The lessons I have learned in just the first few weeks of practicing Karate & Judo parallel the field of search marketing:
My First Lesson
It started out messy and was easy to win I learned that when martial arts were first created, they were blended together and not segregated like they are today. It was messy. There wasn’t precise ‘attention to detail’ as there is today for each martial art. One person’s form of Karate didn’t always match another person’s because everything was blended. The world of search was initially blended together, not segregated, and easier to game. SEO included social media marketing, PR marketing, forum spamming posting, link building, etc. Creating a simple social media profile and linking it to your company’s site with anchor text caused you to dominate in the SERPS for your keywords. Everyone doing SEO was doing different things but still ranking in the search engines. It was difficult to find two SEOs who were alike. Over time, however, there was a mashup of SEO.
Both slowly evolved: fighters in martial arts got smarter and search engines increased their spam filters. In reaction to this, Martial artists and SEOs evolved to protect, defend, and dominate (when necessary). What they both did next was my second lesson.
My Second Lesson
It has evolved and is becoming more holistic Over time, each discipline came full circle and developed into what we see today. They are now segregated, uniform, and precise. For example, Karate isn’t kickboxing, Judo isn’t wrestling, fencing isn’t Kendo. It’s not as messy as it was originally. Martial Arts disciplines include:
- Striking (Boxing, Karate, Muay Thai, Kenpo, and more)
- Grappling (Judo, Aikido, Sumo, Wrestling, and more)
- Weaponry (Kendo, Fencing, Kyujustu, Iaido, and more)
- Hybrids/Mixed Martial Arts (Ninjustu, Bando, Hapkido, and more)
My sensei, Master Ulman, has a black belt in 7 different disciplines of Martial Arts. He’s an expert of each discipline and has merged their strengths; hence the name of the Dojo, ‘Modern Day Warrior’. Also, when I talk to other black belts outside of my Dojo, they are pursuing other disciplines to create their ultimate fighting style. If you ever run into these people, they are tremendously effective and can kill you within a blink of an eye.
Just like the Martial Arts, SEO has evolved due to the evolution of the competitive environment. The same concept can be seen with the beginning of verticals. Each vertical is detailed and one can spend extensive time learning each vertical. Experts in each discipline include:
- Social Media Marketing: Brian Chappell, Dan Zarrella, Muhammad Saleem, Jordan Kasteler
- PR Specialists: Jason Martin, Media Turbo
- Content Writers: Todd Malicoat, Lisa Barone, Cornwall SEO
- Link Builders: Andy Hagans, Eric Ward, Jim Boykin
- Others (Viral Content, Local Search, Mobile Search, etc)
These nearly established verticals are starting to blend again within the SERPS. Danny Sullivan says we are in the middle of “blended search” or a Search 3.0 shift, with Search 4.0 being ”personalized search.” Just as the Martial Arts disciplines began to develop distinctly of one another, SEO has split up into specific fields/verticals, only to then to be mashed up together again but in a more precise and ordered way. I think most SEOs would agree that, ideally, you need a holistic approach if you want to dominate the SERPs for a client or for your organization. Knowing one vertical is great, but when you combine them together you have created an unbeatable force. Aaron Wall takes this holistic approach and goes through keyword research to viral marketing and brand building. Our Mozplex wrote an exhaustive article (PRO-only) about principles of SEO (it includes most verticals) and a free version ( for non-PRO members), plus the Rand edition as well 😀
My Third Lesson
It will no longer be needed So, it should end here, right? Wrong. Martial Arts, war, and combat didn’t end there; it evolved through innovation and technology. When was the last time you met a real ninja? If you have, you’re one in a million and I’d still doubt it because the #1 rule of ninjistu is don’t reveal your identity (note #6 in their list), so even if they were, I doubt they’d tell you. 😀 So, real ninjas are ‘outdated’, they are cool to think about and fantasize about but they are still outdated. (As an aside, who would win a serious ‘life or death’ battle? A league of ninjas or the US Army? Army!
😀 If you want a visualization of that combat of these two seriously fighting, watch this horrific clip from “The Last Samurai.”)
The third lesson I learned, plainly, is “know in time you will be replaced by technology”. In a battle, an amateur with a gun will beat a ninja without, all the time. ☹ Again, this is going to be the same in search. I like Danny’s concept of ‘Search 3.0’ and ‘Search 4.0’, but I add ‘Search 5.0’. Search 5.0 is “Neurological search.” This type of search might be 6.0 or 7.0, who knows, but this is going to happen, mark my words. I personally think we will begin to see significant impacting steps to it within 10 years, and maybe within 30+ years we will see this as a part of life and search. If ‘neurological search’ isn’t the norm within 30 years, double that and it most definitely will be. So, my guess is within 30-60 years we will see this dramatic shift in modes of search.
“Neurological search,” or Search 5.0, is the next step to knowing the searcher’s intent, and if there is a chip in their hand or head, one will have access to the real reasoning behind each query. There is a well of information inside of our minds, and if someone were to have access to it, they would be able to better serve us, in theory, assuming they have good intentions. We have made small strides in the past toward this type of technology. In 2004, Washington University was experimenting with the ability to use brain waves to play video games. In January 2005, Wired wrote an article; 2 months later The Guardian and then the BBC wrote about ‘Brain-Computer Interface’ and how it was used to test on a patient who was paralyzed and on a respirator. He was able to check email, turn on the TV, and control a robotic arm with just his thoughts. Some call this ‘neuro marketing’ and the Guardian says that it’s the ultimate ad-man’s (cough, cough, Google) tool.
These innovations are growing and gaining momentum. It won’t be long before the concept becomes a part of our lives, just like the cell phone but better. 😀 The first cell phone was created in 1973 by Martin Cooper of Motorola. Ten years later it was public and within 24 years it will be used by half the population. I think search is headed this way because great technology grows like a wild fire and the concept behind nanotechnology is so innovative that Google would be foolish to not embrace such technology. What better way to show relevant results than to know the mind of the searcher? There isn’t any.
I want to share with you a story that I watched on Yahoo Video to emphasis the short time frame I gave (30-60 years ’til no more SEO). Just over 3 months ago, I watched a Yahoo Video about a super-super computer. (Source Link: Linking to a Yahoo video is like linking to a deep page in Flash. FAIL!! But if you can find an article on it, I’d love the link!!!) In the video, the FBI teamed up with Intel to make a super-super computer. The development of this computer was in a massive warehouse and would do the work of 6 BILLION people working FULL-TIME jobs for 60 years. This computer does that work in one day — that’s 720 TRILLION hours of work manual labor done in 24 hours of automated-computing. This super-super computer is used to ‘predict’ attacks on the US, and a man from the FBI was interviewed, saying, “It’s helped us tremendously.”
Hopefully, now that I’ve convinced of the possibility of a real end of SEO, you’ll rethink a lot of things in life (planning for the future, that is). Just think (no pun intended), a day is coming soon where you don’t need to create a ‘spider-able’ website, when ‘linking’ isn’t big, when ‘content’ isn’t king. It’s exciting, but it is the end to SEO. I say end and I fully mean it, because this technology will get to the root of the searcher. There isn’t anything deeper to someone than his or her mind (note: ‘your heart’ is just an expression, your mind creates those emotions). First came Martial Arts, then came guns, bombs, fighter-jets, and tanks. The Martial Arts dwindled down in numbers significantly and soon we will see the same with SEO. Optimizing is a way of life, but “search engine” optimization will dwindle.
In Conclusion
Until then…. We will fight. Fight to be at the top. Fight against other humans/companies to get to the top. Some will use hundreds of thousands of directory submissions and exert a lot of energy doing that. Others will use the power of social media. These strategies are great (and making $$$$), but they aren’t optimal. Note Lesson #2 (become an expert in one vertical and build on that continually until you hit all the verticals). Press releases aren’t a magic bullet. Great directories aren’t going to keep you #1. You need a holistic approach to continue your visibility in the SERPS for now (until that Nano stuff, then things change…yet again). Technology is growing at a rapid pace. It will take our jobs and cause us to change our careers. Hopefully this is for the better of mankind, but in the meantime, we have our jobs. Make the most of it and take a holistic approach. Be the best press release writer you can be, but don’t stop there. Learn where to submit them. Learn how to network/partner with bloggers. Create a community around your product. Be humble, learn to adapt, and enjoy life. 😀 Just remember, don’t pick a fight with a ninja, & what is martial arts without Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris fighting. 🙂 If you have trouble learning SEO, maybe you need to learn SEO through audio. [Note from Rebecca: Nice timing with this post, as I’ve come across a fun list of the 10 most bad-ass martial arts movie villains. 😀 ]
Joshua Sciarrino is the Owner of a new Tampa SEO company called Refuge Design. Call me up 727-366-6474 — I’d love to chat with you. Also, follow me on Twitter (Joshua Sciarrino) or Skype/AIM: JoshuaSciarrino
