Can ILS Supportability Concepts Work in Search Engine Optimization? That’s a question I have never heard posed before. Well, apparently an Ottawa SEO at Custom-Fit SEO, is doing just that!
The owner of Custom-Fit SEO has a vast background in supportability design, inherent and externally designed, for weapon control systems for the defence industry. Michael was an Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) expert who worked on many multimillion dollar projects. He most likely knows what he is talking about.
What is ILS? A Very Brief Brief
Now ILS, from what I understand, is a very broad area and it would take a book to properly describe ILS so that one would understand it. I think the easiest explanation is that ILS is the “science” of designing in the natural ability of a system to keep performing its function for the longest time practical and, when it breaks as all man-built items do, the system will also have an inbuilt tendency to be easily and quickly repaired and maintained. ILS also encompasses the design of the support system (spares, maintenance procedures, publications, training to name a few) required to repair systems quickly and effectively.
Which ILS Techniques are Applicable?
So endeth the background lesson. There are some techniques that are used by ILS specialist to anticipate probable ways a system will fail, the effects of the failures, the cause of the failures and the corrective action that should be taken to fix the failure. Included are also preventive actions that should be taken to keep a system functioning for the longest successive time possible.
Michael postulated that Functional Failure Analysis, Failure Modes Effects Analysis, Root Cause Analysis, Maintenance Task Analysis and Reliability Centered Maintenance Analysis can be applied to SEO as part of the analysis phase.
Application to SEO
Everything that is designed has a function; whether passive or active. Since that is the case, every design can fail; hardware failures in the case of hardware and failure of the software coder or user of the software widgets to properly code/use the software in the case of software (websites included).
That being said, if a website is not performing well in the rankings or conversions then it is experiencing a functional failure somewhere. Identify the failure(s) and the root cause. Then identify fixes for the problem and then ways of preventing a failure and you should have a properly functioning website that does what it was designed to do.
Some of you may be thinking that software doesn’t fail. It just does what the programmer coded it to do; right or wrong. That is correct! However, a design is developed with an environment in mind. So if the environment changes the existing design might “fail”. So, one should always monitor and put in preventive maintenance tasks to catch any changes and adapt quickly. I hope that makes sense.
Makes Sense to Me
It seems that it is a disciplined approach to properly problem solving. Is it overkill for internet marketing? Time will tell. Personally, I think Custom-Fit SEO is on to something. We’ll see. Something else to consider when choosing an SEO company.
