April 6th, 2010 by Susie

The divide between the humanities and the sciences has long been a problem poorly addressed by the British educational system. It has meant that relatively few individuals are well versed in art and science. Despite the efforts of authors like C.P. Snow, who tried to bring modern science to a literary audience, the gap has stubbornly endured to this day as evidenced by a current argument about where higher education cuts should fall. It is arguably one of the reasons why search engine optimization can be difficult to comprehend. Although search engine optimisation cannot be described as scientific, it does seem to have elements of art and science in its composition.

Search engine optimisation consists of competing theories and assorted perspectives. There is much room for debate on various crucial issues. The subject cannot be reduced to easy categories like white hat and black hat. Search engine optimisation practices often fall between these classes of behaviour. The fluid nature of the search environment and the emerging opportunities presented by the new social media add further degrees of complexity to the mix. Complexity and controversy are often best understood by social scientists.

The way in which search engine optimisation proceeds on the basis of experience also has something reminiscent of the social sciences about it. Search engine optimisation seems like an art in as much as digesting the lessons of the past is fundamental to future success. The fact that SEO content production has some artistic elements to it is also relevant to the debate. Content cannot be manufactured in quite the same way as many other products, if sterile forgettable prose is to be avoided. If content was generated by a computer, it would lack the fresh originality that a human author can occasionally inject.

Science is often rather baffling to people not initiated into its secrets. The debate on climate change has underlined how reliant many of us are on expert opinion. A considerable number of people are becoming sceptical about what the scientific consensus has to say, because they do not trust scientists to be impartial. Science, however, has been the foundation for massive technological progress and is therefore connected to elements of search engine optimisation.

The scientific method of testing hypotheses may not be quite applicable to the sphere of SEO. There are apparently too many variables, too many unknowns and too many competitors for the wholesale employment of the scientific method. However, the use of SEO tools and the adoption of an analytical mind set can mean that scientific reasoning is definitely involved in certain pivotal processes. Without the illumination offered by the use of scientific techniques, search engine optimisation would be a vaguer set of theories and fewer business people would invest scarce resources in it.

As the results of search engine optimisation resist prediction, it would be a substantive mistake to surround the topic with the status of science. However, the pursuit of progress up the search engine results pages does have some scientific ingredients. By comprehending the complicated elements of SEO through the prism of this debate, it is possible to increase our insights into what remains a complex field.

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