Is there such a thing as a feminine approach to search engine optimization? Pandia takes a look at a new book by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin.

There is a huge debate going on both within the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities regarding the differences between the genders. Are differences in behavioural traits inherited or are they due to cultural differences?

On an aggregate level there probably are such differences, even if we know quite a few women from Mars, and men that have grown up in the vincinity of Venus.

The question here is then whether we can find such differences in the area of search engine marketing and optimization, i.e. the art of desinging a web site that ranks well in the search engines combined with an efficient use of pay-per-click text ads.

Feminine search engine optimization (SEO)

We hereby forward the bold hypothesis that there are such differences and that search engine optimization experts of the female kind in general take a different approach to this difficult science (yes, yes, in general and on an aggregate level etc. etc.)

And no, we are not talking about the fact the term ”organic search engine optimization” clearly must have been coined by a woman.

No, we are talking about the approach to search engine optimization as a social activitiy.

The socio-cultural approach to search marketing

There are obviously exceptions to this rule (there always are) but in general male authors of search engine optimization books do not cover the interal dymanics of firms or SEO/customer relationships to any significant degree.

Testosterone based guides to SEO tend to jump right into the complexity of keyword density analysis and pagerank calculations, taking it for granted that the SEO customer or the rest of the firm will accept the advice as God given truths as soon as our new born SEO expert has explained the basics.

Hence you don’t have to write about the ”social construction of SEO”.

Women writers, on the other hand, tend to be much more sensitive to the psychological dimension to SEO, pointing out that learning SEO is only half the battle, you also have to convince the rest of your organisation (or your potential customer) that SEO is worth while, and that it can be just as efficient as a full page advertisement in GQ.

Search Engine Optimization an Hour a Day

This is definitely the approach of Jennifer Grappone ande Gradiva Couzin in their new book Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day.

The book is primarily written for people given responsibility for in-house SEO, and again and again they point out the importance of getting the rest of the organization on board.

You need to legimize your work vis-à-vis your bosses. You need to get the IT people to understand and accept the importance of search engine optmimization for server confgiguration and dynamic web page production. You need to get the marketing people to appreciate the effect of a good pay-per-click text ad campaign.

To give but one example, they say that:

”From an organizational perspective, your SEO challenges are often a result of ’too much’. Too much in that your site is likely to be run by committee: designers, IT department, copywriters, and coders not to mention the executives who, with a single comment, can have you all scrambling in different directions…

You need to know your team and get them in your corner if you want to succeed at SEO. In other words: Get your team on board. It’so important it has its own chapter in this book.”

We couldn’t agree more.

The real stuff

”This is all very well,” the more practically minded SEO expert might ask, ”but do they tell us anything about the real stuff — the practical stuff?”

Indeed, they do. The book covers all the basic search engine marketing issues in a straight forward and readable way, including:

• How search engine robots work
• The role of directories and meta search engines
• Site feeds
• Pay-per-click
• Algorithm changes
• Copywriting
• Keyword selection
• Ranking
• The major search engines
• Visibility check
• Conversion tracking

and reporting – they are very conserned about the need for thorugh reporting practices.

The step by step approach

The authors are so concerned about the needs of busy company employees, that they have taken time-constraints into consideration when editing the book. Hence the book is organized as a three month day by day program or course.

There is a separate section for each day, and by the time you have reached the end of the book you will be pretty proficient in the obscure art of SEO.

The system probably works (we haven’t read the book this way), but we are still not 100 precent convinced that this is the most senisble way to approach learning SEO.

We often use books like these for reference, and even though there are comprehensive presentations on the most essential topics to be found scattered around this book, it is harder to get a coherent view of – let’s say – pay per click when the text is divided between different chapters and sections.

On the other hand, you do not get that easily bored if you try to read the book in one go. The necessary repetitions will probably be helpful for a lot of readers.

A well written SEO tutorial

All in all this is a well-written and easy to read book that will give SEO beginner’s exactly what they need when they are given the responsibility for search engine marketing activities within their own firm.

And the greatest strenght of this book is the social and psychological perspective. Actually, this is why we recommend that especially men read this book.

Yes, it helps to have a good relationship with colleagues in the IT departement (male or female), and the 25 year old female SEO expert may certainly ask them to implement a redirect for out-of-date web pages. However, she will gain much more respect and cooperation if she tells them how to rewrite the htaccess file. Consequently, some women with responsibility for SEO would probably benefit from addttional reading, for instance a book on hard core Apache server configuration.

Buy this book from Amazon.com
Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk

Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day companion site

Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin: Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day, Wiley Publishing Inc, Indianapolis 2006.