know what? That's when I had my proper lightbulb moment. I'd spent ages trying to be a web designer, learning little bits of code until my eyes crossed, but I was kidding myself. No matter how many HTML tutorials I watched, I was never going to be more than mediocre at design. I still can't see when part of an image is '2 pixels out' or a colour is not quite right.
But marketing? That's where I found my groove. Give me a business problem to solve, a message to get across, an audience to reach - that's my happy place. Turns out you don't need to be good at everything - you just need to know what you're actually good at.
And so my collabs with web designers began - they did the design and build, then I took over and did the marketing. And the direct clients followed.
I built my reputation on a couple of really basic, but not often done at the time, concepts:
Back then, most SEO experts were treating their knowledge like the secret recipe for Coca-Cola - locked away in a vault, only available if you paid through the nose. Meanwhile, I'm out there sharing everything I learned because, honestly, why not? Marketing shouldn't be a secret society. And the people who didn't have the time to implement what I taught them, paid me to do it for them.
I've watched SEO evolve from simple directory submissions to whatever the hell people are calling it now ("holistic digital presence optimisation" - really?). I've seen the good, the bad, and the downright dodgy.
The good ones? They take time to understand what a business and its customers actually need. The bad ones? They're still flogging quick-win tactics that'll get you banned faster than you can say "SEO spam".
And don't get me started on the jargon. People love throwing around terms like "orphaned content" and "crawl budget" like they're confetti at a wedding. How about we just say "pages Google can't find" and "how often Google checks your site"?
You know what hasn't changed in 30 years? The basics. Help your users. Make your site easy to find and use. Stop trying to trick search engines - they're smarter these days.
I still give away free advice. I still hate jargon. I still want to help businesses succeed online. I'm just lucky enough that I get paid for it too.
Nx
The Links
The Shameless Plug
SEO Myths Debunked is in the process of being turned into a real life paperback you can hold and scribble on - anyone who has bought the eBook will get a free copy, I'll be in touch soon to get an address for postage. Now's a good time to get the eBook.
Here's what Thomas had to say:
The Bonus SEO Tip:
Stop obsessing over traffic numbers and start looking at what those visitors actually DO. Would you rather have 1000 visitors who do nothing or 100 who buy something? Focus on conversion rates, not just visitor counts. There are some great tips in the "Sometimes SEO isn't the answer" blog post I linked to above.
That's all for now,
Always non-wanky
Nx
P.S. If you've ever had an "SEO expert" make you feel stupid for not knowing what "canonical URLs" are, tell me about it. Those stories fuel my mission to keep SEO non-wanky and bullshit-free.
From A to D, analysis & design done with you. Instructional design that's a bit more rock and roll. eLearning development designed to bring your content to life
5 天前I love accidental careers. They seem more authentic than the striving for something you'll never be quite good enough at.
Paid Search (SEM) Consultant. PPC Specialist. Google Ads. Microsoft Ads.
5 天前Great to your hear your story, Nikki. Some similarities with my own journey. I worked for a software company when the 'Internet thing' started. I was volunteered to create one of those website thingies for my rugby club. I used MS Frontpage and quickly established how shite I am at design. We all find our path and it's great to see the long career you have made for yourself in SEO.