Well-inten­tioned SEO apps propose to make it easier to produce content that search engines will find and elevate. But, as any pro­fes­sion­al copy­writer will tell you, many so-called improve­ments suggested by SEO apps are absolute­ly worthless (note: the people at Google agree). We checked out what a leading SEO app had to say about five iconic creative moments in adver­tis­ing…

Volkswagen, ‘Think Small’ (1960)

DDB’s ads promoting the VW Beetle in the 60’s are con­sis­tent­ly voted among the best of all time. Today, it may be hard to reconjure the radical tone of these ads selling a car that seemed to have so little going for it, back when bigger was better and auto­mo­biles were trying to be rock­et­ships. 

Rather clue­less­ly, the SEO app wasn’t having any of it… 

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McGraw-Hill (1958)

This iconic B2B ad from the late 50’s places us in the shoes of a sales­per­son who has made the ghastly mistake of cold calling on a grumpy dude who swiftly evis­cer­ates us with a repet­i­tive slew of accu­sa­tions that we can’t really disagree with.

Had the ad followed the wisdsom of the SEO app, it would have sucked big time (as they say).

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Family Planning Association (1968)

This Family Planning Ad wouldn’t pass muster today, but back in the 60’s it made a powerful point about male respons­bil­i­ty at the height of the so-called sexual rev­o­lu­tion. The enigmatic image sets our mind working overtime. The enigma is then mas­ter­ful­ly resolved with a headline that takes our brains to an unex­pect­ed con­clu­sion.

True to form, the SEO app con­grat­u­lates and critiques the ad for all the wrong reasons. As for the text length, are you kidding? Change nothing!

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KFC (2018)

KFC hits it out of the park by taking a risk with its brand that few others would consider. Facing the absurdly embarass­ing situation of a being a chicken restau­rant with no chicken (due to supply chain issues), the company could have hidden behind corporate-speak and the vocab­u­lary of crisis man­age­ment. Instead, they suprised us with a uniquely human(!) tone of voice that turned a negative into pure good will. 

The SEO app, osten­si­bly positive, remains bliss­ful­ly oblivious to the magic being worked here.

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Nike (2010)

The SEO app’s response here offers a cau­tion­ary tale to anyone tempted to use an SEO app to shape their words and ideas… ‘Don’t do it!’   

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To sum up…

Google’s recent revamping of its search algo­rithms as part of its ‘Useful Content’ update is an attempt to reverse the creation of low quality content designed to exploit the behavior of search engines. In a sense, the use of SEO always attempts to exploit the behavior of search engines to some degree, but there is a mistaken notion that by using certain tricks such as keyword stuffing and repet­i­tive use of certain phrases, your content will somehow be “better” and more “suc­cess­ful”. As Google tells us, this is bull. Content (words and pictures working together, formerly known as com­mu­ni­ca­tions) must first and foremost create strong con­nec­tions to readers, by being concise and infor­ma­tive, well con­struct­ed and insight­ful, original and flawless, and by offering more than it asks of us. I think that’s the common denom­i­na­tor of all of the ads above: they give us more than they ask of us—through humor or by drawing our minds to an unex­pect­ed con­clu­sion. SEO has its place, but we shouldn’t forget that it is a blunt instru­ment designed in function of algo­rithms. It is blind to and incapable of assessing the nuances that good com­mu­ni­ca­tions depend on. 

Contact: bill@contenticorp.com

“SEO has its place, but we shouldn’t forget that it is a blunt instru­ment designed in function of algo­rithms. It is blind to and incapable of assessing the nuances that good com­mu­ni­ca­tions depend on.” 

- Bill Below