Have you ever thought about it? SEO – chances are, if you landed on this article, you are an SEO professional or at least one who considers SEO a way to optimize their website.
Did I say website? I am wrong already. The current definition of SEO is entirely wrong.
Either way, this article is not clickbait, like all those who want to attract by using exciting or controversial titles to offer nothing but typical content. I want to prove here that the current SEO definition diminishes your efforts to get the expected results out of SEO.
Because when defining your SEO strategy with the old definition in mind, all you do is sabotage your efforts to rank higher.
We take what reputable platforms, such as Search Engine Land, which says that “In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines whenever people search for”:
or Semrush, which says that “SEO (search engine optimization) is a set of processes aimed at improving a website’s visibility in search engines, like Google, with the goal of getting more organic traffic.”
and we get the general idea – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is about increasing your website’s visibility in Google, Bing or other search engines.
This is wrong. I cannot say it enough. We’re not in 2012 any longer.
Why the current definition of SEO is wrong
We’re in 2024. We no longer care only for the website’s presence in Google. First, we focus on something more important than your website: your business.
On the other hand, Google and Bing are not the only search engines. And I’m not talking here only about search engines. I’m talking about all platforms with search engine functionality.
Some of them we use daily or even on an hourly basis. Have you got this?
Yes, I’m talking about the social media platforms. TikTok, which stormed the social media world in the last two years, is getting more and more searches. There are not as many as YouTube gets, but both resemble from this perspective – users search for relevant information by typing keywords of interest for businesses.
Third, clients care about results more than just the organic traffic a website can get. So it’s their business you should care about the most, not their traffic. I freelanced for different businesses when I was younger, including a medical clinic. I was hired to optimize their website, which I did. The organic traffic was growing steadily. I was happy to communicate with the clinic’s representatives that their website is growing fast, but their answer, at the end of each month, was that they didn’t notice any difference in terms of clients asking for their services. I didn’t understand that then, so I continued applying the SEO techniques, but despite the organic traffic growing each month, the client was not satisfied.
I lost a client dear to me just because I didn’t understand that clients care about their business more than the organic traffic, the SERPs, the authority or any other metric I was about to improve. Clients care about their business; as I always say, they want more clients from SEO or digital marketing services.
The Proper Definition of SEO
So, as I said in my SEO course with 30 Secrets of SEO in 2024, this is the fundamental SEO secret: acknowledge and apply the proper definition of SEO.
I have refined an SEO definition that is the most simple and contains all the aspects of modern SEO.
SEO DEFINITION: SEO means optimizing the presence of your business in Google, Bing, other search engines and social media platforms with search engine functionality.
There are two main differences between the correct definition of SEO and the wrong one. These differences lead us to the two main directions in optimizing your business across all channels and platforms.
A. When applying SEO strategy, optimize your business, not only your website
Take care not only of your website. Identify all the platforms that rank for your target keywords. Using other platforms to bring your business to your target audience’s attention for some keywords is more accessible than trying to rank your website.
One example: if you want to pop up on Google with the event you organize in Bucharest, it is simpler to approach Visit Bucharest, which ranks on the top page for “Bucharest events,” that’s all.
Or, if you want to rank for the “best plastic surgery clinics in London,” chances are you enlist and optimize your business presence on What Clinic, one of the most prominent platforms for medical services worldwide, also on Google page one, and you’re all set.
How much would’ve taken you to get on Google’s top page for this keyword? Years… But you can grow your business faster by understanding how to approach SEO properly.
A conclusion here? Optimize your presence, not your website. Optimize your business organically in the easiest way possible. It could take years to do the same by trying to optimize your website.
I’m not saying that you don’t have to try to optimize your website for these or other keywords; I’m just saying that sometimes you must be clever enough to understand that SEO means much more than focusing only on your website.
By understanding that optimization on Google means more than optimizing your website, grasping the real SEO definition, “optimizing your business in Google,” means you are already on the right path.
B. Within the SEO strategy, also target social media platforms with search engine functionality
Do you consider YouTube as a social media platform? It is, in fact, one of the most significant search engines disguised as a social media platform. It is good to consider it a social media platform; it is way better to understand that YouTube has billions of monthly searches and is a search engine platform, therefore a potential platform to show your products and services to the relevant audience organically.
Here are the results for “best running shoes 2024” in YouTube:
In Google, there are other results, which means you have an additional chance if you consider YouTube as an alternative search engine:
Let’s not forget that YouTube is a Google product, and if Google knows something, it is to display results based on keywords.
Besides, it is more accessible to rank a video on YouTube or TikTok for keywords of a particular difficulty than your website for the same keyword. The beauty is that Google and TikTok are partners in searches – TikTok displays Google results for some queries, and Google ranks TikTok videos for specific keywords.
There are 1 billion active users on TikTok, and they conduct searches. They have favourite content creators, search for ‘how to’ videos, and use keywords, and TikTok optimizes content on keywords.
If there is a conclusion to be noted here, this is to understand that SEO also optimizes your business on social media platforms.
SEO Definition: Learn It the Right Way
SEO definition has to be comprehended the proper way. We apply this at TUYA Digital for all our clients – we find ways to optimize their business, not just their website. We do that by implementing proactive optimization measures to make their business grow.
We focus on their business. We focus on their clients. We focus on getting leads and generating conversions.
I personally say this, and I say it wherever I can: Clients want more clients, even in SEO.
It is wrong to believe that the client who asks for SEO optimization wants only organic traffic. They hire you because they think that, by growing their organic traffic, you can get them more leads. More clients.
Your Clients want more Clients. They don’t pay their employees in organic traffic or unique users. Nor do they take the social media engagement home to their kids. They only want to make more sales and get more revenue to make more profit.
This is why I say: focus on business optimization in Google, Bing and other search engines and learn how to make their business grow on social media platforms with search engine functionality. This is the proper approach to SEO.
This article is written by Adam C., head strategist at TUYA Digital, a professional with 10+ years of SEO experience. His opinion on SEO and how to optimize your website can be fully grasped if you read his SEO crash course “30 Secrets to Rank in 2024”.