“A lot of folks in the comments are under the impression that I’m recommending against building for users – nothing could be further from the truth. Websites are made for people, and users should absolutely be the focus of your efforts. My argument in this post centers specifically around the practice of search engine optimization and the idea that tactics which are engine-focused (like XML sitemaps, anchor text, link architecture, webmaster tools usage, etc.) can be ignored because they’re not “for the user.” The charts and points above are intended to illustrate that if you only focus on “user-targeted SEO” you’re missing a huge chunk of the potential SEO opportunity pie.”

I think we’re on exactly the same page – your points at the end of your post -

SEO involves a lot of tactics that are specifically for the engines nor do I embrace the Google party line that says “make content for users, not for engines”. SEO is a multi-faceted discipline and I completely concur that these factors cannot be ignored.

- are exactly what I was trying to say with the blog. I’m sorry if that wasn’t clearer.