This is the first in a series of 9 blog posts on Zen Search Marketing discussing the use of the 8 Fold Path philosophy in search marketing efforts.This series of blogs is by no means endorsing any religious viewpoint.
Have you been disillusioned by bad search marketing practices?
Many of us are from time to time. There are a million different people spouting off rhetoric about the “right way” to do SEO, PPC or any of he other areas that fall under the umbrella of search.
I am not going to lie to you. The field of search is highly competitive and it is understandable how so many people develop the idea that the only way to survive is to kill or be killed in the SERPS.
It’s no wonder many of these marketers have dubbed themselves “evangelists”. They view the world of search as a battlefield and every new visitor as a convert to their path.
And much like the real evangelists, when we look at search like a kind of battlefield, we often lose sight of what’s important. We begin to have tunnel vision when it comes to site visitors and forget about things like ethics. We stress over things that don’t need to be stressed about.
And we suffer for it.
No pain, no gain, right?
Maybe.
But who the Hell wants to suffer over anything?
In Buddhism, the 8 Fold Path is followed as the way to end suffering.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
This is by no means a post about religion, but over the years I have used this path in every area of my life – search marketing included – and it has proven time and time again to provide the best outcome.
I used to be one of those guys.
The ones who stress about that head term that would provide huge traffic if I could just get into that top spot. I used to worry that if I lost my rankings in the organic listings everything would fall apart. In my last post , Google Really Does Hate SEO, I stated that the best advice I ever got was “promote your website like Google doesn’t exist”. The use of the 8 fold path as a marketing device is actually what derived from that advice. It has shaped the way I look at search and marketing in general.
So what is the 8 Fold Marketing Path?
Just like in Buddhism and the 8 Fold Path, the 8 Fold Marketing Path are 8 very distinct aspects that need to be looked at in relation to one another for them to work properly. While each one is an independent principle, they cannot and should not be looked at as steps. And you cannot ignore one. The other areas, as well as your marketing efforts, will suffer for it.
However, each principle does need to be understood by itself, so in the upcoming series of blogs I will explain how each principle relates to search marketing and then tie them together so they can be understood as a whole. The name of each principle is the same as in the Buddhist teaching; they include:
- Right View
- Right Intention
- Right Speech
- Right Action
- Right Livelihood
- Right Effort
- Right Concentration
- Right Mindfulness
When we as marketers run head-first into a project without thinking about it, we can easily fall into bad habits. These could be as simple as focusing on the wrong on-page elements and bad linking opportunities or focusing on the wrong keyword altogether.