Love Letters to Google
Hundreds of years ago, in the 1980’s, people weren’t very different than they are today. They were thoughtful, inquisitive, and they wondered about things. Unfortunately, back then, that’s where it ended. They wondered, and that was that. There were a scant, ambitious few who followed through on their curiosity by travelling to libraries and laboratories, but for the most part people wondered about things and then went about their daily business none the wiser.
Today, people still wonder about things, but not for very long. These days, pondering and speculation last about as long as it takes to type out the subject matter of the fascination.
1982: “I wonder how many anagrams a person could pull out of ‘The Gettysburg Address.’ And now I am going to finish washing the dishes.”
2012: “I wonder how many anagrams I could pull out of ‘The Gettysburg Address.’
75001 anagrams found… Badgered Hugest Trysts Baddest Thuggery Rests Baddest Thuggery Tress Beggared Trysted Shuts Debaters Hugged Trysts Breasted Hugged Trysts Debates Shrugged Tryst Debate Shrugged Trysts Bagged Trusted Shyster Bagged Rutted Shysters Bragged Trusted Shyest Bragged Trysted Tushes Garbed Gutted Shysters Badger Gutted Shysters Barged Gutted Shysters Badgers Gutted Shyster Badgers Trysted Hugest Breadths Ruggedest Sty Breadths Suggested Try Breadths Grudges Testy Breadths Sedgy Gutters Breadths Trusted Yeggs Breadths Druggy Testes Breadths Druggy Tsetse Breadth Druggy Tsetses Bashed Ruggedest Tryst Batted Grudges Shyster Batted Rugged Shysters Batted Grudge Shysters Drabs Detests Thuggery Bards Detests Thuggery Brads Detests Thuggery Beggary Sheds Strutted Begat Trudged Shysters Brashest Dredges Gutty Brashest Grudged Testy Brashest Drugged Testy Brashest Tested Druggy Brashest Detest Druggy Bathers Detests Druggy Breaths Detests Druggy Bathes Grudges Trysted Breasts Hugged Trysted Basters Hugged Trysted Batters Grudged Shyest Batters Drugged Shyest Beast Shrugged Trysted Bates Shrugged Trysted Betas Shrugged Trysted Abets Shrugged Trysted Beats Shrugged Trysted Baste Shrugged Trysted et cetera…”
In fact, in the obnoxious circles I run in, if anybody is so careless or dense as to wonder something aloud, that person is met with scorn and ridicule as everybody pulls out smartphones and laptops to sarcastically lament, “If only there was some type of magical device that could answer all of my questions, at any time, no matter where I was! Dare I even dream of such a world?”
To say we have the world at our fingertips no doubt seems trite and uninspired, but the very factual reality is that a great many of us need only wonder about something for a second, then we twitch a few of our extremities over some style of keyboard, wait for a page load, and mutter, “I know Google Fu.” Though this is a casual activity that we might engage in once or thirty times per day, it is an incredibly powerful artifact of the here and now. As with any source of power, there are those who would use that power for good and those who would use it for good for them.
In this primer, we will first explore the, “Why?” of Search Engine Optimization (SEO); what’s in it for you, what’s in it for them, and what’s in it for everybody? And after the, “Why?” we will delve into the, “How?”; what are the best practices of SEO in the middle part of 2012?
What is Search Engine Optimization?