I've been doing a lot of work on my website lately. Mostly, I've been writing kickass blog posts (like this one!) and trying to get some traffic.
I've also been doing some Search Engine Optimization. (For the layman, that means tweaking certain aspects of your site in order to boost its rankings on search engines like Google.)
What I've realized is that a lot of the principles behind SEO can be applied to our social lives too.
We all spend a lot of time and energy trying to meet the "right people" -- friends, lovers, creative partners. Most of the time, that means a lot of dead ends and awkward encounters.
What if we could improve the frequency and quality of "hits" without having to worry about our "bounce rate"?
When I first moved to LA in 2008, I had high hopes for the California life. I wanted to start a band. I wanted to go to Burning Man. I wanted to meet some Crazy Fucking Hippies.
This was in the days before OKCupid and Couchsurfing (or at least before I knew how to use them) so my options were pretty limited.
The only people I knew in LA were my friends from film school. On weekends, they liked to dress up nice and go out to clubs on the Sunset Strip.
That got old pretty quickly, and I got depressed.
My friends thought I was overreacting. "Just work on improving yourself," they said. "Focus on your own life and eventually you'll meet the people you're looking for."
The problem is, that wasn't true.
I could be as good a person as I could possibly be -- I could have great "content" -- but if the right people didn't know where to find me, it wouldn't make one bit of difference.
That's where SEO comes in.
Here are five tips to help you get more "hits" for the least amount of effort:
1. Sort out your metadata. In web terms, metadata is the information that search engines use to catalog your site -- the title, tagline, description. Your visitors can't see the metadata, but it's still important. Without it, search engines won't know what you're about.
Just as metadata goes into the "head" of a site's code, you need to make sure the metadata in your own head is up-to-date and accurate. Are your goals the same as they were five years ago? Are you still looking for the same things in your work or your social life?
Get your metadata sorted out. This is the core of your social identity.
2. Choose the right keywords. Keywords help a search engine decide whether or not your site is relevant to a visitor's search requests. Some websites cheat by embedding dozens of keywords into their posts to come up higher in search results.
You don't have to go that far. Just make sure that the topics you bring up in your interactions are things you actually care about. I like to drop "Burning Man" into group discussions because it gives me a chance to share interesting stories and show off my adventurous side.
You want to be known as "That guy who's really passionate about _______," not "The guy who goes on rants about everything."
3. Get some links. Having links to your site from outside sources is one way to build up traffic. Search engines will see your site as more relevant and boost your ranking. For bloggers, this often mean submitting guest posts to other sites or getting listed in online directories.
In the real world, that means getting your friends to vouch for you. Let them know the kinds of people that you're looking to meet and projects you want to get involved with. Ask them to introduce you to potential dates or creative partners who they think might be a good fit.
4. Generate leads. Once you've gotten people interested in what you do, how do you ensure that they keep coming back? On the web, there are plenty of options, from a weekly mailing list to a membership forum to an RSS feed.
In real life, offer a business card. Propose a creative collaboration. Don't let a momentary connection fade off for lack of momentum. Give people a reason to remember you.
5. Ward off trolls. Not all hits are created equal. It's better to have a small number of quality, reliable visitors than a steady stream of mediocre ones. Regardless of your site's content, there are going to be plenty of people who don't get it, or are hostile to your message.
This is true in social settings too. Don't feel obliged to associate with people who drag you down or put a damper on your projects. Be up front about what you're looking for. Politely turn away the people who don't get you, so you can spend more time with the people who do.
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These are some of the lessons I've learned from "optimizing" my social life. How about you? Are there any secret algorithms you've figured out? How do you put yourself out there?