The problem with SEO is the letter “E”. It stands for Engine, as in “Search Engine Optimization.” Who came up with this term, anyway? I’m thinking it’s the same person who came up with “eschew obfuscation.”
When I think of engines, I think of a greasy mechanic standing under a car on a hydraulic lift with his arms disappearing upwards into its bowels shouting “Someone get me a 3/4 inch torque wrench!”
That mental image is why I’ve ignored SEO these past three years as I’ve transitioned my ministry online.
Engines – I overhauled several back in the day. It’s hard, dirty work. Therefore, Search Engine Optimization must be hard, mind-dirty work too, I reasoned. I even tried optimizing my online search results a couple of years ago. I was right. The effort tied my brain into a pretzel.
So why bother? Would Jesus waste his time on SEO? I didn’t think so.
But then someone explained something to me that completely changed my attitude toward SEO. Search Engine Optimization, he said, is simply answering the public’s questions about who you are and what you do.
Wow! Jesus spent his entire ministry answering the public’s questions about who he was and what he did. Now I can do that very same thing using the Internet.
After that realization, I did a Google search on “New Commandment Men’s Ministries” and several pages containing local churches that used my ministry showed up.
But when I did a Google search on “Men’s Ministry”. My website was nowhere to be found. In other words, when the public asks online about men’s ministry, they aren’t learning about New Commandment’s contribution to it. They have to know about my ministry first before they can find it online.
So now I’m diving deep into SEO. And yes, it is complicated. I’m basically learning a new profession.
Pretzels, anyone?
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
