What you’ll find here is based on the author’s personal experiences. Please note that this is not a theory, analysis, or even an imagination. For those of you with quick-to-ignite tempers and explosive emotions, you might want to steer clear of this article, as it could potentially shave years off your life. Especially if you’re not a fan of patiently reading and listening to others’ opinions, you might find more healing on a leisurely stroll than in these words.
It can be a bit challenging to get people to grasp the concept of “herding SEO.” Surprisingly, even top-level management in large corporations often hesitate to appreciate or prioritize SEO.
Search Engines
The advent of social media during the Web 2.0 era transformed the very essence, understanding, and paradigm of SEO. In theory, social media is an integral part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and hierarchically speaking, that’s indeed the case. However, in practice, the promise of “viral” and “instant” success that social media offers seems to push SEO to the back burner.
Artificial Technology emerged as a response to the monopolistic control exercised by a few giants in the information service sector, including the blue-search-engine giant that currently reigns supreme. These companies can indirectly monopolize information. Firms with budgets willing to allocate funds for advertising, be it pay-per-click or paid ads, can catapult their websites to the top without much hassle. But the question is, will this last in the long run?
It’s this information monopoly that eventually led AI pioneers to create an “open-source” solution that can be used and enjoyed by everyone. It’s a decentralized approach, making information ownership more widespread. Unlike before, when information was monopolized by giant corporations, open-source data is accessible and distributed across various platforms.
Social Media
Do you remember the early days of social networking applications like “Friendster” and “ICQ”? They were the real-time connectors of their time. Today, social media seems to encompass almost every function you can imagine. Take Facebook, for instance; it serves as an identity-based hub, a chat platform, a voice communication tool, and even a marketplace for trading.
However, one often forgotten fact is that we sometimes claim ownership of our social media accounts. We tend to forget that there’s a META, the parent company, that essentially owns our social media accounts. We willingly grant them access to our data, our personal lives, and our habits or routines. Perhaps without realizing it, we’ve given away most of our keys and our privacy to social media.
Did you know that your personal information, habits, activities, friendships, work, and even your food preferences can be directly used by social media giants to tailor and target advertisements for every action you take? Are you aware that collectively, this data can be utilized to generate highly detailed analyses?
What happens when your social media account is suddenly banned or closed, and you’re heavily reliant on their features? Or what occurs when your business uses social media as the backbone of your digital marketing efforts? This digital platform, which seems like it’s yours, could end up ensnaring and jeopardizing you or your business. There are countless stories of how social media has caused suffering and made individuals easy targets for scams or crimes. Now, imagine if this happened to your company.
As a consultant, I’ve personally encountered and guided clients through such situations several times. If you lack a strong foundation, you or your business will be directly affected. It’s not unlikely that you could even suffer greatly as a result. Just observe how influencers can tumble when their accounts are hacked or banned.
Organic Search Engine Optimization
In this article, I mention organic social media. Why is “organic” the keyword here? This is because Search Engine Optimization (SEO) offered by information giants can be paid or known as “paid SEO” or “pay-per-click ads.”
In the early days, organic search engines were the sole route to achieving long-lasting SEO. Do you still remember when Hotmail.com hadn’t become msn.com, or when data availability and storage were measured in megabytes stored on floppy disks? It was during that time when “organic optimization” was the only way to secure a solid position on search engines.
Having search results through organic means still provides consistency and longer lifespans. The search results you obtain from “organic SEO” will anchor you in a position that’s difficult to shake.
Modern SEO practitioners and specialists may have different opinions about this article. Everyone has their own approach and perspective, and I’m perfectly fine with that. In fact, I’ve gained a wealth of knowledge and insight from listening to various viewpoints. So, if you’re interested in learning more about the nitty-gritty of “How to do Organic Search Engine Optimization,” please continue reading in the next installment. If you disagree and feel that this article doesn’t align with your thinking, perhaps your viewpoint is different from mine. Nonetheless, we’re all part of the same species, co-inhabitants of this supposedly round Earth. Let’s work together to preserve and cherish this planet for our future generations, should we be granted the ability to reproduce