Who among us doesn’t enjoy putting their foot down and heading off for a great drive to relax and think of something different for a while?

I personally think that SEO workers can get a great benefit from going for a drive now and then, and here are some of the songs I suggest for the journey.

All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix

Thanks to the internet I recently discovered that this is a Bob Dylan song, but it has to be said that Jimi Hendrix made it his own with the scintillating version he did. Why is this a great song for anyone involved in SEO? I think that it shows how you can start off with something which most people would be happy to class as the finished article and completely surpass it by bringing in fresh ideas. Only a musical genius could completely and utterly rip up a Dylan song and turn it into something a hundred times better, but anyone with patience and a creative side can try to improve on the SEO jobs their rivals are doing.

Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin

I actually loathe this overblown and rather hollow song. So why is it on my favourite driving compilation CD? Well, when I looked up the internet a while ago to find some more classic rock songs to download this one was on everyone’s list. I already knew that I hated it but I somehow ended up downloading it anyway in the belief that the rest of the world was probably right while I was wrong. The message for SEO; if you tell enough people good things about something then a lot of them will start believing it and checking it out, even when they weren’t really convinced at the start.

Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen

Back in the days when my mum chose my underpants I was a big Springsteen fan and I still am now that my wife chooses them instead. Born in the USA wasn’t my favourite album of his by any means but I think that this song is worth mentioning for anyone involved in SEO. The amazing thing is that the lyrics make it crystal clear that this is a song about being sent off by the US army to “kill the yellow man” in Vietnam. It is an anti-war song which says nothing good about the USA at all. Despite this, it has been somehow claimed as a rousing patriotic anthem which even politicians have latched onto. How did this happen? It happened because millions of people listened to the upbeat music and to the bit where he sings about being “Born in the USA”. They either didn’t hear the lines about fighting the Viet Kong, didn’t understand them or simply didn’t care. This shows us that the way something is put across can often be more important than the actual words used. If you keep getting hung up on the exact phrases you write for blogs or SEO articles then it is worth bearing this in mind.

Feeling Good – Nina Simone

This is my favourite song right now and while it doesn’t have an awful lot to do with SEO I have added it in for the inspiration it can give. The lyrics are of the uplifting kind (unless I’ve misunderstood them and it’s actually about D-Day or the massacre at Glencoe or something). “It’s a new dawn/It’s a new day/It’s a new life for me/And I’m feeling good”. This song might just help you remember that yesterday and its problems are now history. We can all have difficult days at work but the most important thing is to look forward to a new day and then see how you can make it better than the one which has just passed.

As strange as it may seem, copywriting is an area which can benefit from inspiration from all sorts of walks of life.