Two Metaphors for Visualizing Success in SEO

At SilverServers, we’re a team of SEO and technical specialists who love our work and enjoy helping business owners understand what we do for them. Search Engine Optimization is a service that can be particularly difficult to explain because it’s very abstract, changes almost daily, and is often dependent on dozens of factors. If you've ever asked an SEO specialist a question and received the answer, “it depends”, then you know what we’re talking about! We often find it easier to use metaphors to explain what we do and how we help. Over the years, we’ve grown fond of certain metaphors that we find more well-suited to describing this abstract service. We want to share two of those favourites - about what we do and why we plan.

Your Website Mechanic

One of our team members is trained as a mechanic but decided he liked building websites more than building motors. Because of that, some of us tend to lean on mechanic metaphors when we’re explaining SEO work. They help us explain why we make regular recommendations and why the priority level of some recommendations may vary suddenly from time to time.

Most vehicle owners will never look under the hood of their vehicle – especially as that technology becomes more advanced and computer-based. No matter the age of a vehicle though, owners often have a trusted mechanic to whom they take their vehicle regularly.

The mechanic will regularly check all the systems of the vehicle to make sure it’s running right. They’ll check fluid levels, replace old fluids, fix anything that’s broken, and make recommendations. There’s always some type of work to do on a vehicle, and experienced mechanics become great at getting to know when to gently suggest working on a particular part or when to urgently recommend that same work. The more often you take your vehicle to the same mechanic, the better they’ll get to know your vehicle, and the better they’ll be able to maintain it.

Since most people aren’t aware of all the intricacies of a vehicle, they have to trust that their mechanic is being honest and actually understands what’s happening in a vehicle. The more a mechanic is trusted and trustworthy, the better the results will be for the vehicle.

Our technical SEO specialists at SilverServers are like website mechanics. Our blog is full of information about our team, our work, and important SEO concepts so that you don’t need to look far to see if we’re a good fit for your business!

SEO Planning like a Gardener

Our home base of Kamloops is one of the warmest cities in Canada with one of the country’s longest garden-growing seasons. With gardeners all around turning this desert into a great place to grow a garden, it’s easy for anyone to get to know some best practices.

It could be said that there are two ways to plant a garden. First, you can blindfold yourself, grab handfuls of seeds, and throw them randomly throughout the garden. Second, you can plan out your rows, plan what to put in the rows, plan the spacing of your seeds, plow the garden area, and then follow your plan to plant seeds.

Although plants grow naturally with or without human interaction, only one of those two methods will grow what you want, where you want it. Under the best circumstances, following a plan makes it possible to take care of the plants and know what should be showing up where and when.

Without a plan, it's likely a gardener won't know what's a weed or what's a flower or vegetable for a long time. Plant identification may not be possible until long after root systems are deep and difficult to dig out. Good plants might be planted in less-than-ideal locations. Weeds may be allowed to grow to the point that removing them damages nearby plants. Watering efforts may be wasted watering weeds.

Alternatively, a planned garden produces expected results. If something doesn’t work right though, a gardener can learn from the mistakes and efforts of one year to optimize and improve their efforts for the next year. Year after year, the specifics of the unique garden are understood better and better so that growth becomes increasingly optimized.

As SEO specialists, we prefer to water the right plants, and not water weeds in our SEO work! We always recommend a planning period for website optimization work, then following, adapting, and optimizing that plan with each step.

If your website needs a good technical review or an SEO plan – or both – contact us at SilverServers to learn about our Grassroots SEO program. Or, get a free, no-obligation website SEO review to see how your website is doing!

Find more Grassroots FAQs, or check out the SEO Tips section of our blog!