It's like a cake...

Recently, in a rant about several topics, I said that creating a website which is search engine-friendly is a bit like making an excellent cake.

I thought I'd elaborate a bit.

The reason I said that, it because search engine-friendliness is not just a matter of one, two or three factors, haphazardly put together. It has to be created as the site is being built.

I like the cake analogy because I wouldn't know where to begin to make a cake like the one pictured above. (Just like most people who can make terrific cakes wouldn't know how to make a good website).

But I do know that to create a cake I would have to get all my ingredients in exactly the right proportions. And if it's going to be a great cake, those ingredients have to be top quality. They would have to be mixed together in exactly the right order. If there are eggs involved (and I don't know about cakes but I'll bet eggs ARE involved) they will have to be beaten or mixed to exactly the right way to exactly the right consistency.

Remembering oddments from school cookery classes, other ingredients have to be folded in, gently added, blended, added one drop at a time and so on. Tricky business, this cake making. Chocolate has to be melted in a double boiler until it exactly right.

You then have to mess about with baking tins, possibly even bains-maries, and get all origamified with greaseproof paper. The oven has to be at exactly the right temperature and just bunging it in won't do, it has to be either the top shelf or the middle shelf or something.

Even after all this, when the cake has emerged from the oven in one piece, the cook has to start the decorating process. I would imagine that mixing fillings and toppings is just as intricate and delicate as making the cake in the first place. And there are probably a hundred things that could go wrong in between sift flour and serve with whipped cream.

And by now, I'm sure you know where this cute little analogy is leading. You can't make a cake with only eggs, no matter how high-quality free-range and organic they may be. And you can't ensure search engine-friendliness just by adding a clever-dick piece of code.

We have to prepare all the ingredients properly. Some are tiny, like the few grains of salt that go into a cake, but vital.

And it's all those ingredients, mixed together, that make your great search engine-friendly website.

Shame there's no recipe book ...