Why SEO Reminds Me of My Competitive High School

To be competitive in today's market, I was told to have a website. So, I have a website. Then I was told a website is not enough. Your website can be fantastic, but if no one knows about it, what good is it? If a prospective buyer or seller does an internet search for a realtor and your website comes up on page 50, it will never be viewed. To solve this problem, I was told I needed Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Today, it seems as if everyone is doing SEO. I was told by my techie, to get my name on the first page of an internet search, I needed to write articles and post them on my website. I also need to write a blog, do internet advertising, use tag words and have links to other sites, In other words, I need to work hard at being and staying in the front. Okay, I said.

I try to do everything to help me get to the front page and stay there. I am constantly checking statistics to see how many times my website, my ads, my blog, etc. have been viewed. And, I am constantly checking to make sure I keep my position. I find I am comparing myself to other websites, blogs, ads; trying to be better than the competition.

This whole competitive scene feels very familiar to me. It reminds me of my high school years. I went to an academic high school. Almost everyone in my graduating class went to college. The competition was constant. Fellow students were always so concerned about their grades and class ranking. Classmates always wanted to know what grade someone else received on an exam or a paper. I can still hear in my head, "If only I did such and such, I would have gotten the extra point and could have been on top." What a drag. As Yogi said, "Déjà vu all over again."

Well SEO is screaming the same words. If only I use such and such tags, Google will recognize my website articles and move up my page ranking. If only I write more articles, Yahoo will move up my page ranking.

I am doing SEO because I feel I need to do it. But, I'm not sure I want to constantly be reminded of high school