Google's John Mueller asked SEOs on Twitter to describe what they do, to a developer/coder/engineer. It looks like Google is looking to add more information about why developers should hire or consult with SEOs to their developer docs, maybe the do you need an SEO document?
John wrote "One of the things front-end developers ask us is what SEOs actually do (and ... if they're necessary ...). How can we highlight the work great SEOs do in our docs? How would/do you explain what you do as an SEO to a developer?"
One of the things front-end developers ask us is what SEOs actually do (and ... if they're necessary ...). How can we highlight the work great SEOs do in our docs? How would/do you explain what you do as an SEO to a developer? pic.twitter.com/5E9W3Bdchq
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) October 23, 2018
Here are some of the responses thus far from SEOs who responded to John:
SEOs are like aisle signs in supermarkets.
— Luke Carthy 🔎 (@MrLukeCarthy) October 23, 2018
Without us, finding gravy granules would take a lifetime..
In summary:
Supermarket = search engine
Aisle signs = SEOs
What the bloody hell am I talking about!?
Well, we make it easier to find the gravy. pic.twitter.com/yrj5pEbNF6
Put another way:
— Kevin Mullett (@kmullett) October 23, 2018
- Many designers try to impress within a perfect view-port, like paper.
- Many coders make things display as a designer wanted & code "cool stuff" via slow/uncrawlable code.
- Agencies oft use flowery language & unopt images
We step in & say no, because, reasons.
We help businesses to connect/align their Web offering with what their potential clients search for by helping their grow/optimize their site accessibility, relevance and popularity towards them :)
— Aleyda Solis (@aleyda) October 23, 2018
We help to align consistent signals in a site's URL paths for search engines and users to meet searcher informational need matching intent through topical content and technical recommendations :)
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) October 23, 2018
SEOs work on the potential visibility of a digital presence in organic search.
— Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) October 23, 2018
By solving technical, accessibility and usability problems, as well as quality improvements, they can make a website more efficient and pleasant to both users and search engines.
I help businesses get visibility in search engines via great technical SEO, content focus and creation, and outreach to build the site's visibility. So yes, pretty necessary if you need an audience and revenue :-)
— John Doherty 🤓 (@dohertyjf) October 23, 2018
We keep then from making mistakes that would hurt revenue and the bottom line. There are many ways to choose, not many are the right path however, if SEO is the goal
— Kristine Schachinger (@schachin) October 23, 2018
Love the Q. I like to think of great SEOs as google interpreters. We can take complex user interfaces and make them possible for a machine to understand. We highlight the important content and clarify for G. We also make sure that garbage stays out of the index.
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) October 23, 2018
There are many many more SEOs who responded on Twitter - do share yours, maybe what you share will input what Google adds to their help documents?
Forum discussion at Twitter.