Aristotle, the first SEO

Aristotle has plenty of famous quotes. I mean, he should, he’s one of the greatest minds to ever live.

He’s considered the first scientist in history, he invented the field of formal logic, and he was the first to categorize specific disciplines of science and explore the relationships to one another.

He’s the reason that you now have to take Physics & Chemistry in high school, not just “Science.”

You may hate him for that — I know I do.

But in any case, my favorite quote of his is hyper-relevant to SEO:

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

To use a layman’s analogy, the individual parts of a car are worthless until they are combined to create a car.

Translated to SEO, backlinks are worthless without great content. Content is worthless without a solid technical foundation. And so on…

Now, most people gravitate towards a specific discipline. Personally, my best attribute is on-page SEO.

But if I only focused on content, I’d suck at SEO.

Our brands wouldn’t make any money.

Why?

Because content is just one piece of the puzzle, and it’s worthless without a healthy technical foundation and consistent link building.

WORTHLESS.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I am so sick of hearing everyone preach that “content is king,” “Google is a link-based algorithm,” and any other phrase that frames a single element of SEO as the only one that matters.

They all matter.

I’ve worked with PR link building agencies that don’t understand anything about content.

I’ve worked with technical SEOs that have never built a link in their lives.

And most on-page SEOs I’ve met have couldn’t tell you how to set up a basic robots.txt file.

These are the worst SEOs.

They sit on their imaginary high horse and look down on the other disciplines.

I’ve never understood why — they simply accepted the fact that they weren’t good at the other disciplines — this is why they won’t be as successful as you.

Because you are competent in each discipline, and you understand that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Do not fall into the same trap that so many others have.

Do not get comfortable just writing content or just building links. Hone your craft in every single discipline, and I guarantee that you will make more money as a direct result.

Catch you on Friday.

Kai