Three weeks ago, I wrote a post of my move to join Airbnb. Then I got a major shout out for a new product of Airbnb launched just a couple of weeks ago, the local travel guides for Neighborhoods. I wish I could take that much credit, but these Neighborhood guides were already in the works prior to me joining the company. And although I did reviewed the code, content set up and site structure and worked on the Richmond District guide and the Noe Valley Neighborhood, all credits should be shouted at the team who pulled long evenings, worked weekends and crashed after the launch party, satisfied with the great press we got!
Credit Where Credit is Due
As the SEO community has embraced the concept of Content Marketing, or any name used for the way to put engaging, link worthy content on the web, the Airbnb Neighborhoods have been given a warm welcome by those SEO’s recognizing the value of content for driving traffic through search engines. I got these tweets in my SEO stream on Tweetdeck; after which my buddy Matthew pointed some fingers;
@mikecp Agree. I see @thenextcorner‘s fingerprints all over those pages.
— Matthew Brown (@MatthewJBrown) November 14, 2012
Seriously Matthew, you give me too much credit here. I just started 4.5 weeks ago, and although I had seen the concept and given the chance to give SEO input a couple of weeks ago, even before I officially started at Airbnb, all credit should be going to the team who had worked on the Neighborhood project for weeks.
@thenextcorner Whole team deserves one big collective pat on the back from SEO industry. I’ll be pointing to it many times in the future.
— Mike Pantoliano (@MikeCP) November 14, 2012
And I’m happy to see these pages will be used as an example in presentations by SEO professionals; and have put Airbnb on the map as a great product! Will make my life much easier to get quick wins in SEO!
.@airbnb just raised the bar for entry into the “neighborhood guide” space. Holy moly.@thenextcorner has gotta be proud right about now.
— Matt Bowers (@itsmemattb) November 14, 2012
My Vision for In-House SEO Engagement
So I changed the way I chat with people about SEO a little. Based on the experience over the I’m taking a new approach. Years of researching how Amazon has build an SEO powerhouse, listening how Googlers would answer questions, testing and walking the fine line of technical SEO, here is how I will get teams in gear to get SEO “right”!
The Key to SEO success is to make your brand, product service so relevant for people, that they expect your site at the top of the search engines when a search is made.
Wow, that sounds really simple if you say this out loud like this, but essentially it’s what is described above here. These neighborhood pages will function as a great resource for people who travel to a certain destination to find out for themselves in which area they would like to stay. And with the recent Economic Impact Study of Airbnb in local communities (TC link & AllthingsD), you can find a great place to stay and support local businesses.
So, get your ducks in a row with the technical parts of SEO, because every site still needs an SEO friendly technical infrastructure, and start building products better than average. Success in the search engines will follow…
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