How much time and money do we collectively burn by fixing the same kinds of basic, "binary," well-defined things over and over again (e.g., meta tags, 404s, URLs, etc), when we could be teaching others throughout our organizations not to break them in the first place? As long as we "own" technical SEO, there's no reason (for example) for the average developer to learn it or care — so they keep making the same mistakes. We proclaim that others are doing things wrong, but by doing so we only reinforce the line between our skills and theirs. We need to start giving away bits of the SEO discipline, and technical SEO is the easiest piece for us to stop owning. It's time for more democratization, education, collaboration, and investment in open-source projects so we can fix things once, rather than a million times.

1. THE
DEMOCRATIZATION
OF SEO

2. I have a confession

3. I HATE technical SEO.

5. Cool, right?

6. But this is cooler!

7. @jonoalderson | Yoast
Or, maybe not...

8. Round we go...

9. So what?

10. Is it just me?

11. bit.ly/tech-seo-poll

13. Is this a problem?

15. But we’re optimisers, right?

16. So, how optimal are we?

17. There are between
40,000 & 380,000
“technical SEO” folks on LinkedIn

18. Based on my survey, that’s
1-9 million hours

19. The average US SEO salary is
$46,466
( payscale.com )

20. That’s somewhere between
$20m & $200m
of ‘waste’ every month

21. But… why?

22. Think about doctors

23. They fix the root cause

24. And it’s not just tech SEO...

25. So we just run campaigns.

26. Can we fix this?

27. Except, our model is flawed

28. Digital marketing
TechnicalSEO

29. Writing
Digital marketing
TechnicalSEO
Webdev

30. Digital marketing
TechnicalSEO
Webdev
Writing
Digital marketing

31. Digital marketing
TechnicalSEO
ProjectManagement
Training
Webdev
Psychology
MarketingStrategy
Writing

32. Digital marketing
PWAs
TechnicalSEO
ProjectManagement
Training
Webdev
Psychology
Javascript
Performance
MarketingStrategy
Devops&Docs
Writing
Analytics

33. Digital marketing
PR
Creative&Design
PWAs
TechnicalSEO
ProjectManagement
Training
Webdev
Psychology
Javascript
Performance
MarketingStrategy
Devops&Docs
Writing
Analytics
Outreach

34. Digital marketing
PR
Creative&Design
PWAs
TechnicalSEO
ProjectManagement
Training
Webdev
Psychology
Javascript
Performance
MarketingStrategy
Devops&Docs
Writing
Analytics
Outreach
Everything else

35. We need a new model

36. Let’s go back in time

39. Today’s model

43. Learn all of the things

44. Rockstars don’t scale

45. We’re not rockstars

46. “Buy them beer.”

47. ...and nobody likes us, anyway!

48. I HATE technical SEO.

49. I’m a little ashamed
to identify as an SEO.

50. Maybe the problem is us

51. Every time that...

52. We build walls

53. Control is not the answer

54. It’s not just developers

55. We’re clinging on

56. Stop being rockstars

57. Why now?

58. Gutenberg

59. Gutenberg
yoast.com/what-is-gutenberg/

60. So what?

63. The problem with
Schema...

66. Err…?

68. Voice

69. Isn’t this a bit of a tangent?

70. Alex Shiels, flickr.com/photos/wceu/42086304325/

71. Alex Shiels, flickr.com/photos/wceu/42086304325/

72. Alex Shiels, flickr.com/photos/wceu/42086304325/

73. For years, we’ve worked with
individual [websites], one at a time, to
help them [add schema], and
never once did we think to ask them
what CMS they were running
“

74. A new paradigm

75. Except...

76. So...

77. They’ll fix the root causes

78. DO NOT WANT?

79. “But I do content”

80. What happens when everybody’s
website is fixed?

82. Don’t react like an SEO

83. Let’s be democratic

84. Let’s be open source

85. Here’s something scary...

86. They’re going to mess it up.

87. They don’t understand SEO

88. But you do...

89. So here’s the pitch...

90. Let’s stop competing.

91. I want you to get involved
with open source

92. make.wordpress.org

93. I get that this sounds scary

95. I get that’s not for everyone

96. So I also want you to
stop being “the SEO”

97. When did you last...

98. We can build bridges

99. Stop fixing your problems.

100. Start fixing our problems.

101. Lets optimise us.

102. Thanks.