SEO Insights From the Dentist’s Chair

I just spent the last several months going through an excruciating root canal procedure. To escape the discomfort and pain of the many procedures needed to fix my tooth, I let my mind drift to the pleasant topic of SEO, and began to consider the many similarities between SEO and dentistry.

Here are five things that are true about both professions:

1. SEOs and dentists are equally unpopular

Nobody really wants to see a dentist. According to the American Dental Association, more than 181 million Americans will not see a dentist this year. Although no figures are available for SEOs, there are thousands — perhaps millions of sites unusable, inaccessible, and invisible sites on the Web that need optimization. The ADA actively promotes the idea that dental health is everybody’s business; the SEO profession needs to do the same in regards to site optimization.

2. Each discipline took years to professionalize

Dentistry only became a profession in the 18th Century. Before that just about anybody could work on teeth. Today, although there have been many good faith efforts to professionalize the SEO industry, it’s still just a “para-profession” without a binding bible of best practices.  Without formal accreditation, the “discipline” remains undisciplined, a fact that doesn’t inspire much confidence in the public at large.

3. In SEO and dentistry, nothing gets better by itself

A bad tooth can wreck your whole body as easily as a badly optimized site can wreck your business. That old story about the horse doctor being able to immediately judge the health of any horse by inspecting its mouth has more than a kernel of truth to it, because bacteria from an infected tooth can “seed” other infections in your body. And while a Web site that’s not performing is unlikely to kill you, its ill effects can drag down the performance of any business with an online presence (and today, that’s just about every business). It’s best to get an intervention before — not after — you start screaming in pain.

4. Students can do quality work, but they still need supervision

In most cases, you don’t need either a grizzled SEO who remembers the first SES conference any more than you need a dentist who remembers when Novocain was a novelty. Young people entering the trade can usually be trusted with straight ahead optimization tasks, but it’s always good to have an “old hand” check their work.

5. This stuff takes time

I naively thought that my procedure would take a month. It took four. Similarly, the benefits of SEO can take a painfully long to kick in. Be a good patient, try to hold still, don’t fight the drill, and don’t demand instant results. Stick with it — relief — in the form of the Google Bot and higher organic SERP rankings — will inevitably arrive if you stick to your treatment plan.

Have a question about SEO, Social Media, or Content Marketing? Contact us.