Let’s face reality for a second. You and I have this both natural and strange difficulty in expressing our thoughts. When we are facing a problem, the kind which looks more like a big mess than a simple thing to deal with, our brain tricks us by putting in the table the obvious reason.
100% of the time, we are struck by the clear-sightedness. The cause of our problem is throwing it out of our body.
“This is it ! That’s why I am stuck, it’s because of [put any reason you want]”
This particular and so common scenario also does not escape semantic search. Every time I talk to a customer, a prospect about what accommodates him / her, what he / she would like to solve. I always have this same answer that is mixed with an amused mimic, a fusion of obviousness and astonishment.
“Well, it sounds clear that I am not visible on Google”…
Here is the main reason most people find out about what they call an issue. But this is not (of course it is not, otherwise this blog post would be meaningless).
My empathetic nature and my ability to listen have allowed me to help people like you to reveal the root cause of their problem. To follow up my mission I will teach you how you can identify your inner issue.
Don’t be fooled by what is glaring
Whether you like it or not, your brain manipulates you like a puppet. It makes you move and believe what it wants. And its tendency to be lazy is a big hindrance to your analysis and understanding of what is going on.
If your only answer about why you are stuck is “my website doesn’t rank well”, put this aside immediately, you are wrong. This is clearly not the cause of your issue, at best we can call it a symptom.
By using system thinking we can rapidly find out what the inner reason of your problem is. And what a better way to play with the 5 whys.
Identify your inner Semantic Search issue with the 5 Whys
I think it might be smart to define first what are the 5 Whys. It is an interrogative method used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The 5 Whys method is part of system thinking which I use to draw Semantic Search strategies for industry companies.
The basic principle is that you should begin by asking why an event happened. Then take the explanation, turn it around, treat it as a separate event and ask why that happened. Then take the second explanation, treat it as a separate event and ask why that happened. Keep going until you have asked yourself WHY 5 times.
At that point you should have gotten down to the root cause of your issue.
The 5 Whys method can uncover larger issues in a system and suggest fixes that don’t just deal with the problem at hand but head off other problems throughout the system. It leads us through levels of thinking.
Instead of limiting ourselves to dealing with isolated events, we are more likely to notice patterns. And after seeing patterns, we can begin to see the flaws in our mental models and gain better vision of :
“How we can work together”
For sure, 5 Whys take courage and determination to work through the layers and find root causes. But this system thinking model can surely help you have a better understanding of your Semantic Search issue and help you make better decisions.