Update:I’ve decided to change the diagram below because development and SMO don’t really overlap all that much (it could be argued they don’t at all), so I think my new diagram is a bit more appropriate. You be the judge. - Andrew 8/19/08
———–
I’ve been toying around with what I guess you could call the philosophical underpinnings of SEO lately, and I think I’ve come to the conclusion that SEO shouldn’t be a pursuit in and of itself, but should be an organic result of work put into development and social media marketing. And I would be remiss if I didn’t include a Venn diagram to illustrate my point.

Obviously a developer should have an eye for SEO so he knows how to code. I’ve also lumped content writing into development because that’s where it belongs historically. This person should also be aware of how search engines work so he can write accordingly.

The social media side is really just the kind of marketing that draws traffic to your sites and generates quality links. Essentially, the SEO part of social media is link bait.

I’m pretty sure that these positions, coder, writer, and social marketer, combine to form the heart of SEO. Sort of like Captain Planet. Thoughts?