Short answer: to make this home of mine findable, and to learn a new skill.
Not using social media is a conscious choice on my part. I'm not trying to hide — quite the opposite. I want to stay connected with family and friends while making new ones. Building this personal website from scratch is my attempt to share and engage on my terms. But just building a website that lays hidden on the interwebs is like building a home in a remote forest and saying, "I’ve done my part to create a space for connection." I have to ensure that my website is findable, just like my home will have to be easily accessible if I want to have people over. Learning SEO and putting it into practice with my website helps me do that.
Who should be able to find me?
- Family and friends: I don't intend to spam my family and friends, ever. Slowly and over time, as naturally as possible, I hope to tell them about my website. I’m confident many of them will check it out immediately — but I’m even more confident they’ll forget the URL. Whenever they decide to visit my virtual home again, they will search for it, and if I want to be the host I claim to be, my website has to be the top hit whenever they search for my name. (Apologies in advance to all other Suraj Sudhakars out there!)
- Professional Network: My work is a big part of who I am, and I intend to continue building and working till late in my life. These days, we often search for people online before meeting them. If you intend to work with them in any capacity, you search even more intently. I think it's fair. In addition, I also believe that if they are that interested, they should get to know as much about me as possible. I intend to do exactly that with my website. Here again, if someone searches for my name, my website has to be the top hit.
- Random People: The beauty of the internet is it allows for coincidence and serendipity. I know I have benefited from articles and videos that I stumbled upon randomly. If there are people out there who could benefit from what I have learned, that's great. If there is something I could do to support them or help them, that would be great too. To allow for this coincidence and serendipity, I have to ensure that my posts show up on relevant search results.
Why learn a new skill?
- Age: I'm growing older by the year. The people in my world who have stayed sharp and vibrant in spite of the years are people who are constantly learning. Any new skill I pick up needs to push me out of my comfort zone.
- Complementarity: At the same time, it shouldn’t be so far out of my comfort zone that I talk myself out of doing it. SEO skills really complement my desire to build my online home. In some ways, it builds on things I already know — computer systems, networks, internet, world wide web, search engines, etc.
- Practice: Skill is something that improves with practice. From what I’ve understood, SEO isn’t a one-time thing. I need to understand the basics, figure out a strategy for my personal website, and do small things, consistently, over time.
- Professional Utility: Learning SEO will really help me have meaningful conversations with marketers and website developers for my company's websites. It will help me hire better for the results I seek.
- Results: Speaking of results, I can easily measure how well I am doing. The simple goal: make surajsudhakar.com the top result when someone searches for Suraj Sudhakar (even if it is not me.) It's easy to know when I have achieved my target and when I am beginning to slip.
If you are wondering, as of 20th April 2025 (when this post is published), surajsudhakar.com doesn’t even show up in the results — even if you search for surajsudhakar.com.
I have a little over eight months. Wish me luck!