Having learned about SEO from SocialFirestarter.com and worked in the digital marketing sector for more than a decade, I’ve certainly gained a lot of experience and knowledge along the way. And whether you’re a search engine optimization (SEO) nut yourself or not, I think we can all appreciate these life lessons from SEO:
- Play fair. Be authentic and don’t try to trick people into believing that you’re something you’re not. Whether you’re telling lies to your friends or stuffing keywords into your website, no one likes to be deceived.
- Hold hands. When we go out into the world, or the world wide web, we’ve got to stick together. Be a good citizen of the internet and link to those who you’d recommend to a friend. Everyone needs inbound links. And we’re all in this together, right?
- Share everything. Unless we’re talking about the common cold, sharing is generally best for everyone. So, get out there, start connecting with others and share your best content far and wide. Just be sure you’re not taking more than you’re giving here, ok?
- Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Google works hard to crack down on hackers and spammers, but it still happens. Wouldn’t the world (wide web) be a better place if we didn’t have to worry about someone coming along and stealing the things we’ve worked so hard for?
- Watch out for traffic. Whether you’re on the street by your house or cruising the information highway, traffic will ebb and flow. Pay attention to where its coming from before you change lanes – or change your SEO strategy.
- Take some risks. You may have heard the age-old adage that without risk there is no reward. This is also true in SEO. You have to be willing to take some chances if you want to see results. Sometimes those risks flop; but sometimes they’re worth their weight in Google rankings.
- Clean up your own mess. Inevitably you’re going to make some mistakes along the way, especially if you’re taking some risks. The best we can do is clean them up, learn from them, and move on.
- Use kind words. What you say, and how you say it, matters. And in SEO, content is king. If you don’t have anything (nice) to say, why would anyone pay attention to you anyway?
- Live a balanced life. You can’t stuff all your eggs in one basket, or all your keywords in one meta tag. What happens when that basket breaks, or the search engines stop paying attention to that tag (remember the meta keyword tag?)? You’ve got to create a more balanced approach – to life and to SEO.
