Jon DiPietro is Domesticating IT

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.” This sage advice comes to us from the wise and prescient Ferris Bueller. In a world where strategic business planning is typically measured in years, the pace of change in the world of search is placing constant stress on internet marketing plans.

Google’s “Panda” update earlier this year is the latest example of search game-changers. What’s a company to do? This video from the search experts at SEOmoz explain the reason for and implications of this algorithm change. Before you watch this important video, here are a couple of important takeaways:

Search Engine Gaming Is Getting Harder

There were lots of automated, black-hat techniques that were effective at generating inbound links, boosting your page rank and improving organic search ranking. While inbound links are still important, other more social factors are getting involved in the algorithm that are harder to game. At the end of the day, the formula for success is still the same: Create remarkable content that people want to consume and share with others.

Ignore Social Media at Your Own Peril

The search algorithms are increasingly incorporating more and more data from social media APIs. This means that by not participating in social media, you are potentially hurting your organic search engine results. In other words, you may not generate lots of leads from social media activities like Twitter but alone that isn’t a reason for not participating.

Dump Metrics, Adopt Analytics

The Grand Pooh-bah of web analytics, Avinash Kaushik, warns against confusing metrics with analytics. “When people say, ‘web analytics,’ they really mean web metrics. Your boss rarely asks for analysis; she asks for ‘data’ (metrics) or ‘reports’ (KPIs)… If you remember nothing else, remember this: life is about taking action, and if your work is not driving action, you need to stop and reboot.” Old metrics like page views and inbound links used to tell most of the story. But now that’s no longer the case. Search optimization requires diving much deeper and finding answers like, “Why is the bounce rate on this page so high?” or “How can we increase the conversion rate of this page?”

It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Setting proper expectations for search optimization is critical. As the system becomes harder to game and increasingly requires social validation, the results will take longer and longer. The reason is that you need to build an audience, which takes time. There are exceptions, of course, when you can catch lightning in a bottle go viral but those are infrequent scenarios and unreliable. Remember, hope is not a strategy.

UPDATE: Less than two hours after publishing this article, Search Engine Land published an article about “The Bleak Future of Commoditized, Outsourced SEO.” It explains in detail why the shortcuts are disappearing.

How Google’s Panda Update Changed SEO Best Practices Forever

Without further delay, here is a great video from SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday series.

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Or perhaps more importantly, should you? I want to explore the very common situation of a manager or small business owner who does not “speak geek” and needs to outsource a software or web development project. I was recently asked by someone in such a position what the “best way to talk to a web developer” would be, since their requirements discussions were ending up in what he described as “Babylonic confusion,” hoping to find a book or course he could take in order to be able to better communicate his needs to the developer.

I don’t know that anyone has found a real live Babel Fish yet, so you’d better figure out another way to get your point across to the geek(s).

It’s Not Me, It’s You

At a moment like this, it’s time go and get yourself a new developer. The project is doomed to fail. While it is your responsibility as a project manager to clearly articulate your requirements, it should only have to be done so in your own comfort zone and business terminology and not involve learning a new language. Here are some inherent problems with taking this approach:

• First, this assumes there is a single language to be learned. There are typically multiple technologies involved in any project (e.g. database, server operating system, programming language(s), scripting language(s), hosting platform, external API’s, etc…) and hoping to become conversant in all of them is going to take an incredible effort at best and is futile at worst.
• Second, merely speaking the language is not enough and could, in fact, exacerbate the problem. The reason is that there is such a thing as “knowing enough to be dangerous”. Without experience in architecting a solution, talking about the technical aspects of a solution is premature. It would be like specifying what type of tires you want on a new car before even deciding whether it will be a sports car, sedan, or SUV!
• Third, this leads to the real possibility that you will end up with what you asked for and not what you wanted. This is quite common in software development. It’s something like asking for a “kick ass” sports car and then getting a car with a mechanical arm on the front of the car with a boot mounted to it. It may be what you asked for, but it’s not what you wanted.

Tell Me What You Want, Then I’ll Tell You What You Need

I’ve sat down with users many times in requirements meetings and asked them what they want the system to do. Often, they find it very difficult to answer because there have not been any boundaries or parameters established for them. It’s like when my wife asks me, “What do you want for dinner tonight?” When I’m feeling particularly sarcastic, I’ll say something inflammatory like “How about Peking duck with an orange glaze and chocolate soufflé for dessert?” and then run for cover. What I’m actually saying is, “What are my choices? What are the parameters? Are you going shopping or do we need to find something in the fridge? If so, what do we have? What about take out?” You get the picture.

When you alter this scenario and instead put a prototype or screen shots in front of users, then you’ll get bags and bags of feedback. That’s because the parameters have been set and they can visualize the inputs, the manipulations, and the outcomes. In the end, that’s what information technology is; stuff goes in to a box, something happens to the stuff, and new stuff comes out the other end. It’s all about defining the inputs, the manipulations and the outputs. But that still doesn’t answer the fundamental question here. How do you deal with a contract developer who doesn’t get it? I’ve already said you go and get yourself a new one. But how do you make sure the new one will work out differently?

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

Developing a software application is a lot like building a house; it’s the design, architect, build process. You’re the designer and ideally you’d like to find the architect and builder in the form of one person. As a last resort, you are better off hiring both if you can’t find one person to do both jobs. And remember this – you’re a designer, not an architect and certainly not a builder!

The bottom line is to try to find someone with experience in the business arena in which you operate. If you’re the owner of a small chain of sandwich shops, don’t just hire someone who’s developed a web site before, try to find someone who’s developed a web site for a restaurant. And not just one restaurant; a chain. Experience is golden here and there is one rule of thumb that I also mentioned in an earlier blog (Yes, Virginia, You Need a Web Site). When or if you find a developer who can tell you something non-technical about your business that you didn’t know, then you know you’ve got yourself a winner.

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