SEO Magic vs. SEO Witchcraft

“There’s a difference between magic & witchcraft? I always thought they were one and the same. What the hell does it have to do with search engines anyway?“

Ok, so this is a bit of an odd approach to a post about SEO, but a number of well known authors* have drawn quite a clear distinction between magic and witchcraft and, whilst the connection may not be immediately apparent, this particular analogy does apply to the realm of search engine optimisation in much the same way as the realm of magic… or witchcraft… though probably not for web design or home baking.

*Most notably the British humorist Terry Pratchett. If you haven’t read any of his work, give it a go; although whilst I think about it, Robert Rankin (no strange SEO analogies or comparisons) is possibly an even better choice of author if you have a taste for the slightly strange.

Although on the face of it, magic and witchcraft may seem to share a lot of common ground, they are in fact fundamentally different.
Whilst magic is a very ostentatious affair, relying on showmanship and clever tricks to produce the result in the eyes of its audience, witchcraft is rarely showy and any bystanders who happen to be around when it is practiced will rarely realise that anything has even happened until the results can be seen.

Ok, now for the point I’m trying to make…

SEO – 1939 Style… “The Call of Duty”

Classification – Ultra Mega – Above Top Secret

“Gentlemen! We have identified a new threat! Jerry is getting ready to make his move and Cyprus is facing an invasion of unprecedented proportions which is threatening to destroy our very business infrastructure.”

As you all know, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a relatively new term not only in the Republic of Cyprus, but in much of the remaining Mediterranean region also.

In fact, it is only in the past year or so that the term SEO has been used by Cypriot operatives as a means of bringing their services to the attention of the general public.
But SEO-Jerry has been watching us with envious eyes and he considers businesses on our sacred isle to be virgin territory, there for the taking.

Who is SEO-Jerry?

Torpedos, Cats & Wireless Networks

It all sounded simple enough:
“Could you come to the International Conference Centre in Nicosia and cover the 2007 FIFE cat show for the Pan-Cyprian Cat Club’s forthcoming web site?”
“Certainly; I’ll need an internet connection though.”
“Oh that’s no problem; the conference centre is fully wireless.”

How many times has someone uttered the words ‘no problem’ to you and you’ve just known that there’s trouble on the horizon?

As those of you who have been to Cyprus will most likely know, the island only gets about forty days of rain each year, and most of these happen between the end of November and the end of February.

Today is one of those rainy days…
Ok, so you may be asking yourself around about now just how exactly we got from a cat show in Nicosia to a weather report.

The point I’m so laboriously working towards is that Cypriot drivers are not used to wet roads; a little bit of moisture on the asphalt and drivers get cautious, a heavy rainfall with soaked roads and their behaviour becomes downright panicky (sort of like the UK if someone spots a snowflake).