Ads
Image by Dhammza.
When one of my favorite green blogs was looking for a SEO expert recently I was seriously tempted to quit everything else and do Green SEO full time. It was one of the surprises of plunging in into the world of SEO 2.0:
Some of the most active people on social media are green marketers or rather simply put full time environmental activists using the Internet to fight for their causes.
So I’m not talking about organic SEO or something this time, no I’m referring to green SEO on behalf of mother earth and organizations that attempt to lessen the human impact on it.
While I know many SEOs who help the environment by working for alternative energy companies, embarking on charitable projects for non-profit organizations and the likes there is still another small but hyperactive group of people online who are everywhere on the Web and who have huge impact.
I won’t tell any names as labeling people “SEO” would probably harm their image due to most people mistaking SEO for spam. I want to analyze some aspects of these green hat SEOs that set them apart from the rest of the online marketing crowd. Introducing 10 traits of green SEOs:
- Green SEOs have a huge fan base on social sites, people who will eagerly vote them up just for having a common cause
- Green SEOs are hyperactive power users on social media
- Green SEOs get away with self-submission on social media
- Green SEOs do not call themselves SEOs, marketers or anything similar in many cases
- Green SEOs work like anybody else to make a living, they are not activists solely for activism’s sake (you can do that in your teens orearly twenties)
- Green SEOs are seldom technical in their optimization efforts
- Green SEOs concentrate on content creation and networking
- Green SEOs in most cases have only a few if not just one long term “client”
- Green SEOs blog very often (regularly)
- Green SEOs mean business, they do not just try to stop others from harming the environment they also offer solutions all the time
We can see several patterns here. People in green marketing are outside the SEO industry in the public perception while using the same methods and even supporting the same causes as “real” SEOs. I prefer green clients myself but they are perceived as activists while doing SEO.
It seems that SEO for good causes will be overlooked or not treated as such. People on social media love green topics, and doing SEO for the environment seems to be an accepted practice in contrast to SEO for business or even blogs.
This thing has 9 Comments
I’m trying to get there on 1 and 2, but I’m not afraid to say that I market and sell, and I’m more more health than environment. But I guess green is starting to take on a different meaning now that driving a car less fuel efficient than my ‘88 honda crx hf was and buying food that other people can’t afford is green. Biofuel was green for a nano-second and now nano-tubes are the new asbestos. hmmph. No I guess I’m not green. I’m just a guy with a lot of student debt. I’d like to prove that business models based on producing community improvement can be viable. Green used to mean cash here’s to hoping that it doesn’t come full circle.
i think the most important thing to take note of, is the fact SEO’s have the ability to promote some really terrific
causes by way of their career knowledge. Why not use it to be of benefit to mankind as opposed to promotion
of what has already proven itself to be of detriment. Greed and MEisms. it’s time we woke up. we wont have a future without an earth & it’s resources. we have an obligation to protect each other. period.
thanks for the post. :-)
I´m a blue SEO, I think
Who are all of these green SEOs and where do they hang out? I feel like I’m familiar with many social cause marketers, but not too many folks specifically focused on green search engine optimization.
Little help? :)
In the UK I’ve never really seen any ‘Green SEO’ maybe everyone’s just so good at it on Bebo that it drifted under my radar :) Or maybe not…
Yah! I second Jonathon Colman - who do you mean when you refer to Green SEOs? I like to think of myself as a Green SEO, but I don’t specifically do search engine optimization for a Green company/nonprofit. I like to blog about ways that social technologies / and or search marketing tactics can impact environmental causes, and I’m sure there are many search / online marketers out there who like to follow and blog about green issues. Though I must say the intersection of Green with social media and search is very, very narrow.
Would love to see your list of Green SEOs…
You’ve pretty much described MaxGladwell.com. However, what you call SEO tactics we look at as social media marketing. It’s very consistent with our post on being “a beacon”, where SEO is implied. But for us, SEO is a consequence rather than an intent, especially when you consider the negative views of SEO as basically manipulating search results by staying one step ahead of the algorithms. There’s no substitute for great, original content and quality links, and there’s no shortcut to getting there. The 10 traits you describe require a lot of time and effort and sincerity. But it pays off because it’s sustainable, whereas much of SEO is not.
That said, while we cover nonprofits and charities, social entrepreneurs are the ones who will really change the world and have the biggest impact. Profit motive is key.
Mike: It’s a cool blog you have. Doesn’t matter how you call it what you do as long as it’s worth it. I was just making a point that such people exist :-)
spostareduro: Do not focus on the bad things in life too much. I could lament over all the evil SEOs but I focus on the cool people. You got bad apples and a commercial oriented majority in every trade. In SEO they are just more visible. [I’m not saying that you are lamenting.]
altamira: Yeah, for most people in SEO the color is rather random ;-)
Jonathan: Contact me via Twitter @onreact_com, email: onreact at onreact.com or Skype: onreact.com and I tell you who they are. Most of them work for their own projects though.
Michael: Yeah, the term is kind of made up but there are people who focus on green marketing in the UK too.
Lorna Li: Cool. I don’t want to call people SEOs as it might hurt them in many cases. not all of them want to viewed as SEOs/marketers I guess. If you hang around Twitter and StumbleUpon for a while you’ll notice them.
Yeah Max, I agree, well said. Cool blog although I get tired by this widely use theme by now…
About a year ago i’ve made this list: stopwebpollution.org
Now I see the thing can also be called green seo. I like your thinking. Seems like you noticed the same problem.
One Trackback
[…] 10 Traits of Green SEOs […]