Johnny Seo: Why is this man in my Google?
For at least 20 years, webmasters have been engaged in search engine optimization, or SEO. There's a system for everything — Google's engineers call theirs an algorithm — and to get our work recognized we must learn how search engines find and rank pages.
This process seems like the punishment of Sisyphus: Not to be gamed, Google keeps its process in flux, making any victory fleeting. Just the same, if there's a way to game the system, it will be found. It takes both engineers and marketers to maintain stasis. This makes all the rules around SEO subject to debate. The marketer's first rule of SEO is: You talk endlessly about SEO.
With no shortage of opinion, the facts about this generation of search seems as mystifying as ever. Typing "seo" into the Google search bar brings me a range of results, including the bio of Johnny Seo, K-pop boy band heartthrob. Yet if I type "seo as a noun" I'll retrieve detailed definitions of SEO and arguments for the acronym's use as noun, adjective or verb.
The endless search for knowledge about search has made me shy from work as a full-time SEO. Yet from my experience as a writer and developer, I've formed 3 basic SEO rules.
