What the Old Testament Teaches Me about Web Marketing
Since the Bible is the best selling book of all time, I figured I might be able to find some indispensable wisdom for the Internet age. Who knew the Bible could provide us with sage advice for SEO and Internet marketing!
Each book of the Bible has an overarching historical theme. These themes can be applied to our online marketing and SEO campaigns. While the Bible doesn’t quite give us specific SEO strategies (who’d follow them anyway?), we can look at some general principles to help guide our online marketing efforts.
Genesis: The Book of Beginnings
When creating a Web marketing strategy, the foundation of your website can make or break your success. As our marketing efforts progress over time, we often find ourselves off course from the original plan. Getting back to solid marketing strategies can help ensure you’re back to the right path of a successful campaign.
Exodus: The Book of Deliverance
Sometimes we are held hostage to developers, programmers and even old marketing strategies that are holding us back. We have to be willing to break free from anything that is preventing us from building the best site possible and ensuring that search and conversion optimization strategies can be as successful as possible.
Leviticus: The Book of the Law
There are always rules that need to be followed if you want your marketing efforts to be successful. If you don’t know the basic principles of good SEO and online marketing, you’ll be wandering around in the wilderness, waiting to get to the promised land of business success.
Numbers: The Book of Counting
If you’re not looking at your analytics, you don’t know what’s working and what isn’t. Use your analytics to help you figure out what’s getting you conversions and what isn’t. Rankings get you exposure, but they don’t get you sales. In the end, conversion numbers and ROI matter most.
Deuteronomy: The Second Law
If at first you don’t succeed, make sure you’re doing it right. See Leviticus.
Joshua: The Book of War
Conquering new land with a new site is definitely a challenge. Don’t expect all your competitors to come crashing down around you as you speed up through the search results. It can take years for an effective online marketing strategy to produce ROI, but you should be seeing many victories along the way.
Judges: The Book of Rebellion and Leadership
Going it alone carries risks. Disregarding the advice of your SEO and marketing strategists will often destroy the progress you’ve made and cause you to lose ground to your competition. Follow the leadership of those who know and be free from the bondage of poor results.
Ruth: The Story of an Unlikely Redemption
Great online marketing successes may come from the most unlikely of places. Look for unique opportunities that you can incorporate into your online marketing strategy to help create a unique advantage over your competition.
1&2 Samuel: The Book of the First Kings
Choose who is going to lead your optimization and marketing strategies carefully. Putting the wrong person at the forefront of your efforts can lead to being ineffective when you’re facing key battles. However, when led by someone with their heart and mind in SEO, they can turn even sure defeats into marketing victories.
Kings & Chronicles: The Books of Succeeding Kings
Sometimes you have to go through a lot of trial and error to find conversion strategies that get the best results. Keep testing until you find a winner. Then test that to make sure it’s truly the best strategy. Never hold on to poor performing strategies.
Ezra: The Book of the Rebuilding of the Temple
If any search engine puts you in exile, there is a way out. It starts by going back to the basics, getting back to the foundational SEO and marketing strategies.
Nehemiah: The Book of the Rebuilding of the Wall
With your SEO foundation back on track, rebuilding your walls of defense is essential. Implement quality SEO strategies as quickly as possible and don’t get suckered into anything that got you into exile to begin with.
Esther: A Book of Unlikely Deliverance
Your competitors are out to destroy you. Never let your guard down and be willing to fight back! If you let your competition outpace your online marketing efforts, you will be wiped out.
Job: A Book of Pain and Healing
You can’t expect a 100% success rate. Even sites that “deserve” to be on top get beat out by a lesser competitor. These setbacks may seem disastrous, but are temporary, as long as you persevere in building up a solid website with a worthy reputation.
Psalms: A book of Poetic Prayers
There is no shortage of SEO and other online marketing stories, tips and tutorials that can help you improve your online marketing success. Learn from others so you don’t make the same mistakes.
Proverbs: The Book of Wisdom
Look for trusted sources of SEO wisdom and follow them regularly. Take what you learn to heart and apply their wisdom wherever you can.
Ecclesiastes: The Book of Common Wisdom
Conventional SEO wisdom isn’t always good wisdom, even coming from “trusted” sources. Make sure anything you read aligns with good online marketing strategies you already know.
Song of Songs: A Love Story
A properly implemented marketing strategy gets results and makes everyone happy. It’s love at its best!
The Prophets: The Books of Things to Come
Keep en eye on the future. Good SEO principles stand the test of time, but if you don’t know what’s coming, you won’t be ready to apply those principles to the current or coming age.
I’m a firm believer in finding new ways to understand SEO and online marketing. It’s not that any perspective is necessarily new, but framing good concepts in a new way can sometimes help something jump out at us and give us a new perspective. The concepts above are not new, but hopefully this collection can, God willing, help you understand your online marketing efforts more clearly and perhaps breathe new life into your SEO campaign.
Stoney deGeyter is the President of Pole Position Marketing, a leading search engine optimization and marketing firm helping businesses grow since 1998. Stoney is a frequent speaker at website marketing conferences and has published hundreds of helpful SEO, SEM and small business articles.
If you’d like Stoney deGeyter to speak at your conference, seminar, workshop or provide in-house training to your team, contact him via his site or by phone at 866-685-3374.
Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy of how Pole Position Marketing helps clients expand their online presence and grow their businesses. Stoney is Associate Editor at Search Engine Guide and has written several SEO and SEM e-books including E-Marketing Performance; The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period!; Keyword Research and Selection, Destination Search Engine Marketing, and more.
Stoney has five wonderful children and spends his free time reviewing restaurants and other things to do in Canton, Ohio.
“If at first you don’t succeed, make sure you’re doing it right.”
That’s great! So many site owners don’t want to admit (or just don’t know) when they’ve gone down the wrong road with their SEO. It’s easier to blame Google and say they are picking on you and your site than admit that you brought it on yourself.
Hahahaha, Stoney, nice one. I am a Christian too. Never thought of the link in between SEO and the Bible.
Do not know if the Bible can give us tips on SEO or marketing, but what is certain is that SEO and google algorithms go so fast, that any SEO book that has more than two years may be regarded as old as the Bible. The panda and penguin algorithms are tested, which is good for SEO today, tomorrow can be a complete disaster. I know many friends who have left because their incomes fell seo much because of the new algorithms. I love that this site serves to help a little, because we’re a little lost the SEO…
Regards.
Stoney,
Long time, no talk. So glad to see Biblical principals put towards the SEO business, a business that many see as unethical. Thanks for showing us the Bible is not only the best guide for living our lives, but also a good guide for SEO practices. Thanks again from one Christian to another!
Thanks Shell, I thought this would be a fun post to write. Turned out it was!
Thank you for sharing and using the Bible chapters as an example for SEO Strategies. This simply shows that even before, marketing already existed. As for the Bible relating to SEO, never lose hope in optimizing your business! Up’s and down’s happen, so we need to get up. I just hope that people won’t treat SEO as a “religion” on the next few years, lol!
Nice work Stoney (the Rock), but if you’re a Christian, how about the New Testament?
Principles like:
-The LOVE of money is…for what does it profit… (don’t let money be your motivation)
-give & it will be given unto you… (sowing & reaping, giving back)
-where you’re treasure is, there will your heart be also
-parable of the talents (use your GOD given gifts)
-ask and you shall receive, seek…, knock… (research & mentorship)
-destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again (persistence, fortitude)
-you are the light of the world & salt of the earth…don’t hide your light under a bushel (wisdom)
-the pearl of great price
-do not grow weary in well doing, for in due season you will reap a harvest, provided you do not lose heart (perseverance)
etc.etc,
Good idea Stephan! I was thinking about doing a NT one but couldn’t quite get it to fit into the book by book model I used for the OT post. Your idea is one that would work, though I’m a little cautious about making these principles feel trite or irreverent toward their intent. I’ll have to think on that a bit.
Esther: A Book of Unlikely Deliverance! brilliant sooooooooo true mind you.Great analogy and a good read,I am going to stick you in my favorites and come back for more.
Thanks
Awesome! As a Christian (who hadn’t read much of the Bible) I’m pretty impressed with this analogies. I’ve always thought that there’s serious and complex correlation between Christianity, success, money and trials. The Bible isn’t wrong. Keep the good work and make more articles like this! Wish you the best!
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