For years I spent a lot of time in forums and then blogs that related specifically to SEO and online marketing. I always enjoyed contributing when I had anything to say that could actually add value to the community. Or at least embarrass or harass someone for the entertainment value.

But alas, the day came when I had to accept that what I thought would never come had indeed arrived. SEO advices burn out.

I had grown so tired of strangers asking me the same stupid questions over and over in spite of how easy I made it for them to find the answers themselves. Hi Bob. Read everything you write! Hey how many keywords, where should I should I try to stuff in my keyword Meta tag?
That one I STILL GET!

What made me lose my religion and faith in the basic goodness of mankind, was not so much the false flattery, (at my station in life you don’t look a gift compliment in the mouth), and the expectation of gaining a competitive edge from the sharing of my many years of trial and error but more the expectation of not paying a penny for it! I could never understand what values their mother tried to instill in them for them to expect a professional to divulge their trade and craft for nothing more than a bullshit compliment that took less thought and consideration for the sacrifice of others than a public fart in small enclosed room.
They pull my finger crowd aside, there was also the constant politically motivated bickering of the opposing sides both shrouded in gray and calling their opponent black. The same circular debate each getting louder and longer than the last. With each new resend urgency of the topic, there would be more talk and less said.

Those two things were the main reasons I simply lost the will to publicly blather on,
Until Social Media starting replacing traditional seo as a substantial factor in relevancy algorithms!

Then twitter hit us all with real time search and then I was certain SEO as we knew it, was morphing into an entirely new species.

By 2009, social media optimization was the hottest buzz since Page Rank! As I started discussing the intricacies of personality management with other SEO luminaries who had been around almost as long as me, (I say almost because i believe I may be the oldest living and still practicing SEO on the planet. It’s GOT to be either me or Jill Whalen!).
I had exposed my thinking only to industry insiders I’ve known and trusted for a long-long time but to a man they all agreed about the importance search was going to HAVE to place on social as a ranking factor. Even though the procedural approach had the diversity of a Western Euro metropolis, the fact that personalization, geo targeting, wireless and social were going to converge at some point into the Perfect Storm of search engine marketing.

WHY?

Because what two idiots say to each other within the context of shared reality is ALWAYS going to be more relevant than the smartest computer program. I'll let that soak for a minute.
Relevancy is important to a search engine. We can probably agree on that statement BUT what whittles my stick and starts separating bark from wood is when I expound on WHY it is important. This has always been a flame generator for me because so many have used so many words to say so little about relevancy being what makes one Google better than another. BUT the fact is that we are talking about some of the most valuable real estate on the Wall Street Big Board and if poop on a potholder brought more revenue than relevancy, you can bet your Google loving pucker poop or potholders would be coming up in the top 3 for searches about credit/travel/adult entertainment and male enhancement drugs!
Relevancy is subjective and it is defined on a case by case basis by the specific defenition. BUT the PERCEPTION OF RELEVANCY is returning, increasingly loyal eyeballs and that my friends are INVENTORY!

Be led down a primrose path of false promises at your own peril my friend if you allow yourself to be fooled into thinking it is about delivering answers to your life affirming questions. It is about making you THINK you are getting those answers while intermingling revenue generating advertising related to your known interests.
AHHHH there is the pertinent rub. KNOWN INTERESTS!

There is a book that should become the new SEO bible. It is unquestionably a must read for anyone involved in or associated with SEO. It is called The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser. In it he describes in a thinly cloaked dark veil the actual price for all those FREE search services. From what I gathered, he doesn't seem to think the global village of man as a society can afford FREE,.

The price is freedom. Freedom to think, say, feel, learn and acquire the knowledge of anything beyond what the Orwellian overlords holding the keys to the cloud wants to show us. And what do they want to show us? What we are most likely to buy.
They are tracking who u are, how much money u have and how much u spend. They track what and where and how much you invest and what and where you save. They know how many children u have, how you feel about them, how you discipline them,
Pack your bag, we're going on a little side trip!

Ever time I've mentioned that discipline your children thing, it seems to strike a sour note with parents. I'm sorry mom BUT if you have ever exposed yourself in terms of how you reward/punish your children in an Gmail, hotmail, aol, msn email account, if you ever posted it in a forum, blog or on your twitter or facebook page, THEY KNOW! AND the data is cached, stored and retrievable any time they want to sell spy on your kids software or perhaps leather straps and boards of education.

Here is where it gets a little spooky, they also know how much you spend on your kids but really scary the know HOW MUCH YOUR KIDS ARE CAPABLE OF SPENDING WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION. Okay maybe I can’t back up that last statement but consider this:

They will say they can’t, or more accurately they will say they won't, while I say they can and will. Now it’s up to you to decide for yourself who you believe.
SO, here is where relevancy starts turn into a horse of a different color. Where relevancy NOT just the perception of it but actual relevance to a specific query or scenario starts to really matter beyond the purpose of just displaying an ad!

WHEN THE OBJECTIVE SHIFTS FROM DISPLAYING AN AD TO SELLING AN AD, now relevancy matters!

And that is why social media trumps page rank for a SEO!
Now my next post I'll address the challenge with influencing the convictions and belief systems of humans within the confines of social media and why I always laugh when I see a self proclaimed SEO talking about building natural LOOKING links.