It’s all just a game, right?
1st May, 2024
We often treat SEO like a game. We tend to think of SEO as a grand strategy competition; like Risk, but for SERP positions. Google is our sandbox, where traffic and revenue are the territories we conquer, using our wits and resources as our armies, strategizing our next move to secure digital dominance.
But we often forget that this game affects the lived experiences of real humans; and that innocent people, with real lives, are affected for better or worse by our strategies. Because even when we follow the rules (and especially when we test those boundaries and step outside of the guidelines), there’s a price to be paid for our play.
The heart of what we do is sway financial outcomes, by amplifying or suppressing information; and manipulating how people discover brands, interact with content, and pay for products or services.
And more than just wallets, we shape perceptions. We affect what people see, think, and believe – both in the moment and in the longer term. Our strategies can influence emotions and opinions in ways we don’t often consider.
By altering the visibility and accessibility of information, we’re not just influencing present decisions but potentially altering the future course of individual lives – and entire societies – for better or worse.
And it doesn’t stop with individuals. Our actions ripple forward through the ages, influencing the corpus of human knowledge and experience in ways that will echo into future generations, steering the very course of what will come to be known and believed.
In our quest for success, we catapult businesses and our clients to new heights of prosperity, but not without consequence. The darker side of our victories often means the crushing of smaller competitors, leaving them struggling to survive in our wake. We dismiss their livelihoods, employees, and mortgages as casualties of war.
The truth about SEO is that we affect suburban streets as much as we affect the SERPs, as we move our pawns around in this relentless quest for SEO supremacy.
This game we play has profound consequences, echoing through the livelihoods of countless unseen players on the board that we so cavalierly manipulate.
Now, more than ever, we need to consider our role as curators of the web; to balance the short-term demands of our businesses and clients with the integrity and utility of the web-to-come. We need to play nicely and ensure that our work has a net positive impact on the world around and ahead of us.
