Visitor Based Optimization

by Sapphire (January 3, 2006)

You heard it here first: I’m coining the term: “Visitor Based Optimization”. And it signals what you’re going to be seeing on this site from now on. (I may even have to change the name.)

You’ve probably already read that SEO as we know it is dead . Here’s my homespun explanation for why: the search engines are finally getting close to delivering what their visitors are looking for. The frustrating parallel paths of designing for visitors and designing for bots have finally converged - well, close enough.

My strictly affiliate marketing sites will stay as-is. They’re starting to get some traffic - mostly from Google. I see a lot of people throwing adding blogs to their affiliate marketing sites, or tossing a few articles on, thinking that will make the site a resource instead of just an aff site. I had that idea too, a few months ago, but discarded it. When I’m shopping for garden gnomes, I don’t want to read a 3,500 word article on the history of garden gnomes. Conversely, if I want to read about garden gnomes, I’m probably not ready to buy. And I probably won’t remember to bookmark your shop for when I am ready.

I think affiliate sites are stuck with regular old SEO, and I’m not sure how long it’s going to hold up. My affiliate sites must be half-decent because people bookmark them a lot. But you’re not going to get a rave review about that gnome you and 6,000 other websites are selling from some big website, are you?

Maybe the trick with affiliate sites is to combine them with other things. I don’t know. Or maybe you build really high quality resource sites that link to them. Again, I don’t know. That’s why I’m moving away from them.

Some of my other sites are getting complete overhauls, like my directory sites. I’m going to make those into true portals of interest to web surfers (not just web masters).

From now on, my new VBO (or VisBoa? what should I call it?) sites will be built according to their ability to:

(1) Be socially networkable. Does a blog fit in? Will people link to it? Will they perhaps even contribute articles or comments? It’s all about linkability and content-spawning. Genuine content only, of course.

(2) Sell something. Ad space, products I create, or affiliate products. I’m not relying on PPC - just a personal preference.

From now on, you can probably expect less articles about affiliate marketing, and more articles about what I think visitors want to see, about blogging tips and tricks, about ways to turn your existing sites into something better. Should I change the name of the site? Seriously, I’m askin’.

Posted in SEO
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