A Fleeting Realization

Life is a journey through a stream of experiences, and each experience is always completely unique. 

These experiences help change you as a person. [never fear change]

Whether you change for the better or for the worse depends on 

how you choose to react to your experiences. 

It is choice that determines your growth as an individual, as a part of a community, and as a human being. 

Experience grants knowledge and wisdom, 

but choice is the hand that sculpts the clay of your life. What you turn into is defined by the choices you have made.

Search and Beyond: Why SEO Is Here To Stay

by Albert Nuel Navarrete

When I visited Moz.com the other day, I chanced upon this post by marketing scientist Dr. Pete named SEO Tactics Die, But SEO Never Will, and I just found it profoundly amusing how the blog came to me at such a perfect time. You see, I recently made a post about the start of my adventure in SEO. There I expressed my belief that the landscape of SEO will change continuously as time passes by, as people continue to yearn for a better way to find information and consume content. After reading Dr. Pete's post, I couldn't help but feel a greater level of excitement to learn more about internet marketing through SEO, knowing that people who have far more experience in the industry hold the same belief as I do in terms of the growth and expansion of our nascent practice. I believe that SEO is still a relatively young landscape, yet it is undoubtedly fertile and brimming with potential. It can have a significant effect on how people find information, and information at this day and age has grown to be a supremely important aspect of our daily lives. 

The growing importance of information

People naturally gravitate towards objects that are useful to the preservation and promotion of better living. That is why man opted to proliferate the the use of fire; that is why the wheel is considered man's most important invention; that is why we humans feel an inherent need to acquire that which brings us the most satisfaction. First, it was the fire; next, it was the wheel; and after the information revolution, humans have sought and continue to seek something that transcends pure and simple necessity: information - specifically, accurate and consumable information. People nowadays frequently rely on timely and reliable information to go about their normal, day-to-day routines. When we want to enjoy a memorable dining experience in London, we go online and search for 'best restaurants in London'; when we want to eat the most delicious burgers Philadelphia has to offer, we search for 'best burgers Philadelphia.' Information has become so deeply integrated in our daily lives that making it readily available at the click of a button has grown vastly in importance over the years. 

The role of SEO

The optimization of the search experience plays a central role in making information available to people when they need it, where they need it. Mobile technology is compacting high-powered computing into designs that can easily fit in a shirt pocket; 4G access is becoming increasingly available, providing mobile ultra-broadband internet access to people wherever they are; online information and search are becoming inevitably entwined with people's daily lives. It is the job and purpose of the search engine optimizer to make the right information known to the people that need it. The effect of SEO is not just confined within the realm of marketing. It also has a cumulative effect on how people will be able to find the information they need on the internet. That is exactly why I think the world of search is an ever-changing landscape. There will always be a need to improve the search experience, to make search results more accurate, to make the right information, product, or service available to the right target market. As Dr. Pete says in his entry, there is no telling how long Google will last as the premier tool for search, but we can be fairly certain about one thing: that engines powering search will continue to develop and exist far into the future, just because of how important information has become to our lives. As long as we live in a world where information plays an important role in society, people will continue to make use of some form of search engine to locate the right information. As such, people who can optimize information and make it available to people when they need it will continue to play a role in society. Dr. Pete's concept of a space egg is quite fascinating, and if anything, it allows us a peek into what search might be in the future. Optimization tactics, search engines, and landscape dynamics might change, but search will continue to exist - at least, that's what I believe. 

“In a world of rapid change, we each need to garner as much useful information as possible, sort through it in a way that meets our unique circumstances, calibrate it with what we already know, and re-circulate it with others who share our goals.” 
― Marcia Conner, The New Social Learning: A Guide to Transforming Organizations Through Social Media

SEO: Hopping on the Bandwagon

by Albert Nuel Navarrete

When I first came across SEO, I had no clue what it meant. Googling didn't help either because I had absolutely no idea what Wiki was saying at that time. I mean, if you read the first sentence of the entry, I doubt you'd get any measure of clarity either. Here's how Wiki explained to me what SEO meant:

"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results."

That just left me with more questions than answers. What is a search engine? How do you affect the visibility of a website/page in it? What are natural/unpaid search results? Naturally, like what Brooke McDonald said in her blog SEO from a Newb's Perspective, you'd think that SEO is something reserved for people in the IT industry, people who can write thousands of lines of code, or do hours of programming, or build websites from scratch. If you approached me while I was still in college and asked me if I was interested in doing SEO to earn money, I'd probably give you a long, blank stare and follow it up with, "What's that?" It was a concept that was far too alien to me.

But after trying my hand at SEO writing (the first online job I ventured into), I figured I might actually be able to earn some good, honest money while doing something that's more or less in line with what I studied for in college (journalism). It was relatively simple: write content - usually a post with 350 words or less - and sprinkle some client-provided keywords in the first, middle, and last paragraphs. Make a title with the same keyword included in it, and you're all set!

Of course, you had to do your research on the topic and get your facts straight. This part I got pat down because, if there was something I learned in college that I'd never forget, it was to always do research and crosscheck information through different sources before doing any writing. That was something all my professors and instructors hammered into me while I was in college, and that was something I realized was particularly useful in SEO writing.

Moreover, I realized that SEO is not just about writing lines of code, or looking at a webpage and seeing numbers and symbols fall down the screen, Matrix-style. You don't have to be a math wiz or an I.T. graduate majoring in programming to have a career in SEO.

In my case, it was all about using what I had in my arsenal - my creativity and strong grasp of writing - to create content that's both compelling and informative. My knowledge and skills in communication and writing proved useful in SEO. Because I was used to making articles, doing research, and talking to people, engaging with users online came easily for me. And with Google shifting its focus away from links to actual website content, people who can create good quality content have become even more important to the industry. People who are creative and are effective in translating their creativeness into writing are increasingly valuable nowadays.

I'm still most definitely a newbie in SEO, and I've still got a lot to learn about it. But that's the beauty of the internet marketing industry. It's continuously growing, evolving, diversifying. There's always something new to discover; there's always a new area to explore. You won't ever find yourself stagnant because there's always room to grow and improve.

What you need is a healthy sense of interest towards self-improvement. More than anything else, what matters is that you constantly find a need to expand your horizons. Because of the nature of the industry, you will always have to keep up with changes. Search engines will continue to alter their algorithms to bring a higher level of satisfaction to the search experience. As internet marketers, our main role is to bring the right kind of deliverables to consumers that need them. That is what makes this industry exciting, and at the same time, challenging.

My journey in SEO has just begun. There's a whole world ahead waiting to be explored. I've hopped on the bandwagon, and I'm looking to enjoy the ride.

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

                                                                                                   - Sir Winston Churchill