SEO for Parents: What Does Daddy Do?

dad-and-baby-pedrocancion

Dad and Baby by PedroCancion

Last time I wrote about SEO and parenting I stressed that you need to be proud of what you do to be able to talk with your kids about it. That’s not just about SEO.

You need to have real reasons to work beyond money and a work ethos beyond just “working hard”.

It’s what you do and how you do it. Even if you are proud and you know how you do it most people, even other grown ups don’t.

A few years ago people would ask whether you work for Google when you said search engine optimization.

These days many will rather assume you are one of the dark alley magicians who “manipulate Google search results”.

Working at the computer all day, especially at home is both tough on kids and yourself. You’re there but you can’t play with them. You work but it appears as if you are just sitting around all day.

While SEO is difficult to explain to grown ups, it’s even more difficult to grasp for your children.

I’ve found last time the seemingly perfect solution: I help people to find things on the Internet. Also I help other people to get found there.

Nonetheless yesterday my daughter came up to me and said: I know what you do! You help people find search engines! Probably because I just helped her to use Google.

I told her it was somewhat the other way around, more the likes of “I help people using search engines to find websites”. You get the point: It’s still too abstract.

all-done-jayceh

All Done by jayceh

I doubt that kids can even distinguish between search engines and other websites. After all they are even right, almost every site has an internal search engine as well.

  1. So how do parents explain SEO to kids?
  2. What does daddy do all day?
  3. Is he he a crook like the bullies in school say?

(In brackets I inserted the translation into SEO terms for grown ups)

Let me give you a few examples how you can tell your kids what you do:

  • I help parents to find the cheapest toys around so that they can buy more of them. (shopping search, ecommerce)
  • I help people to find places to go on vacation so that they can play around on the beach. (travel SEO)
  • I help parents to find stuff faster so that they have more time to play with their kids. (SEO, website speed, usability)
  • I help people who sell ice cream to find the kids who want to have some. (local SEO)
  • I help people who want to save the trees to tell more people that we have to save the trees. (non profit SEO)

 

Father and daughter - who is still a toddler - laughing together.The father holds her in his hands.

You might also want to explain how you do it. These are examples you can use:

  • I set up small signs everywhere that say go this way to find the cheapest toys. (link building)
  • I write about the most beautiful beaches and show how you get there. (content creation)
  • I show the toy stores and beaches on images and on maps so you get there faster. (image optimization and universal search)
  • I tell the people who sell ice cream which flavor of ice cream the kids like best. (market and keyword research)
  • I ask the people to help save trees with some money. I try to find the best words for that. (conversion rate optimization).

You see you can even explain to your kids what you do. There is nothing shady or inexplicable about SEO.

It’s just a matter of the words and examples you choose. Parents shouldn’t hide what they do. Even in some difficult to explain trades like ours.