***Disclaimer: The Aforementioned “Pizza” Is a Metaphorical Device***
You may, by now, be wondering what on earth pizza has to do with SEO, but stick with it; it will all make sense in the end.
When you look at this pizza, what do you see?
To the untrained eye, one will typically see dough, sauce and toppings – pretty standard stuff.
But, it’s only when you start digging a little further can you really tell whether this pizza works for you and your taste buds.
The point I’m trying to make is that just like this humble pizza, SEO cannot be taken at face value. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes, and it’s impossible to find what works for you without a little experimentation and imagination.
The Layers
Take a look at this pizza again:
You’ll see the same things that you did the first time: dough, sauce and toppings. But this time take a closer look and think about the various processes and layers that make up this delicious meal:
- Preparing ingredients for the sauce
- Making the sauce
- Making the dough
- Slathering on the sauce
- Selecting toppings
- Bake
That’s a lot of processes, and I’d wager you didn’t consider them when you initially looked at the pizza?
The same applies to SEO; there are so many processes that must take place to achieve success, such as:
- Onsite
- Content strategies
- Offsite
- Technical SEO
In the same way, you’d want to make your pizza a tasty, fulfilling treat; you must also understand how your SEO strategies are going to fulfil the needs of your target market.
Making a pizza isn’t rocket science by any stretch of the imagination, but a well-made one is going to make most of us want to grab a slice and chow down.
And when you really think about it, the formula is the same for a website – a well-made one is much more likely to encourage potential customers to complete the actions you want them to; whether that be filling in a form or buying a product.
Below, we’ve highlighted just how the process of making and cooking a pizza can help you understand the various SEO processes in a series of tasty metaphors.
Dough
“The Idea”
The dough is the very basis of a good pizza. Using overworked, stodgy and old dough will bog the whole thing down, and no one wants to eat that.
The best ideas need time to come to fruition; they must be given the space to evolve so the cook can genuinely begin to understand their potential.
These early stages will eventually be the foundations of a successful campaign, which means they must be able to stand firm before you begin to plan any additional elements.
BBQ Sauce
“The Distinctive Twist”
Most of us have a tomato sauce base on our pizzas. In fact, to some it’d be utter blasphemy to have anything other – for the record, I’m firmly within that camp. But the point I’m trying to illustrate is that it’s important to forge your own path.
There are so many companies online – even within niche markets you’re fighting on multiple fronts – and it doesn’t matter whether you are part of a small to medium-sized startup or even a global colossus of a company, you must at least attempt to beat the path less travelled.
There’s plenty of old-school players in this world that believe things should be done only one way. But, without these BBQ trailblazers, we’d never progress.
Rocket
“The Healthy Balance”
Whether you like a sprinkling of rocket on your pizza or not, it adds a nice fresh, peppery note.
The same applies to SEO; a healthy balance is an absolutely crucial factor to success online these days. If you think piling on link after link will give your website a favourable outlook in the eyes of Google you’d be dead wrong. It will sink your online presence quicker than a bathtub in stormy waters, and it won’t be long before something leaner, faster and smarter comes along to put you back in your place.
Sure, salad leaves on a pizza kind of defeats the object of eating a mound of carb-laden bread and fatty cheese, but in SEO you’ll get the best results by harmoniously balancing the indulgent experiments with straight-laced facts and figures.
Meat
“The Muscle”
We all need a strong topping to bring all the elements together into a gooey, delectable mess of…
Anyway, in this case perhaps the saltiness of pepperoni or bacon would bring together the perfectly cooked dough, creamy cheese and peppery rocket – but ultimately as long as you choose something which webs everything together, it will marry in perfect symphony.
This is what any SEO campaign needs – muscle. There must be a substance that works to bring everything together. Otherwise, it’s like training separately for a synchronised swimming routine with no prior instruction. Inevitably you’ll all end up in complete dissaray.
At POD, we work on a what we call, ‘Holistic Marketing’, which, in this case, is all about harnessing the great power of the pepperoni to bring all the other elements together – whether that be SEO and web design or social media and video.
Pineapple
“The Take It Or Leave It”
Pineapple on pizza; heaven for some, an absolute nightmare for others.
Some people appreciate a taste of summer on their pizza, to others, it’s more of a, ‘fruit doesn’t belong on pizza’ kind of taboo. It’s a thorny issue.
What this point suggests is that, while you can’t please each individual, you can create diverse, niche audiences. Most of us will try anything at least once, and if that one thing appeals to us we’ll keep going back for more and that’s exactly what you want.
In SEO you won’t find fans and advocates of your strategies at every juncture. But so long as you’ve made an honest attempt to answer your user’s queries, well…let’s just say, pineapple can be picked off.
Conclusion
Creating the perfect pizza takes time – sometimes years. And although you won’t usually need years to see the effects of good SEO, tastes change. You must adapt and evolve. This road to the perfect recipe takes patience, creativity and more than a helping hand of experimentation.
Happy cooking!
If you need help understanding your palette, then why not call the professionals? At POD Digital we have a proven track record of making your website an online success.
So, if you want to talk to us give us a contact us today on 01455 560 170 – you have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
