Warning: This post has almost no tips, tricks, or guides to SEO/M. This post is entirely what food taught me about Internet Marketing. I'm sure YOUmoz has more SEO/M realists around that could help you with whatever you're looking for.

Being a ghost reader in SEOmoz for almost 6 months now, I believe it's time for me to put my share of thoughts back into the Search Community that gave me benefits which I could not have given back in time (2008). I've learnt a lot from people like Eric Enge and Rand, Jane, Sarah, Will, and so forth. Looking back, I've been more into the community than I could've realized in such a short period of time.

There are many perceptions to being in the kitchen as compared to being in the SEO industry. What differs them most, by all means of logic, is their industry - activities, ingredients, methodologies, consumers, target market, etc. Like any other businesses, everything starts from scratch. When I was a kitchen helper 4 years ago, I washed and cut vegetables, prepped ingredients for chefs, gathered mushrooms around the forest, etc. Little did I understand the position I was in until I was handed a certain sales and business pressure, which is almost too similar to the trends I'm following on SEO/M practices.

I've yet to learn much about Search Engine Optimization / Marketing, but this is at least the information that I can share from both these worlds:

1. I started learning SEO by writing articles. I did not know anything yet about SEO until I was introduced to it by a friend. Back then (March 2008), I'd only had enough information to stuff in 3% keyword density into my 200 word article, create a killer header, write a mind-boggling subtitle, pen two lines of 'I want to eat more of this' summary, and create a 200-word body text that had synonyms of keywords that I chose.
   
   How it taught me: When I was in my kitchen helper days, I was always pestered by my senior chef to do his little dirty job. I took the pain for a while, then I learnt his skills. Before I left the restaurant to further my diploma, I took the trouble to practice my kitchen skills hard, to make myself MARKETABLE with my knowledge. Little did I know just two weeks later, I got my first commemoration from the head chef saying, "Continue doing these, and you'll have a desk in my office, next to me."
   
   Lesson Learnt: There are strategies like the Blue Ocean Strategy and the Guerrilla Marketing Strategies available in this world. But what's most important is the quality you provide to your end-user, which will result in the acknowledgment of your superiors (or in the case of link acquisition, the popular mainstream media), not so much about the technical keyword density or how many links you CAN acquire from this article - more like a robust dish that will keep your visitors coming for more.
2. Even when I was a head chef in a restaurant, I still need to portion my Australian tenderloin, carve fruits for that buffet event, jump into the griller position and prepare that well-done lamb shoulder, etc. Sometimes, I even swept the floor or helped my dishwashers wash the dishes when the kitchen was extremely busy or when there was an emergency.
   
   How it taught me: When you've achieved something in your marketing campaigns, always remember that your achievements don't stop there. Technology is moving very fast, and sometimes it's best that you get into the shoes of your SEOs due to the fact that, in an ideal world, a boss should always know how to handle his staff's position in a more justified, capable manner.
   
   Lesson Learnt: Never say no to information, and never reject frantic ideas without measuring its positive side effects or strategies to go about that frantic idea that result in an awesome idea. Learning things the hard way (as I did), I realized that the moment I pushed my ego up so high (even with a very systemized kitchen operation system) that I couldn't bear the 'feel' I got from my downlines, that I was once in that position and was indeed blessed to have gone this far at a young age. Looking at what Eric Enge is (the one-man show), it's because he's capable of the work he does, and he brings quality to the Search Industry. Lastly, I can feel he's passionate in what he writes or does.
3. Just like opening a new restaurant, marketing initiatives are important. Even to the extent of knowing your target market, whether I should run this marketing campaign or not, how many turnovers per seat and table do I have in a day, what's the price of the menu, how will this affect my business in the future, how much should I invest for my marketing cost, what data should I collect for my feasibility study, etc.
   
   How it taught me: Like SEO/M, running marketing campaigns aren't as easy as pay-print-publish. You'll have to know your demographics well. Who are your main readers? What will they probably read? Where would they probably go? What are they looking for? What are their behaviors on the Internet? How far will their 'online' investment actually go? Do they do online shopping? Is that country Yahoo or Baidu, is the market big enough, what keywords should they target, longtail or popular short terms? Which app that Google provides will be the perfect bait? What are your target market's social media patterns? What is the current trend now in that industry?
   
   Lesson Learnt: Just like opening a new restaurant, starting a new website (without strong domains linking back) will take some time for it to fully expand into a site like SEOmoz. Even that's how Rand started - with his forums and loads of financial crises (when the company faced a crisis back then) and marketing initiatives. Initiative, creativity and patience is what it takes to make things happen.
4. During seasonal times, menu items may change. Promotional efforts may be done. Prices on the menu have to be revised. Famous dishes have to be retained, while others have to go. Stocks in the kitchen have to be balanced. Invoice statements need to be tallied. Many things change when a menu changes. But what kept our regulars is this - Public Relations.
   
   How it taught me: Despite the hike of oil prices (months ago), our restaurant couldn't withstand the torture we'd get when we'd see our F&B cost hike. Just like when Google introduced a search box within sitelinks back then - it was a challenge for many webmasters. Still, many SEOs dealt with it very well and maintained their competitiveness. I was then trying to establish my thought on what M.Cutts meant by "Benefit the end-users first," so I gave more focus on building SEO-friendly sites with content worthy enough to draw attention.
   
   Lesson Learnt: There are more initiatives than just the Internet alone. Instead of focusing too much on Online Marketing, I've put my focus to integrate Offline Marketing to my SEO/M initiatives. I myself ran out to do sales, gather information and data from people, approach government organizations and educational institutes, engage in parties and visit banking officials, etc. Little did I realize that these people actually made a much bigger impact on my Internet Marketing efforts. And I believe this is what restaurants should do, SEO/Ms' should also do, and so forth.
5. Being 21 years old this year, many of those who are less experienced will not listen to me when I give them F&B/restaurant training, simply for the fact that my skin don't wrinkle and my beard isn't white. Instead of going the rough and negative way, I dug into their personal life, gave them respect they couldn't have earned by me being a superior to them, and gave them the knowledge. In turn, they gave me back something I could not ask for - morale.
   
   How it taught me: When you're in the SEO/M industry, it's not always about links, but rather your credibility, way of doing things, way of handling your customers, way of digging into them and do what's best for them while retaining your ego, credibility and position. Yes, links might be the bread and butter of your campaign but at large, your ultimate view over how you want things to happen at the end of the day very much depends on what are your actions taken now.
   
   Lesson learnt: Instead of just acquiring links for the sake of ranking and, ultimately, targeted traffic, I've put my number 1 focus on service. And that's not limited to before sales, during sales and after sales - it covers from the user's start of the usage on search engines to the time they visit my site. It can vary from providing information to certain people for free (and without backlinks, just a word of citation remark), visiting a place and make a remarkable (not necessarily always good) review on the place, contacting and making partnerships with certain media, expanding your network from different industries (which will not directly benefit your business), etc.

I believe this post is getting longer and I bet it'll be more daunting to read on further.

Hope you all enjoyed this edition of 'Food & SEO'. If you have an experience about food & SEO, why not share with the community here at YOUmoz?