I got involved in a dialog on the Biznik website I joined about LSI, search engine optimization and relevancy.  I  realized after I wrote a piece, that it would be useful to edit it down and post it here, too.  Why not?  If I can share insights on a hundred different topics, maybe 20 will land in the hearts and minds of people who are in a position to act on it. It is all about asking the questions.

Background:  People were discussing the relative value of Latent Semantic  Indexing (LSI) which has to do with how search engines rank certain articles based on how they are written, etc.  And there was some controversy over the current reality of using it, whether it was old or new news, how applicable it was to a business person and why we should write relevant copy…or play the SEO keyword game. 

Here is an exerpt from what I wrote:

“I love this. Serious people passionate about what’s up and eager to participate. The key to me is authenticity at all levels when we speak up.

And I am going to stretch the limits of thought here about relevancy. Let’s do a brain elasticity exercise that relates to the bigger picture of SEO.

For I am a business woman trying to figure out how to postively change the future and to make all this chaos of tech stuff and mental chatter relevant to what matters to me as an enterepreneur, a mother, as a human being on this earth, and to what matters to my own life on this earth.

1) From a civil human discourse perspective, let’s be patient with each other as we learn the new rules of communication online. We are learning how to deal with this global game of technology, global entrepreneurship and building community across diversity in a world under stress. It’s a tall order for every one of us. We are all different. Tolerance, listening and adaptability are good skills to develop.

2) From a techie, perfectionsist and egoist perspective, I think that in discussions of details (i.e. SEO and LSI details) and exactly what the current rules are and whether people are exactly right or not —  it is important to not get taken off course with details, even though details are what matter in any game we play.

Let’s remember that details are all relative to the situation and context.

My analogy is Basketball. The rules are there, and the fouls are called, and the key is to stay on the game and let the bad calls head off into the ethers as you develop sportsmanship. Some of us know the rules, some don’t. So what? It’s a game. SEO is actually just a game and it changes based on perspective.

Remember that the Referrees are all in development and human, and the rules even change over time and location. We have rules in backyard games that change based on the age, skill, number, weather and ability of our players and who shows up.

And what is really important all the time is the human and the ball and the desire to be in community, have fun and workout.

Let’s not lose track of what is important. Why do we write this stuff in the first place? We all want to grow, love and care and become better at whatever it is we do. Compassion, learning and relationship is the ball. our posts reflect only 15% of what we are striving to communicate.

3) SEO, LSI and quality content. Why not get really real here…and figure out how to make the SEO world authentically human and make it significant to our future? Sure, the brains can all play the technical game of who’s best and who can beat the game and design the algorithms.

Why not challenge these tech gurus to think with their hearts as well? Why not think first about what matters to their real world life, and then build algorithms that matter to our global vitality and global community? This is a way to inspire change from the inside out.

Why not challenge the search engines and the game players to get real in a new way to respond to what matters to flesh and blood humans?

Why don’t we choose to not play into the game and instead start defining the game? Instead of ‘reality tv’ that is not reality, lets make it SEO that is based on reality. We, the people, can do this. Why? Because we hold the power of purchase, the power of buzz, the power of focus.

The fact is, we face environmental crisis and climate change. We face globalization and over population. We face potential species extinction, rapid loss of bio-diversity and loss of our quality of food supply. In 30 years I can verify the losses, and the impacts. This is real.

And going into fear and insignificance isn’t useful. Being real is. For being real provides solidarity and power. It provides a grounding rod.

So let’s make the SEO significant to us.

Why not have our SEO gurus and logarithms start defining relevancy to what really matters? We can start the process by changing the quality of our posts, the quality of our conversation, the quality of what we pay attention to, the quality and intention of our language. Let’s start writing articles not to trick the engines, but to matter to the people, and to the future of humanity itself.

Sure this is a stretch, for it is a new way of thinking. I will write an article about this, for to me, this is what matters.

This article on Biznik.com helped me see new horizons and it helped me stretch my brain a bit bigger.  The subsequent discussion it caused gives me hope that thousands of you and these tech people are listening and trying to find ways to capture what matters to people. The machinery will change as we do. So we can lead the change when we accept responsibility for it.

Let’s think content at a new level. For example, start a movement where we define relevancy as what is relevant to the entire human species and the future of quality of life on earth?

Let’s do our part as business people and lead business to pay attention to what really matters. Life itself. We can help the SEO folks do what they do well, gather, dissemminate and work with collective intelligence.

Let’s make SEO relevant to life itself.   

You can read my profile on http://biznik.com/members/joy-gilfilen

Any thoughts on this? Have your read anything anywhere where people are thinking like this?