My Life Used to Be So Much More than a Keyword

By Bob Deakin

The erosion of identity and the cruel joke of being human in a quantified world is that my entire life has been reduced to a keyword.

I’ve toiled for decades to become the person I am. “Toiled” may be an exaggeration but you know what I mean. Laughter, tears, learning, gaining and losing have all molded that little ball of clay into a living, creative soul who wants to make the world a better place.

My Life Used to Be So Much More Than a Keyword

In the digital world, all I am is a keyword, a search term. It takes effective search engine optimization (SEO) to find me, not a call or a kind word from a friend. When life becomes searchable only by Google, I’m not so sure Google is my friend.

I’m forever hearing how I must optimize to be searchable. Haven’t I been doing that since kindergarten? All I wanted to be was a good person. 

Now, the world only wants a “results-driven, detail-oriented, self-starting team player who thinks outside the box.”

Who wants to be that guy?

Before Algorithms There Was Life

I’m bruised by SEO-era ideology but not broken. It’s not real, although too many lives revolve around the Google search. I’m still innocent enough to see the content through the keywords.

I was a person before I was a keyword, and a pretty good one. I had friends (connections), acquaintances (followers), and every day presented the possibility of new kindred souls (friend suggestions) in my life. I followed the golden rule (best SEO practices) and laid the foundation for a good life (high-traffic website).

Now, Google Analytics is my homepage.

The Best Multi-Genre Narrative Generator I Can Be 

A publisher’s recent AI analysis described me, the author, as “a multi-genre narrative generator focused on music-informed cultural commentary, character-driven essays, and cross-demographic long-form engagement.”

Not sure I want to be that guy either, and it’s too long for my headstone. 

A Long-Tail Keyword and a Ten-Gallon Hat

What type of keyword are you? There are long-tail, mid-tail and short-tail keywords. Short-tails are defined as one to three words. I would call two or three words a phrase, but in the SEO world, “running shoes,” for example, is a word.

Rachel Handley wrote Long-Tail Keywords: The Ultimate Guide for 2025 for SEMrush last year. She espoused long-tail keywords for their ability to earn high unpaid rankings.

“Long-tail keywords are important in SEO because they’re relatively easy to rank highly for, they can drive high-quality traffic, they have high collective search volumes when grouped, and they can help you appear in AI-generated responses,” she wrote.

SEO and Identity

If I’m just a keyword, I’m a long-tail keyword, and please refer to me as a key phrase. I’m unique, divine, and I can’t be bought. 

My life used to be so much more than a keyword. The lines between SEO and identity have blurred. Don’t call me the K-word. Just call. If you can’t find me, Google “results-driven, detail-oriented, self-starting team player who thinks outside the box.”

That will narrow it down to at least a few thousand.

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