Is SEO a Science, Art or Both?
Welcome to another #mindblogging day. Today, we are going to talk about whether Search Engine Optimisation aka SEO is a Science or an Art form.
First, let’s define SEO, Art and Science.
According to https://moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo, SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
Heres a quick and interesting video to know more about how SEO works.
Heres a quick and interesting video to know more about how SEO works.
What is an Art?
According to Google, 'art is the expression or application of human creative skills and imagination, it is also a skill acquired through practice'. Wikipedia says, 'Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artefacts, expressing the author’s imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty of emotional power.'
What is Science?
According to Google, 'Science is the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment'. Wikipedia states that, 'Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe'.
So, is SEO an Art form or a Science or combination of both?
From the above definitions, SEO is an Art form due to the fact that it requires creativity in writing and creating contents to best target your audience. This includes but not limited to visual contents such as blogs, video blogs and photos that can sometimes become viral due to its interesting nature. ‘The content you have available will affect your keyword research and site architecture, as your site content is the major source of information that search engines use to determine what is your site about. You need to have a relevant content to even be in the game in search (Enge et al 2009, p. 88). For example: if someone searches for the quietest restaurant in Melbourne and you don’t have any content related to the quietest restaurant in Melbourne, there’s a good chance that you won’t rank for that search query.
On the other hand, SEO requires testing, monitoring and measuring to determine what works for your target audience. So, the technical side of it makes it a Science. ‘The scientific aspects involve challenging assumption, testing hypotheses, making observations, drawing conclusions, and achieving reproducible results’ (Enge et al 2009, p. 641).
From what I gathered, SEO is a combination of both Art and Science. You need a creative mind to come up with contents that are unique, relevant, interesting and will best provide a solution to what your target audience is searching for. To optimize this, you may need to have scientific skills to perform a lot of experimentations and observations. This is to figure out the best ways to apply ideas (as a result of conclusions drawn) that has the potential to best attract attention from your target audience.
Whatever it is we can’t deny the fact that SEO is essential for organisations to be on top of the game and to deliver the best outcome for their target audience whether they are searching through Bing, Yahoo or Google.
How about you, do you think SEO is an Art form, Science or both?
References:
Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie C. Stricchiola, The Art of SEO, 2nded., viewed 10, May, 2019, <https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CZ-tm_5f4WcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=seo+an+artform&ots=Ahz0SjBbMc&sig=dXbmgLR7692f2rUJQCWWb7_oeBU#v=onepage&q=seo%20an%20artform&f=false>.
https://moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo
I think it is a science! The process it takes with observation and experiments definitely make it seem like a science to me. Great content here!
ReplyDelete-Paul
https://paulmonje.home.blog/2019/05/12/google-advertisement-wars-paid-search-marketing/
I agree. I think whether SEO is an art, science or both we cannot deny its importance in helping brands succeed.
DeleteWhat an incredible blog!! I think SEO can be both art and science and i think its really up to the user of SEO to decide. Great read man!
ReplyDeleteThat's right. It's definitely both.
DeleteVery interesting blog post ! :)
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed a very interesting topic and very important for star-ups who would like to make it in the big world.
DeleteSuch an interesting insight here! You're definitely right- its a skill for sure, and whether it is an art or science, it's something that cannot be easily mastered. I personally see it as being both! It's strategic yet crafty and that's what makes it so fascinating for business.
ReplyDelete-bella (OMG! I love this ahahaha, damn these you tubers out here really playing with people's businesses LMAO. But you're right, these businesses are getting all this attention for the wrong reasons, and such bad publicity could totally kill their establishments. Great read and awesome example!
- Bella (https://digitalmarketing1910.home.blog/))
I'm glad you agree with me. It is true whatever it is. SEO is an important skill that every marketer must learn.
DeleteI think that it is both a science because its based on experiments, observations and analysis, it is something that is not learnt in one night, at university you can even learn it through a specific subject. I would say an Art because like Art it is a way to communicate, create emotion, feelings, making people to believe something like that the results on the top of their research list results is the most relevant to them, creating a call to action to click on it. Marketers use technique and arrange elements to make it perceived a certain way. Don't you agree?
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you. From what i gathered it is really an important subject to be studied by marketing students. We need to know how to organically engage with consumers and underpants the way they think which is hard.
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