I’ve seen a few posts recently (and a number of rants by @sugarrae on Twitter) which suggest that people who are in the field of Search Engine Optimization should stop calling themselves SEOs and start referring to themselves as Internet Marketers or something similar to denote the fact that working effectively in this area goes way beyond simply trying to improve organic search listings, and optimizing sites for search visibility is just one facet of an overall whole.

Now, far be it for me, the new boy, to get heavily embroiled in a debate over semantics, but anyone who knows me knows that I’m always up for some antics (d’you see what I did there?), so here’s my tuppence worth (which with current exchange rates is probably about a nickel, but let’s just call it my two cents and move on):

I don’t want to be called an SEO

I don’t Optimize Search Engines.  That’s what Matt Cutts and the rest of the algorithm-tweakers in the Googleplex do.  If anyone deserves to be called Search Engine Optimizers, it’s them (and the corresponding teams at Yahoo! and Live Search, etc; I wouldn’t want them to feel left out).
That’s not what I do.  It’s not something I’ll ever do.  It’s not something that anyone who actually calls themselves an SEO will ever do.
Are you starting to get the point yet?

Sure we optimize websites in order for them to be more appealing to search engine ranking algorithms, but if you tried to put that on your business card then you might as well also tell people that you were educated at the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can’t Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too.
SEO is a catchy marketing title.  It should be; it was created by marketers for marketers.

But it’s not what we actually do.

So, come on then smart-arse.  What do you suggest?

Glad you asked.

For my own part, the majority of my efforts go towards making sure that I can drive the right kind of traffic to a website.
It’s not about gaming the system to rank for loads of vaguely related keywords.  It’s about finding and targeting the right terms and phrases to bring in visitors that will actually convert into valuable customers.  Just take a look at Seth Godin’s post on Silly Traffic to see more about why you’re better off making sure that you focus on keeping the attention of the right kind of visitors rather than simply trying to pull in as many eyeballs as possible.
Sure, if you’re just some spammer pushing your rubbishy MFA site full of overloaded affiliate ads, then you can go ahead and optimize the hell out of a few thousand pages of carelessly constructed crap.
But if you’re serious about driving quality, qualified traffic to (and through) a quality site, then what you are really trying to do is Optimize your Search Relevancy.

Relevancy is a two way street

Don’t just focus on convincing Google that you’re the most relevant site for a particular keyword.
Focus on making sure that your search engine referrals are bringing you visitors that are relevant to you and to the goals of your site.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re working on a site for a basket weaver who wants to sell his amazing range of lovingly handcrafted wicker baskets on a shiny new website.
Do you want to fill your pages up with stemmed variations like, Basket Weaving, Basketry, Making Baskets etc?
Or will you gain a greater amount of relevant traffic from visitors who are actually interested in buying his baskets by focusing on terms that you’ve identified as representing searchers who are in a “buy cycle” and drawing them into your site?  Terms like, Woven Baskets, Handmade Wicker Baskets and so on.

Well, duh!  Seems pretty obvious when you put it like that doesn’t it?  And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there isn’t value to be gained in aiming for a range of phrases right across the whole of the sales funnel.  What I am getting at is that it’s important to not simply drop a seed phrase into a keyword tool and then fill your site with useless variations that are going to end up placing you at the top of the SERPs for queries that don’t serve any beneficial purpose to you or your site’s goals.

If you do that, you won’t only be wasting your time and energy, you’ll also be wasting the time and energy of the searchers and if they are disappointed by finding an irrelevant page to their research-phase query, you risk putting them off clicking through to your site when it turns up in the SERPs for the query they make once they reach their buying-phase.

You don’t just have to find out what words people are searching for.
You have to understand what they mean and consequently what they are searching for when they use those words.

Don’t let the long-tail wag the dog

It’s all well and good discovering that “wicker baskets with blue flowers embroidered around the top” has a juicy KEI and should be easy to rank for, but if all you sell are baskets with purple flower embroidery then it’s not worth the effort.  At least not until after you’ve had a word with the weaver and told him to switch to blue flowers.
But until your site has something of relevant value to the blue flower searchers out there no-one’s going to benefit from you trying to optimize for that long-tail term.

Semantic Irony

But hang on a second there, Ken.  If you’re ranting about not being called an SEO and wanting to focus on Search Relevancy Optimization instead, why are you blogging about Search Engine Optimization on a site that has SEO in the name?

Simple.  While I may be one of the (increasing number of) people who realises that Search Engine Optimization is technically an incorrect description of the nature of this work, most people out there are still perfectly happy to use the term SEO and I see no reason to go around beating them over the head with a stick and telling them they’re wrong.
More people will search for SEO and its related terms and if I want to provide relevant content on my site and draw relevant visitors to it, that means using the language of the searchers.  That’s the whole point of Search Relevancy Optimization.

Besides, if I can start positioning myself as an SRO now, maybe I’ll be able to avoid getting hassled by Jason Gambert for using the term SEO.  Either that or we all just need to buckle up and get ready for when he sends a Cease and Desist letter to half the Internet ;-).

So, what about the rest of you?  What do you say when someone asks what you do?

Do you tell them you’re an SEO?  And then spend half an hour explaining what that means?

Do you say you’re in Internet Marketing?  And then spend half an hour listening to them tell you how annoying they find all those ads on their MySpace profile?

Do you tell people you’re a spammer?  And then duck?

Or is there some other description that you feel sums up what you do better than any of these?