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Nowadays we use terms and expressions daily which not only bury the real meaning of the phenomenon they try to describe, they also misguide yourself and others.
Some words simply change your intentions to the negative by adding the wrong meaning or meaninglessness to some things.
I used most of them myself mistakenly without really thinking about the ramifications. These terms infuse hidden negativity into your approach. You have to purge them to change your mindset.
Check out these 7 examples of words or expressions that you should abandon:
- Traffic: I wrote a whole article about that. In German you never say “traffic” you always say visitors. Your visitors are not cars or numbers. If you view them like an amorph mass you will never meet their expectations. Treat your visitors like guests. Offer them some tea and crackers. Also traffic reminds me of drug trafficking and such.
- Link bait, Internet users are not fish and link baiting sounds like tricking people to swallow the bait. Why not speak about link incentives? I have come up with 3 different terms naming all aspects of what you call link baiting nowadays
- Web 2.0 SEO: What could this be? SEO for AJAX apps? Social Media Optimization? It’s confusing. Use SEO 2.0 instead: Here it’s clear that this means a new phase of SEO and web 2.0 is implicit in it.
- Blog monetization: To be honest, this sounds like “sell out”. It reminds me of going to the flea market or pawn shop. Why not “earn a living blogging” instead which sounds 10 times as decent? Or just blog advertising?
- Make money online, yeah, make money online or blogging is the new “get rich quick”. It sounds like make money talking or sleeping. It’s one of the reasons people hate this. It’s bling, bling all over. Again “earn a living blogging” or “earn an income online” sounds 100 times more decent.
- Black hat SEO - Let’s face it, what is black hat SEO? It’s search engine spam also called spamdexing. SEO stands for optimization, you do not optimize, you fool search engines, circumvent filters, you find loop holes in “black hat SEO”. It’s in no way an “optimum” afterwards, only for your pocket probably. Get real.
- White hat SEO - By using this term, you acknowledge that all other SEO is not white hat, as well as acknowledging black hat SEO. It’s like saying there is good optimization (to make sth. better) and bad optimization (to make sth. worse), if it’s bad it’s not optimization at all, that’s an oxymoron. It’s either fixing or breaking things. SEO is fixing, spam breaking things.
Did I already tell you that I was a poet and linguist once? Language transforms reality. Master the language, do not use words that skew reality in the wrong direction and misrepresent things.
I think there are more terms like these that misguide you and others daily. Do you know some? Add them in the comments.
This thing has 12 Comments
I like your new terms. Everyone should comply. THEY SHOULD. Also, you should add Web 3.0…its not widely used but I’ve seen it and it just makes me cringe
What about Using Search Experience Optimization rather than Search Engine Optimization? Today search is an activity: we not only search google, but SU, not only Yahoo but Facebook. We are mediating with different technologies to build our activity online, thus the experience becomes important. Companies should be developing Experience rather than Engine (purely technology) as in Experience comes the language, the Poetry, thus the culture
JJMelo: Yes, Web 3.0 is an annoying second rate buzzword, but it does not really negatively impact your mindset. When you strive to be the next big web it’s OK in a way. The way “SEO is bullshit”-Calacanis uses it is truly bad but it’s not becuase of the term itself.
Thank you for your affirmation of my terms though.
Dave: Indeed, great idea, it fits even more here: http://seo2.0.onreact.com/what-is-seo-20-add-your-definition-now
I work on the redefinition of SEO 24/7 :-)
Great Tadeusz!
Let me send a working definition of SEO soon. I’ve been working on it since some month now.
Calacanis really threw some thrash at SEO. The industry needs to adapt to changing times to prove guys like him wrong. but the guy is optimizing Mahalo like hell… My Question here is: Is he not the biggest proponent of SEO with Mahalo? Of course he is showing something damn different, but he needed or is still trying to kill SEO for the sake of his own human edited search engine (that’S his Mahalo sales pictch).
From a transparency side I believe he is wrong, cause users enjoy finding their ways in the mass of information. Only through this mess that we give sense to information, and Calacanis is maybe wrong here when he behaves like the pope for cleaner information world which i think is utopic.
Hey, thanks for these comments.
They made me realize just how misplaced most of these words are. And made me question my own prejudices, yikes!
I also really liked what you said about Traffic not being used in German. The word is humanized when translated.
Nice!
Cindy King
Yes Dave, like most “SEO is bullshit” link baiters and hate mongers Calacanis is heavily into SEO himself. He relies on Google traffic for Mahalo.
So he is a hypocrite at best.
Please do not devise a better SEO redefinition before I publish mine ;-)
Cindy, thanks for the appreciation. My blog commenting netiquette guide does not include a forum like signature though, I had to remove yours.
Tadeusz,
no worries, we’ll not compete, but I guess we’ll build on each others definition. What about joining forces to come up with something? I need to get my blog started, so Ill keep in touch.
You should write a book…
I like your comments so I submitted the post to stumbleupon. Submiting will get you traffic, I think your site will turn some of them into visitors or clients.
Maybe I am just insulting SU, but there are 1000 people a day that hit my sites through SU and so few stay for more than one page. Google, Digg and following back blog replies gets more visitors than something like SU does.
Hoe you understand the point I an trying to make - I just woke up and need that morning coffee.
Nice post and I really did stumble it.
Great post. I’m guilty of using the term “traffic.” Hadn’t thought much about it before, but guest sounds so much more friendly and appreciative.
Dave k - I really like the idea of calling what we do “search experience optimization.” In addition to your point about the search itself being an experience, the end result should be also. When your guest arrives, he or she is hoping to experience what was promised through that search activity.
Haha, very rational.
I also don’t like “black hat SEO”and “white hat seo”
Eugene: I try once I have spare time, an Ebook maybe.
Richard: Thanks. You should get more friends on SU though so that other people get to see your submissions :-)
Shari: Yeah, traffic is really dehumanizing.
Doumiao: :-)
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