Craig Shoemaker just posted the latest episode of the Polymorphic Podcast: ASP.NET SEO - Interview with Michael Neel. Yes, I've now appeared in a podcast that I didn't have a hand in recording!
Even if you don't listen to the show (and you should, Craig does an awesome job) check out the show notes. SEO - or Search Engine Optimization - is one of those areas developers tend to overlook or outright ignore. I think this is partly because it's not something we think about when knee deep in site code, but also because there is a stigma attached to SEO that it is dirty marketing stuff. Truth is, a good design for SEO is also a good design for users and helps more people find what they need (I was glad to see StackOverflow realize the sitemap protocol is very helpful).
One thing I mention at the end of the podcast (at least I think it's the end - I haven't listened to it yet!) was the new support from System.Web.Routing to handle some of the code I have written myself in mapping urls to content. Wally McClure has just recently posted an ASP.NET Podcast on Routing with WebForms that explains the new API.
Posted By Mike On Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Filed under podcast asp.net seo polymorphic |
Comments (1)
Benjamin Robbins
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Saturday, October 18, 2008
6:23:16 AM
I really enjoyed the show. Particularly the parts about getting your tags, URL and content to generally match up and the ASP.Net sitemap information. The timing of the show was great for me, because SEO was something I just started looking into just a few days before the show was released. Most of the SEO magic is really very simple and easy to do, it's just not something that you ever bother thinking about.
Like you said, SEO is a dirty word in some people's minds. It's important to note the distinction between directing users to the content that they are interested in versus throwing as many porn terms as you can fit into a meta keywords tag. I think the stigma can be removed by playing on the fact that programmers want people to use their code or visit their site. Correlating good-intentioned SEO to more users on your site finding what they are looking for means that the programmer accomplished the goal of satisfying the user's need. That is the epitome of successful software in my book.
