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SEO Lessons from Jurassic Park
May 03, 2007
I get a kick out of it when SEO and Analytics overlap into other areas of life.
There's a great passage in Crichton's Jurassic Park (I don't think it made it into the film) that is applicable in all sorts of business and personal situations.
I can't find my copy of the book anywhere, since it's been about 15 years (!) since I read it. So I'll have to paraphrase. Here's the scene: An outside auditor is watching a Jurassic Park computer guy monitor a specific type of dinosaur within a certain part of the park from his computer workstation.
Here's the paraphrased scene. Remember (as if it will be hard) that I'm no Crichton:
Auditor: Hey Computer Guy. What's up?
Computer Guy: Hey Auditor. Just checking on how many T. Rexes we have in Area 8H.
Auditor: Cool. How do you do that?
Computer Guy: Oh, you know -- each one emits some fiction novel-based signal that is picked up by my computer sensor here.
Auditor: Cool. How many T. Rexes do you have?
Computer Guy: Twelve.
Auditor: Cool. How do you know that?
Computer Guy: Well, according to our records, we're supposed to have 12. When the computer counts the signals and finds 12, it tells me everything's okay.
Auditor: Cool. Why don't you try searching for 25 of them?
Computer Guy: Okay. Hey now, that's interesting...
Auditor: What happened?
Computer Guy: It found 25.
Auditor: Cool. Why don't you try searching for 50?
Computer Guy: Okay. OH CRAP.
Auditor: What's wrong?
Computer Guy: Can you lock that door over there?
AND ... SCENE.
So what does this have to do with SEO or web analytics? It means that getting the right answer is very important, but only when you're asking the right question or looking for the right data.
- If you're going after a "trophy phrase" -- and you actually start ranking for it -- you might think you've hit the jackpot, when in reality, some keyword research would reveal a much smarter strategy.
- If you're buying traffic to hit a certain visit or pageview goal -- and you hit those marks -- you might think you've achieved something, while sales languish.
- If you're pursuing a link-building strategy based on PageRank or raw numbers -- and you get that SuperLink or hit the right IBL count -- you might expect your sales to skyrocket, while instead you get a bunch of curious tire-kickers who do nothing but suck bandwidth.
So remember: When you're looking for dinosaurs, find out how many there are, period. Don't just stop when you get to 12.
I hope you've enjoyed this edition of SEO Morality Theatre.
All posts by Erik Dafforn
posted by Erik Dafforn at May 3, 2007 04:40 PM
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