The Catch-22 of Relevance

In the world of Search Engine Optimization, only one thing really matters: relevance. It sounds simple, but how can you achieve relevance? Actually, you can’t. Either your website’s content is relevant, or it’s not. Of course, relevance is entirely subjective. And as  the saying goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” So one could argue that a website is always relevant. It’s just a matter of finding out to whom and how many it’s relevant.

Search engines run on computers, using algorithms. Computers are not capable of being subjective (just as most people are incapable of being objective). So, their only measure of relevance is popularity. That is, the more popular your site is, the more “relevant” search engines consider your site to be. Again, it sounds simple.. and for the most part, it is.

However, this model is a classic example of a “catch 22.” If relevance builds SEO strength, and SEO strength (theoretically) builds popularity, and popularity builds relevance… that results in a never-ending loop of relevance = popularity = relevance.

How do you break into this loop? Well… be relevant! And be clear, accessible, and popular. So while there are 1001 SEO tips, tricks, and techniques out there, only one thing really matters. And that’s “how relevant is your content?”

It’s no easy task to provide lots of great, high-quality content week in and week out. But that’s what it boils down to.. providing great content.

Note: Clearly, a lot more could be said about content. And I will get there.. I plan to dive deeper into the “paradox of content” in one of my next posts.

See Also

• The Paradox of Content
• Update: DiggBar NOT an SEO-killer
• Is DiggBar an SEO-killer?
• "TJ Kelly" – My Google Identity