“Guess what? None of that stuff matters!”

Why would I waste my time doing something that “doesn’t matter”. We think the small stuff matters a great deal, especially in competitive markets.

I apologize if you feel like I took your words out of context.

In reality, it’s a balance of both what Jill discusses and what Lisa points out. Part of the proof is an eCommerce client who has more than quadrupled online sales since the “small stuff” was implemented. His rankings went up dramatically and so did his site traffic. META Description rewrites enticed searchers to click in to his site from the search results. Previously all of the page titles and all of the META Descriptions were the same – you can imagine where that left him. His conversion rate increased as a result of improving the copywriting on the page. His competitive position has improved greatly as well because his competitors don’t bother with the “small” stuff.

I also agree with Jill that the age of the domain is one of the “big things” you do need to sweat. But other than avoiding changing domain names, you can’t do anything to “age” your domain, so in that regard, it’s not even within your control.

I’m still of the opinion that “content is king” but I don’t think you can just chill-lax and forget the small stuff. I think the most effective SEO techniques see the bigger picture without leaving out the small details.

The trouble with ‘not sweating the small stuff’ is that you end up with an okay site. Not a great site, just one that’s ‘good enough’. If all you’re willing to optimize for is ‘good enough’ then your rankings will reflect that. Top 20 is good enough. Top 10 requires more work. Top 3? That requires sweating the small stuff.

I never said don’t DO the small stuff. I simply said don’t sweat ‘em. I believe there’s a big difference, no?

It’s a very good point. I guess I’d put those in the basic category but not the “small stuff” category, for details like character count in title tags, optimizing header tags, etc. They’re all good and important – but definitely more towards the refinement side of things. Maybe once the site is well covered those finer points should be considered.

But just to contradict myself, I have a hunch that little stuff – if you sweat it and already have a great site – can influence rankings in competitive areas. That’s probably where it’s more important – saturated niches that already have actively SEO’d sites competing. That and insanely good unique content with masses of links from authority sites (double har).

Actually though I was just feeling disagreeable today.

What do you consider the basics of SEO if not Meta tags and keyword densities? I think the basics of SEO will always stay the same. There will be other factors that come and go, but I think including Meta tags on a page and appropriately targeting keywords are safe and worth the effort.

Those who need the benefit of SEO the most will probably never become THE authority site for their niche, so the small details matter greatly. Not everyone is a big spending, market dominating, mega-site. Some of us are simply trying to attract some eyes from our communities. This is where the small stuff will matter the most.