Why SEO Is A Dirty Word

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Talk to some people and you’ll find that SEO is a dirty word. I agree, it sure it. But why?

I think I have the answer.

There is this mindset, especially in Internet culture, that says anything that propels a person to success is dirty and gritty. Success is just supposed to happen. So if you build a website and hit it big because you’ve dominated your niche, it should be an accident. You should not have planned it that way.

Another reason I think SEO or search engine optimization is a dirty word is because people don’t really understand it. SEO means you’ve tried to rank pages of your website for specific keyword phrases highly in the search engines.. But Google isn’t based on people trying to rank. It’s based on people getting there by accident. So I guess No. 2 is related to No. 1.

If you believe that success should be accidental then you’ll likely find yourself not liking anyone who has succeeded by trying to succeed. Someone who sets a goal, makes a plan, charts a course, then follows through is obviously on the dirty side of things. But I believe just the opposite. Success should never be an accident. It should always happen because somebody wanted it and planned for it. And that’s what good long term optimization is all about. It’s about webmasters wanting to be No. 1 and figuring out how to get there. If that’s dirty, I don’t need a bath.