SEOs Are Like Jokes. Only Funny To The Clever People

If you don’t understand SEO, the world of search engine optimization can seem pretty opaque. “What’s all this about keywords?” you might wonder, or “What do you mean by a meta description?” 

But have no fear! We’re going to demystify these concepts for you and make learning about SEO easy. Just think of us as your team of search engine optimization experts! 

And now that we’ve done our opening bit and gotten a bunch of search keywords into your post, let’s move on to the next section so we can add even more!

Amanda Seales on being smart, funny, and Black | The Limits
Takeaways
Understanding SEO requires a certain level of cleverness.
SEO practices can be intricate and challenging for those not well-versed in the field.
Similar to jokes, the humor in SEO might be appreciated by those who comprehend its complexities.
Like getting the punchline of a joke, grasping SEO’s impact often involves deeper insight.
Just as clever individuals get the humor in jokes, experts understand the intricacies of SEO.

The Title Of The Article Is Important

The title of the article is important. It plays a role in how well your article will rank on Google, so you want to make sure that it’s relevant and descriptive.

The ideal title tag should be short (no more than 60 characters). It should also be relevant to the content of your article and keyword-rich.

When crafting a title tag, don’t go overboard with stuffing keywords into it. Instead, write something descriptive and readers can quickly identify what they’ll find on the page by looking at its title alone.

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Use Keywords In Your Title Tag

Your title tag is the most important element of your website the first thing that Google will show to searchers. It should be relevant to your page and include a keyword that people are searching for, as well as be descriptive. 

You want it to be short enough so that it doesn’t scroll off-screen, but long enough that it can still communicate what the page is about.

You should use this space wisely! Not only does it attract attention in search results, but also has an impact on how much traffic you get from search engines and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter (and others).

Optimize The Title Tag

Optimising your title tags is a simple way to ensure that the searcher will see your website first.

Title tags are under 70 characters, so don’t go too long with them. They should be descriptive and contain keywords used in the copy on the rest of the page. Ideally, they should also use those same keywords in their first 50 characters. Here are some examples:

  • If you have a service that helps writers find an agent for their novel
  • “Find an Agent for Your Novel” (25 characters)
  • “Become The Writer You’ve Always Wanted To Be” (34 characters)
  • If you have a blog about cooking with kale leaves and nutritional yeast paste:
  • “Mock Potato Salad With Kale And Nutritional Yeast Paste” (34 characters)

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Try To Move Further Down

One of the best things you can do is try to move down the page. This will help you get into the first paragraph and then maybe even into the first sentence. 

Once you are there, try to move up again. See if you can get into a word or two and then look for another one that ends with ‘s.’ Next, try moving over to find a letter that starts with ‘e’ or ‘a. Finally, go back just one more line and see if anything is interesting there at all!

Get Relevant Links To Your Page

You need to get relevant links to your page. This can be achieved by using the right anchor text, or the text that’s used in a link to another page on your website. 

For example, if someone is linking to your homepage from their website with the phrase “SEO Agency,” this is going to give you a lot more power than if they use something like “https://www.”

You need quality content for your site as well as for any other sites where you want people linking back at you. If there’s not enough useful information on these sites then why would anyone want to share them? 

It all comes down to reputation: if other people think highly of a site then it will rank higher in Google’s search results and therefore attract more visitors from organic search queries (whereas paid ads will only bring targeted visitors).

Write Something That People Want To Link To

It’s a little bit of an oversimplification, but if you want to write something that people will link to and share, you have to think about what other people will find interesting.

So let’s look at some examples. If you’re talking about how great your new product is, then write in a way that makes it clear why your new product is so much better than the competition and why other people should care about it too. 

The best way to do this is by showing how your product solves a problem for customers or improves their lives in some way. 

You can also do this by explaining how your new product helps solve a problem that lots of people are facing today like climate change or world hunger or global poverty and showing how they could benefit from using what you’ve created.

The point here isn’t necessarily to make yourself sound like an expert on every topic (though if there’s one thing we know SEOs love doing it’s talking smack about everything under the sun). 

Rather than focusing solely on convincing readers of something as subjective as whether or not your service/product is good enough for them personally without providing any real context around why it matters more than anything else out there right now (which would be impossible), try including some statistics relevant

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Tell Them Why They Should Link To You And How Doing So Will Benefit Them

A lot of people forget that you can link to your site. This is a great way to build traffic and earn links over time as long as the content you link to is good enough. 

You could also add social media buttons (Twitter, Facebook) next to each piece of content so people can share it on those networks with their friends and followers.

Another great way to earn links is by adding links to your email newsletters whenever appropriate. If you’re using Mailchimp or Aweber for your email marketing campaigns then this will be automatic! 

And if not? That’s okay too! Just make sure that when you send out an email newsletter, you include a link back to one of your most recent blog posts so readers can click through from there if they want more information about what was just covered.

Finally, guest posting is another easy way for SEOs like us here at CoSchedule where I work as a Community Manager (but not an actual SEO expert… yet).

Since we publish tons of quality content every day but don’t have enough room on our website for all these resources which means we need help finding ways other sites might want them!

Make Sure The Site Linking To You Has A Good Reputation

As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider when you’re trying to build links. The same goes for the sites that link to you. As with any other marketing strategy, it’s important to make sure that the site linking to your website has a good reputation in the field. 

You want them to be relevant and trustworthy. If they’re not well-known or well-established, it might not be worth your time and effort getting a link from them even if it does give an SEO boost!

Get Some Links From Sites With A Good Reputation Within Their Field

You’re looking for sites that have a good reputation within their field. It’s good to know what the “in” sites are in your niche, so you can use them as an anchor back to your site. 

A simple way of doing this is checking out Majestic and Ahrefs, who will show you all the links pointing to a web page (and by extension its domain).

If you can’t find any good links from relevant sources (you’re not likely to be listed on Wikipedia or something), then try asking around in forums or groups if anyone knows someone who could link back to you.

The SEO landscape can be baffling, but sometimes you need to acknowledge its quirky nature. Uncover the insights about SEO’s enigmatic aspects in my article: The SEO Gods Are Shameless.

Don’t Use Flash

In the same way that jokes are only funny to those who get them, Flash is only useful to people with a certain level of technological know-how.

From a search engine perspective, Flash websites are just another kind of text document and therefore don’t rank very well. 

The same goes for mobile devices Flash doesn’t work on iPhones or Android phones, which means your pages will never show up in mobile searches (and again, this has nothing to do with whether or not you have an actual website).

Furthermore, you need to consider the fact that people with disabilities might not be able to access your site if it’s built-in Flash. 

People with low bandwidth connections will also struggle mightily trying to load your page without getting frustrated and giving up altogether.

Don’t Use Frames Or Iframes Unless It’s Impossible Not To Do So

Your content should be easy to find, read, link to, and share. This is what Google and other search engines are looking for. They want people to have a good experience when they visit your website.

That’s why you mustn’t use frames or iFrames unless it’s impossible not to do so. 

These types of frames make your content hard to find by search engines because they just show up as an empty box on the page instead of being part of your site’s design elements (and can even mess up how people view your site). 

Plus, if someone wants to share a link from one page within a frame/iframe then all they’ll see is “click here for more info about click here for more info about click here for more…etc…etc….” Which isn’t helpful at all!

Don’t Limit Yourself By Thinking About “10 Blue Links”

I’ve found that SEOs are a lot like jokes. Only funny to the clever people.

Here’s how it works: you have 10 blue links on your website and one red link. Which one do you click? The red one! But wait… what if we change the context around these links? What if there were hundreds of thousands of blue links instead of just 10? 

In this case, some people might choose to leave their mouse hovering over any individual blue link. They’ll opt for whatever looks easiest or most familiar even though they know there are so many other options out there!

Do you see where I’m going with this? Don’t limit yourself by thinking about “10 blue links”. Think about the quality of those 10 blue links instead. Are they super relevant to your target audience? 

Are they organized in such a way that makes sense for end-users? What else could be done to make them even better (and thus more attractive) than before?

Growing organic traffic is a journey that requires strategic steps. Dive into my experience and learn how I achieved remarkable results in a short time: How I Went from 0 to 1k Organic Visitors to My Blog in 15 Days.

Find Out What People Are Searching For And What The Intent Behind Those Searches Is

With an understanding of the types of searches people are making, you can begin to tailor your content to meet that need. This is where keyword research comes in.

Keyword research will help you figure out which keywords or topics people are searching for that might relate to your business or website. 

It helps you understand what questions and requests people are making when they search online, so you can make sure your content answers those questions.

Another thing keyword research does is show how many times a particular word or phrase has been searched for during a given period (for example, last month). 

You can use this data as a benchmark so that if someone searches for [the word], there won’t be any surprises you’ll know exactly what they’re looking for!

Conclusion

The internet is a big place and there are lots of ways to attract traffic to your site. Search engine optimization isn’t the only way. 

There are other methods of marketing that can be used to generate visitors such as pay-per-click advertising, offline promotion (such as print advertising), or even word-of-mouth if you’re really lucky.

I don’t believe that SEO is dead but I do believe it needs to adapt for you to survive! 

There’s no need for a complete overhaul – just some tweaks here and there should suffice for now 🙂 Just remember: if all else fails… Google is always one click away from being replaced with Bing 😉

Further Reading

Explore these articles for more insights on the power of humor and intellectual jokes:

Make ‘Em Laugh: How Humor Can Be a Secret Weapon in Your Communication Learn how incorporating humor can enhance your communication skills and engage your audience effectively.

The Science of Work Jokes: How to Use Humor at Your Job Discover how humor can foster a positive work environment, improve relationships, and increase productivity.

Intellectual Jokes for Smart Individuals Enjoy a collection of intellectual jokes that cater to the witty and clever minds, adding a touch of humor to your intellectual pursuits.


FAQs

How does humor enhance communication skills?

Incorporating humor into communication can create a more engaging and relatable interaction, capturing the audience’s attention and making the message memorable.

Can humor be used effectively in the workplace?

Yes, humor in the workplace can foster a positive atmosphere, enhance team dynamics, and relieve stress, leading to improved job satisfaction and productivity.

What are intellectual jokes?

Intellectual jokes are witty and clever humor that often require a certain level of knowledge or insight to fully appreciate, appealing to individuals with a keen sense of intellect.

How can humor be a secret weapon for communication?

Humor can break down barriers, make complex topics more understandable, and establish a connection with the audience, making the communication more effective and impactful.

How do intellectual jokes cater to smart individuals?

Intellectual jokes often play with language, logic, and cultural references, requiring a sharp mind to fully grasp the nuances and appreciate the humor embedded within them.