Where’s the Positivity in the SEO Industry: We’re no Criminals
One of the greatest things about the international blogosphere is its self improvement part. You have lots of outstanding
- positivity
- spirituality
- productivity
blogs out there. You don't have them in German in contrast. I love to read self improvement blogs when I got enough time. I stumble them quite often when I do. Also I follow some self improvement bloggers on Twitter.
On the other hand there is the SEO industry and its part of the blogosphere. Reading these blogs you have to grapple with low self esteem and pervading negativity.
Even though the SEO industry is one of the few booming industries left you get the impression that people in SEO are
- not happy
- preoccupied with petty problems
- pessimist in nature
I just need to read 2 or 3 self improvement articles a day and even if I can't put much of it in practice I feel much better throughout the day. Then I only need to read a few SEO blog posts to feel some kind of sadness. By writing about this I already reproduce this sentiment so I'll try to improve the situation by changing this approach.
In SEO 2.0 you have a positive approach to SEO, the Web, human relations and life in general.
I don't mean that you have to be naive or ignorant, I'm known to be wary of Google and to uncover the nonsense that's going on online like bizarre hypes, misunderstood SEO practices, obsolete mindsets.
A positive approach is being open minded, optimist and willing to help other people. Whenever I write a blog post my underlying thought is "how will it benefit my readers and the broader public?"
The benefit, value and positive impact are crucial.
What do you want to achieve in SEO or SEO 2.0? Get more links, higher rankings, better conversion rates? All that but these things are not the ultimate goals. In SEO you strive to make the Web a better place.
SEO practitioners still victimize themselves by appropriating the worst stereotypes available.
I did sometimes as well by attacking the SEO bullshit crowd out there. These ignorant and aggressive people out to blame SEO for everything from spam to terrorism.
You can't change other people. You can change yourself though. In SEO 2.0 the first step is to change yourself and acquire a positive mindset. You really change your mind literally. You decide to stop practicing SEO and start doing SEO 2.0.
- You decide to top relying on Google and blaming it for your misfortunes.
- You stop mistaking the way or the tools for the goals.
- You quit feeling or behaving like a victim or a criminal.
By that I don't mean to support the thesis that SEOs are criminals. I point out that you don't need to hide anything in SEO 2.0. SEO 2.0 is the most open discipline on the Web. You don't have to study code or check links in SEO 2.0. You mostly just do what you do and write about that.
That's the whole secret of SEO 2.0: Practice what you preach and they will come, links, visitors, fans, buyers. Moreover they will stay. Search users come and go. SEO 2.0 allows you to find you the 1000 true fans who at the end of the day decide about your success: The clients, social media mavens and connectors and simply readers who are attracted by your positive approach.
Positivity is no SEO strategy. It's a state of mind you can use everywhere but also in SEO. In SEO 2.0 positivity is a prerequisite. You can't convince people to follow you when you're hiding.
You can be outspoken too but you don't have to complain all the time.
In conventional SEO you can try it too, positivity empowers. Negativity hampers.
You are right… we are a gloomy lot.
It comes from not being in control of the engines, especially Google.
You do all the hard work, on page and links, but at the end of the month when you check the rankings!!!!
Who knows what you’re going to find.
Exactly Keith. That’s why it’s important to break free from the Google dependency.
Google is far too powerful now, you make it powerful by relying on it.
In SEO 2.0 you rely on people no matter what tools they use.
In SEO you too often mistake the means for the ends.
I think in some ways SEO professionals tend to be perfectionists generally – they like to control every little part of the site they are working on. Essentially I guess that is what “optimisation” is – an eternal and impossible mission to be at the very best performance. Unfortunately such is the nature of SEO that such perfection cannot be achieved, hence the permanent misery!
I agree totally. We have honestly moved to content driven results to start and then tweaking as needed when the results can be measured more accurately … We no longer “optimize a site for Google”. We tell site owners to write great content and do it often… Google does seem to love the fresh content.
Hmm i think not being in control adds a certain excitement to our work.At least there is some variation, though i agree, when you have worked hard and are finding it difficult to get the results that you want, that can be disheartening.
It is such a refreshing new outlook that I see blossoming up anywhere. There you said it for SEO but where I noticed it before is in marketing, at least the one that is successful – being human-oriented, seeing a potential customer actually as a real human and not just a part of my ROI. I see the positive results so much on a commercial site I run. All the comments and testimonials are real – while I thought when I started that all testimonials on web pages are fake – and maybe they were, but my experience if you communicate in a positive way that will come back – multiplied.
And I can totally see that this must be true for SEO as well. It was just so tempting that with little effort and a bit cheating you could get all those visitors, but it is certainly much more satisfying to be in communication with others – real communication. The only problem I have with that is how I can make a few millions on the internet instead a few thousand….
Cheers
Merlin
@Melanie
“We no longer ‘optimize a site for Google’. We tell site owners to write great content and do it often… Google does seem to love the fresh content”
In short, you get paid to do nothing.
I think SEO 2 would not depend on tools.
The thought that we can be considered criminals is an alarming one – let alone terrorists!. I genuinely love my work.
I agree that a positive approach is being open minded, optimist and willing to help other people. I do my job more than just as a job. Sure we all need to earn a living but as I really enjoy what I do and it provides benefits to others that gives me a real kick.
I try to operate my business with the mindset on my customers and what they want as well as giving good and thought out input to the web itself.
I agree with Gurgle that in some ways SEO professionals tend to be perfectionists generally – but not that they want to control every little part of the site they are working on but that they want to improve it and provide beneficial results.
Being a perfectionist can’t be a bad thing can it? When is being good at something turned into a negative?
I want to be good at what I do and if that makes me a perfectionist I am not adverse to that label but I don’t consider myself to be in any way a criminal.
I hope that there are some likeminded individuals out there who can see that some of us in SEO are generally doing the job we love to do.
Rgds
Michiel
This was an excellent read. I completely understand where you’re coming from.
BUT I think this is by-and-large a very friendly industry and the vast majority of relationships are positive.
Most of the people in SEO (and even the Google search engineers/editors :D) seem to be quite friendly, willing to help others. Perhaps that is because I am a relative newb and haven’t been around long enough to see the bad blood?
It is all so true I am new to this and it is quite frustrating having to bear all this in mind when getting your message across. Enjoyed reading everyones comments here, thanks.