Folks, today I woke up thinking that if Harold Camping is right by midnight tonight I will have to no longer worry about search engine optimizing my website any more.
Doomsday scenarios have been with us since there was an ‘us’ to be concerned about. As far back as 2800 BC it appears the end of the world was coming. According to Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (1979), an Assyrian clay tablet dating to approximately 2800 BC was unearthed bearing the words "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common." Obviously they did not have SEO tactics to take their mind off the impending doom that day so my guess is that when that day came and before it went they were all a little tense.
We are a lot luckier and know better so the question here is why are we so obsessed with doomsday scenarios that every 10-20 years since that Assyrian prophecy did not come true there has been someone, somewhere who has ‘incontrovertible proof’ that the end is nigh? My guess is we like parties and having the bash to end all bashes without having to worry about how we are going to pay the bill afterwards appeals to the imp within us all.
Back at the turn of the century I happened to be part of a corporate committee planning for the digital apocalypse which the Y2K bug was going to rain down upon all of us unless we patched our systems right and made sure we had back-ups on our back-ups. Given the fact that there was a chance the UK banking system would go into meltdown if they got their fix wrong I was kind attempted to borrow a couple of million and throw the party to end all parties hoping that when the bug did strike my debt (along with the entire banking system of the western world) would be wiped out and I could start afresh a career of trading coconuts on the beach somewhere warmer.
Prudence took the upper hand and, instead, I did the ‘right’ thing and supervised the team responsible for making sure over 3,000 stand-alone PCs were patched and the corporate mainframes were Y2K compliant.
The point is that the world, like search engine optimisation, takes planning, patience and a cool head to get through and survive and focusing on ‘melt down’ scenarios is a distraction from the task at hand. Starting the day with checking your Analytics and then putting in practice all the practical steps which are part of your daily SEO routine is, admittedly, less exciting than preparing to meet the end of everything we know. It is, however, more realistic.
If it’s excitement you want find it in winning success for your online business. Focus on what has to be done. Start the day with a smile simply because you can. And work on your website’s optimization because it really is important. Social Media marketing hype aside the latest ComScore research shows that 68% of all purchasing decisions start with search. This makes search engine optimization the heart of your website’s online strategy.
The weekend is almost here so enjoy it. There will be more practical tips and posts in the next few days, unless Camping’s highly unlikely prophesy actually comes true in which case I will be posting, somewhere, from a cave, wearing a fire-proof suit.
Stay focused: Top, how-to-practical business books to help your online business.
Special Offer: Get the best-selling 'SEO Help' book totally free.
When it comes to the web I love the fact that the internet can act as the great equalizer. Because it provides a level playing field it can allow those with less money and more energy to outgun heavy-weight rivals...
14-04-2011 Hits:923 WEB View
When it comes to the mobile web there is a lot of confusion. Website owners know it’s there but they are not sure how to go about building a mobile website or what the real benefits are. Will someone really...
22-03-2012 Hits:1641 Web Talk
Social Media marketing is made up of strange relationships. The weirdest of notions have the ability to catch on and go viral provided they fulfil two simple criteria: they are easy to use and they offer a means to be...
20-05-2011 Hits:1217 Social Media News
You cannot escape SEO any more than you can escape the fact that in publishing eBooks are gaining the upper hand over their paper cousins, some a dozen years from the time it was forecast it would happen.
23-09-2011 Hits:839 WEB View
As an author I get hundreds of emails each week telling me how useful one of my books has been, making suggestions for titles or content and asking questions. Success stories always catch my attention because they are the litmus...
27-06-2011 Hits:1655 WEB View
The moment you talk online advertising in a meaningful manner you begin to talk Google Ads, nothing else makes much sense in terms of cost-effectiveness, delivery, reach and geographic relevancy, not to mention simple, plain context relevancy. From...
14-04-2011 Hits:1046 SEO Tips
Optimizing a website used to be such a tech-driven, geeky activity that few webmasters really felt it should be part of their day-to-day thinking and most consigned it either to someone else (a web developer, a programmer, a coder, an...
25-05-2011 Hits:917 WEB View
Frequently, we are so blinded by our perception of what something is that we fail to appreciate its mechanics. Google we see as a mighty search engine indexing the world’s information, Facebook as the world’s favourite social network, Twitter as...
01-05-2012 Hits:1082 WEB View
Companies which reach a certain size and manage to get to the top of their respective arena usually have only one way to go and that is mostly down. Unless…
14-04-2011 Hits:817 WEB View
Every week you will get an email newsletter with my personal recommendations on social media marketing tips and crucial SEO advice to help your business succeed faster, at a lower cost.
Subscribe to HelpMySEO via 
email.
I’ve led the discussion on how social media and SEO are changing the processes we use to work and live, online, with the publication of my book ‘The Social Media Mind’. I combine experience in journalism and blue-chip corporate management with a penchant for explaining complex issues in simple terms. Contact me for media interviews, presentations and panel discussions
