The whole purpose of search engine optimization is to increase the amount and quality of visitors coming from search engines, by tweaking a website’s presentation and structure, and ensuring its content can be easily cataloged by search engines. Good SEO isn’t all about attracting more visitors to a website, but also those who are interested in the website’s topic as well.

It’s not unreasonable to think that bloggers could use of SEO to create a more realistic impression of their own country.

Local bloggers will always have a more honest perspective, at least compared to writers based abroad, many of whom have never even dropped by. And even the longest vacation or the most in-depth study will never match the experiences created by spending most of your life in a certain place. The problem is that local bloggers usually find their own perspectives about their country lacking exposure. Many established websites, who usually appear earlier on the list of search engines’ results, feature a Western outlook that’s decidedly out-of-touch with local realities. This is where SEO comes in.

Through SEO, the chance for these bloggers’ content to become more visible—to people trying to find out more about the blogger’s country—increases. Conceivably, this can translate to a better understanding of what the country and its people are all about, not just higher traffic numbers. A perfect example is the redefine Filipina campaign. Instead of Philippine women being known exclusively as mail-order brides and prostitutes, some discerning linkbuilding can provide a more realistic outlook, by giving other kinds of Filipinas exposure.

Of course, this spotlight on SEO doesn’t mean we should forget about the message we’re trying to share. What’s the point of gaining visibility if you have nothing significant, informative, or useful to offer? This makes it harder to get the repeat visitors and make your point on a consistent basis. SEO should always be complementary to the process of creating quality content.

In a sense, everything detailed here represents nationalistic marketing of sorts: create content that accurately depicts your own country, then do a little SEO to build its visibility. Regarding your own country’s reputation online, would you prefer people end up seeing cultural stereotypes, or websites like The Bayanihan Blog Network and its member blogs, where we try our best to tell it like it is?