Dedication and Introduction – Critical Thinking

I’ll be publishing Critical Thinking for the Discerning SEO here, chapter by chapter, a couple of chapters per week. When it’s all done, a complete download will also be available. I hope you get as much benefit from reading it as I did in putting it together.

Dedication

Many of us have watched friends or loved ones slowly fade from some obscure illness, or suffer some loss that may have destroyed their life or piece of it. Whether stricken by cancer, a home burned to the ground, or a crushing financial loss, there is one thing that often can make the difference between a sense of defeat and renewed hope.

When friends and family appear at your side, offering whatever help they can, it means a lot. Some of you may have experienced this, many of you have probably offered that support to others. In either case, you already know how much it can mean to someone that’s experiencing total hopelessness.

But for someone in such a state to realize that there are many people out there that care enough to offer their support, even though they’ve never met you and probably never will… the impact is even greater.

Critical Thinking is dedicated to those people that need a shoulder to rest on, and to those that offer their shoulders to others. It’s that sense of humanity that lets us see hope for the future, in spite of despair in the present.

And this book is especially dedicated to the contributors to Critical Thinking, whose desire to share their wisdom and help the needy led them to make time in their already hectic schedules to share their humanity and put their knowledge to work helping others learn.

Introduction

Critical Thinking isn’t a how-to manual, at least not in the traditional sense. It isn’t meant to teach you internet marketing, search engine optimization or cross-stitching. What’s presented here is intended to illustrate how the participating professionals think about what they do. As you read their responses to various questions throughout the book, you’ll begin to detect a common theme… they don’t accept anything based upon claims of what it can do for their site, or even what it did for another. They may take such testimonials into consideration, but they perform their own analysis.

They recognize that what was the perfect technique for one site might be totally ineffective for another. They don’t make absolute statements about such things, because they know there are no absolutes.

In other words, they know that each and every task they undertake must be thought about in its own context. Even what worked beautifully on Site A last month may no longer be effective today for that same site.

Asking “What is the ideal technique to get my site to rank #1 for X keyword?” is like asking “What is the best wine to serve with dinner?” There are many variables, and each dinner consists of a different menu or different guests with varying levels of hunger and tastes.

While you can find many pearls of wisdom in their responses, you should consider those to be only the gravy. The meat & potatoes of Critical Thinking should be the mindset demonstrated by these seasoned pros – Critical Thinking.

Look. Learn. Listen. Test. Analyze.

Rinse and Repeat.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading this book as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. I’ve tried to put some valuable takeaways in here for you. Finding those that fit best is up to you.