SEO: Knowledge is not power!

I know what you’re thinking! okay, I give up! I don’t know what you’re thinking! but the fact that you are reading this means that I somehow triggered a curiosity in you to find out the logic behind my defiance to the cliche quote “ipsa scientia potestas est” or “knowledge itself is power”. We will discuss how knowledge alone in SEO is not enough to boost the sales of your business and three things that we must do in order to acquire and apply real power especially in doing Search Engine Optimization.

First, do your homework!

Gaining knowledge is only the beginning of your  journey but it is a very crucial step. You must research diligently and read everything you can about SEO, but you have to be very careful! The internet has changed the way we look for information today. instead of going through the exhausting task of going through piles of books to get one isolated piece of information, we can just type in a search box and find what we are looking for. Information is very easy to access and so is misinformation! we have to make sure that the material we are reading is credible and authentic!

Second, do your homework AGAIN!

The rules always change! Google and other search engines are robots that uses a specific formula or algorithm to find the piece of information that you are trying to find on the net. SEO makes sure that your website fits the formula and that they can be read by these robots.(most commonly referred to as crawlers or spiders).These algorithms are always changing or updating. For example, Google changes their algorithm 500-600 times each year! most of these are small updates and some are big updates. These updates affect search results in a significant way. We have to be aware of these changes and make sure we are up-to-date.

Third, apply what you learn.

Knowledge and wisdom are two different things but they are connected. My teacher in seminary demonstrated this by citing an “object lesson”. She showed us a tomato and then she said, “knowledge is knowing that this tomato is a fruit while wisdom is knowing that you don’t put a tomato in a fruit salad”. Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge. You can’t just simply know, you have to apply, and when you apply you have to act. Our action or inaction determines the amount of power or influence we have in our lives or/and in the lives of others. Knowledge alone is not enough.

Wisdom is power! I’m not gonna lie to you, there is a delicate side to SEO and that is the technical side. there are certain techniques that you need to study and learn.  But you don’t have to worry if you don’t have a background in programming. As I have mentioned earlier, information is readily available on the internet. May I suggest that you find a partner or an  SEO mentor that can help. I also found youtube to be very helpful especially for a visual learner like me. Once we learn these things and apply them repeatedly we gain more wisdom. So when do we stop? never! optimization is a process and it will continue as long as search engines exists and as long as they are updating. we have to continually learn and apply what we have learned. For basic SEO training outline just check out the link!