When we are in the thick of creating online marketing solutions for our clients, we don’t automatically think of dating at the same time.  And yet that is all Search Engine Optimisation really is – one big dating game. 

Dressing for a Date

When we get ready for a date, we can spend hours deciding on the right outfit and the right look.  However, the very same could be said of designing landing pages and online marketing solutions for your website.  Much as we would dress up differently for a date that takes us to a fancy restaurant than we would for a date at the beach, so we dress up our website landing pages differently according to who we think our audience will be.  If we want a page to look reassuringly expensive we will dress it up in one way.  However, if we want it to look affordable we dress it another way and so on and so forth.  You wouldn’t decide what to wear for an important date on a whim, so be sure to take plenty of time over choosing the right outfit for each page of your website.  Always carry out exhaustive keyword research before starting an online marketing program.  This helps you know what people are looking for and how to dress your landing pages correctly for them.

Finding a Compatible Match

There’s nothing more frustrating than going on a date only to find that not only do you have nothing in common with the other party, but you are in fact completely incompatible as a couple.  There are equally relatively few things more frustrating than performing a Google search, only to find that none of the results appearing are quite what you were looking for, or compatible answers to your search.  In the same way that we should only pick those who we believe we might be compatible with out of the dating pool, so we should ensure that our web pages are relevant and key phrase rich so that Google can recognise their compatibility and pick them out for the right searches.

Catching Attention

Those who have set up profiles on dating websites will know that the summary of your advert is the most important part, as it is what draws people in to view the rest of your profile.  The same can be said of your online marketing solutions.  Meta Tags not only act as signposts for search engines, but they are also what the searcher sees when your site comes up in search engine results.  As such, these couple of lines of information have to really sell your website and let the searcher know that you have just what they’re looking for, just as the introduction to your dating profile should convince potential dates that you are the perfect partner for them.  Make them relevant and key phrase rich.   

Third Party Opinion

Lastly, there are many people who would not consider going on a serious date without finding out a little more about the person they are dating, preferably from a third party if possible?  This could be a common friend or relative.  “Third party endorsements” can be hard to find but tend to make a huge difference in forging our opinions.  This might be a bit unfair on our potential date - but we are only human!  When it comes to online marketing solutions, the same theory applies. Google looks for third party endorsement by other “similar” websites linking to your site as a way of gauging your “credibility”, and uses this as part of its ranking decision.  Link building is as important a part of SEO as getting your friend’s approval of your date.      


So, whether your strengths lie in dating or in online marketing solutions, you may just find the two concepts have more in common than you ever realised.  Just be careful not to compare your date to a website or carry out a “structural analysis” too obviously – or they might think you’re a bit of a geek….

Happy SEO Dating!