The Tao Of SEO: Part 1
Hey Quirks,
Looks simple, doesn’t it? Just a search box and a couple buttons. A link or two at the top. A pleasant and simple page. Cute colors, too.
But make no mistake. This page is the gatekeeper of the internet. By 2008 it saw 240,000,000 searches per day. It’s powered by data centers that require as much electricity as the city of Newcastle. And it has substantial influence in international politics.
People come to Google to find what they’re looking for. In doing so, they’re relying on Google to sort the internet for them, decide what’s relevant and what’s not. Google sends millions of internet users to sites that it chooses. Those who aren’t chosen are at a severe disadvantage.
And as a result, the art of convincing Google that your site is relevant to a query is a very big business. There’s a whole industry called Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) which is exactly that. The job of an SEO practitioner is to reverse engineer Google, to figure out what makes it tick, and use that knowledge to send search traffic to your site.
Since it’s a topic I find interesting and am pretty well versed in, my next few blog posts are going to be focused on what is SEO, how is SEO done, and what does all this mean for Quirky.
We’ll get into the nerdy stuff next time, but to tide you over I’ll give you an appetizer. Behold the spheres and lines that rule the internet:
Until next time, keep quirking.