• by Brad Stewart , March 11, 2011

Last month I outlined some simple and practical search-related tips to keep clients (and bosses) happy. As I was writing this, I realized that there are a myriad of ways that search marketing acumen has  -- or will - become as common as owning an email address. So, why is this relevant to search marketing professionals? In my experience as a software entrepreneur and general geek, I've seen the same pattern repeat itself over and over, since the early days of the Internet. When there's technology involved, professionals focus too much on the technology, and too little on the other important elements of the business.

At risk of erring on the side of  "duh," here are some of the most basic ways that search already applies to everyone, and ways that it will in the future. Hopefully some of these "basics" will bring us out of the forest just long enough to help us see a section of trees that have long since been ignored. What can this intriguing world of search teach all of us? And what can us marketers learn from the non-marketing public about online and offline visibility?

Very recently, Chris Copeland wrote a slightly tongue-in-cheek, but nonetheless insightful article for Search Insider about how Chris Copeland wanted to be ranked number one in Google for the search term "Chris Copeland." As Internet users increasingly come to realize the importance of hyper-linking terms (like their own name, for instance), this type of discrete but effective SEO self-promotion will become more common. Whether the term "me-ification" (as Chris Copeland calls it in the article) sticks or not, is uncertain. However, the phenomenon to which he is referring will certainly become hugely pervasive and have a direct impact on professional search marketers. The impact will be even greater (and I think we're already starting to see this), as SEO tools become increasingly user-friendly, and which the average everyday Internet user starts to leverage as a course of regular daily activity.

Aside from people using simple tactics like intentional back-linking, personal brands are also being built inadvertently (for better or worse) through social media. Manic tweeting, wall conversations, discussion forums, and personal blogs, are everyday actions not just reserved for the marketing intelligencia.

Who rises to the top of the popularity heap though? How does Chris Copeland get to #1 in Google with his own name, particularly as the Internet world becomes even noisier? Though technological tools can aid in this process, ultimately it's the old adage once again: quality of content. But, as Chris Copeland and others eventually discover, it's not quality on its own that brings success. Quality is just another way of reaching the goal (through reputation), which is ultimately relationship.

Full circle here now to some of the ways that non-marketers become popular and respected in the offline and online worlds, without knowing a single thing about "the tools of the trade." I often refer to my favorite mentors, in both life and business in order to generally become a better person. By applying these same tenets (respect, reliability, humor, humility, care, honesty, candor, and work ethic) to online marketing, the technical tools become secondary.

Back to Chris Copeland. If his name does indeed appear #1 on Google anytime soon (a very popular name, by the way), this article will have helped that cause. Not because of some black hat, back-link SEO extravaganza, but because he did what he suggested others do: focus on offering insightful value, and literally be the best you can be. The rest of us (literally) will follow.