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The Tao of Keywords: How Ancient Philosophy Can Guide Your SEO Efforts

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The perfect balance - keywords used with wisdom and moderation

The Tao Te Ching and keywords? What could they possibly have in common? The Tao Te Ching is supposed to explain life. Keywords are part of life - especially for those of us who write online. Therefore the Tao Te Ching should have something to say about keywords, right?

I decided to meditate on Taoist principles to see if there was anything there to guide me in my keyword-choosing efforts. This may seem remarkably silly, but it was great for meditation practice. I discovered that the Tao Te Ching contains outstanding guidance for keyword selection and search engine optimization.

This lens contains some of my insights.

Contents of this lens:

1. "Naming is the origin of all particular things."
2. "Work is done, then forgotten. Therefore it lasts forever."
3. "More words count less. Hold fast to the center."
4."The sage stays behind thus he is ahead. He is detached thus at one with all. Through selfless action he attains fulfillment."
5. "Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow."
6. "Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub; It is the center hole that makes it useful."

1. "Naming is the origin of all particular things."

In order for people to find your website, lens, or other web property, you'll need to give it the right name. That name should include the essential elements of your site. For example, I named this page "The Tao Of Keywords".

The first chapter in the Tao Te Ching contains this line: "Naming is the origin of all particular things." So give your site a keyword-rich name. If you're going to be discussing blackberries on your page, be sure that word shows up in your title.

There's a place in every HTML document for the title. But many people don't make good use of that space. Don't be one of them. That title line, which appears across the top bar in your window, is one of the most important elements of search engine optimization (SEO).

Here on Squidoo it is easy to tweak the title line by changing the name of the lens you're working on. If you're using HTML you will use title tags, which appear in the head section of the document:

<html>

<head>

<title>The Keyword-Rich Title Of Your Document</title>

</head>

... etc. ...

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2. "Work is done, then forgotten. Therefore it lasts forever."

Enhancing your web pages with keywords, when done right, will work for you while you're doing other things.

For now, this gets your attention. Soon your attention must be diverted into other issues.

For now, focus on the selection of perfect keywords. Place them on your site with care and deliberation.

For tomorrow, you play.

Find Your Keywords

Google AdWords: Keyword Tool: Use the Keyword Tool to get new keyword ideas.
Google Trends: Find out what people are searching for now.

Managing Your Keywords

The 12 Habits of Highly Effective Web Sites, Executive Edition: Managing your PageRank and Keywords to get your product or service on Page One of search results

by: Liam Scanlan

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3. "More words count less. Hold fast to the center."

I cannot emphasize this enough: Overuse of keywords can be detrimental to the well-being of your page. What you need is outstandingly good, helpful web content. Overloading your content with keyword phrases will make your writing look stilted, silly, and unpleasant.

What you're looking for is BALANCE and HARMONY. It is superb if you can use your keyword phrase twice in the first paragraph, twice in the last paragraph, and at least once in every other paragraph. But if you can't do that and make it look NATURAL, don't sweat it. It is far more important to have good, useful and attractive easy-reading content, than it is to have a proliferation of keywords.

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4."The sage stays behind thus he is ahead. He is detached thus at one with all. Through selfless action he attains fulfillment."

I have often felt there is too much of a spirit of competitiveness on the internet, especially with people who are desperate to market something. Rather than selling through thoughtful camaraderie, they feel compelled to toot their horns loudly, trying to divert attention from all others. Honestly, when I see someone doing this, I'm LESS likely to want to buy their wares.

The BEST way to get attention on the internet is by being a humble servant. By doing something great to help others, you can achieve more recognition than you will know what to do with. That will be the time to start selling something.

Example - I have a site I've nurtured since October 2000. The site attracts truly needy, suffering people. I worked hard over the course of several years to improve the search engine optimization of the site by featuring the keywords these suffering people might be most likely to use. At this point the site attracts about 700 of them every day. If I were to have started the site solely to hawk an e-book 8 years ago, it would have been a turn-off to these suffering, needy people. They would have thought I was doing it just to get some money. They would have gone elsewhere. But now, after 8 years of striving to help, if I were to introduce an e-book the people would probably see my effort as a great public service, and would want to buy it because I'm now considered an expert in that niche. I haven't gone the e-book sales route there, but I know that possibility is open to me now.

The internet has changed the way salespeople should work. Old fashioned "buy this" sales pitches don't work in this media. You can have all the keywords in the world drawing people into your site, and still fail because internet users don't like traditional forms of advertising. We are accustomed to tuning them out. What works is genuine human caring and interaction. For more information, read The Cluetrain Manifesto.

The Cluetrain Manifesto

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5. "Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow."

If you put yourself on a pedestal, it is sure that someone will come along who wants to knock you off of it. This is human nature.

If you lay claim on a multitude of keywords your efforts will be spread so thinly that you will have a hard time achieving your goals. Therefore, if you hope to excel in a niche, choose keywords sparingly and wisely.

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SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

by: Jerri L. Ledford

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6. "Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub; It is the center hole that makes it useful."

The most likely thing to attract visitors to your site is that which is in the middle - the clear purpose of the site. Hiding behind pages created only to attract people to your den will rarely get you the customers you hope for.

Therefore focus. Have a clearly defined purpose for your site, and use that purpose as the center to create a wheel with thirty spokes -- thirty pages directly related to the ultimate purpose of the site. Each page can have its own set of three keywords, thus attracting a multitude of search engine visitors to find your enlightening site.

Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching, 25th-Anniversary Edition (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition)

by: Lao Tzu

Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 02/14/2012)

Credit:

Laotse: Tao Te Ching: Laotse, Tao Te Ching, Translated by Gia Fu Feng
All quotes on this lens come from this online copy of the Tao Te Ching.

Thanks for visiting my Tao of Keywords lens...

I created this lens as a challenge to myself, to expand my thinking on the Tao by comparing it to a mundane topic. Through this spiritual-thinking exercise I learned a bit more about philosophy and life.

Your comments are WELCOME

Looking forward to reading what you have to say...

I love to hear from the people who visit my pages. I hope you'll be one of those who choose to leave me a message.

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Jewelsofawe Nov 4, 2009 @ 11:38 pm | delete

I love the title and learned along the way. Thank you grasshopper!

Reply

rosesilk Apr 5, 2009 @ 7:42 am | delete

Dear Linda,

This is a wonderful lens. You really capture the "heart" behind things like SEO rules. I always enjoy when we remember to have integrity when we do business. Thank you.

Julia

Reply

Stephen Dec 4, 2008 @ 6:09 am | delete

Very thought provoking. I love metaphor and you used it well.

An excellent read.

Stephen
www.edenchanges.com