Early each morning fingers of mists roll out of Boyd’s Bay into the open water. Below the mist, millions of water spiders skim and skip across the surface creating tiny ripples on the otherwise still lake. It’s the quietest time of the day, the time the sun is just rising above the ridge of trees that mark the start of the great northern forests. The conditions are perfect for catching breakfast in a place where one eats what they kill and clean themselves.

I am on vacation at my family’s cottage in Northern Ontario and this morning, I’m taking my nephew fishing. We’re in the faster of the two boats, tooling across Lake Muskoka at about fifteen knots. Beside me at the bow of the boat is my nephew Tyler. He’s wrapped in an old Hudson’s Bay blanket with a mug of steaming cocoa in his eleven year old hands. I’m talking with Tyler about being a good webmaster. He has just posted his first website and is interested in how search engines work. I’m happy to teach him the ways of web marketing but first we need to cover the fundamentals of bass fishing.

“Believe it or not Tyler, being a good webmaster is sort of like being a good fisherman,” I start, “If you want to look at it the right way the combination of skills, patience and knowledge are somewhat similar.”

“No it’s not Uncle Jim”, Tyler says. “Nobody would be working on their computer this early in the morning.”

“You’d be surprised kiddo,” I reply, “but it’s not the time of day I’m talking about. There’s a lot more to getting amazing search engine placements than being a good webmaster but that’s a good place to start.”

We’re following the line of the shore to a fairly remote spot his father and I used to fish three decades ago. I’m guiding the boat around the big island, through the narrows and up the big lake towards the point where, as I recall, roads do not go. We’re far beyond cell phone range and I have that faint and nagging fear that if something unexpected happens, I won’t be able to remember how to deal with it properly.

Fortunately, my fears are unfounded. As we round the corner past the narrows and into the open lake, everything feels like it did twenty-five years ago, a sense aided by the fact my nephew looks exactly like his father did at his age. We have another five minutes or so to travel before hitting the first of a series of protected coves known to be hot fishing holes. I have a bit of time to get into some dual purpose training.

“Ok. Let’s pretend that the lake is the Internet, the boat is your website and all the fish that swim past our boat, even the ones we don’t see, are potential site visitors,” I say.

“What about the other people fishing?” he says.

“They’re the other webmasters,” I smile. “They’re trying to catch their share of fishes too.” We’re rapidly approaching the first of the fishing holes and I start to cover how to tie a spindle to his line to hold the hook, how to cast and when to reel in. We discuss the merits of rocks vs. reeds and why big lake bass are far more fun to catch than a prehistoric pike.

Along the way our conversation flits between fishing and his website.

“Working on the web requires a lot of patience Ty. Just like fishing, there are a lot of tiny things you have to do every time to make sure you’re doing it properly.” I think I can pull of the metaphor before the kid gets bored. “You have to make sure your website is like our boat, ship shape. Notice how each of the ropes (or lines) are coiled, even though we are probably going to use them before we head back to the cottage? That’s because I want to make sure everything is exactly where I expect it to be when I am looking for it.

“The same goes for your website. You should put every major element like your navigation menu and topic information exactly where your visitors expect them to be. That way people are able to move from point-A to whatever interests them without getting lost.

“Now, you know every time you cast and start reeling in, I suggest you give the rod a short tug forward to put action on the bait? That’s one of the tricks which attract fish to your line. You should do the same sort of thing for website visitors. Give them a little extra, a bit more consideration than the next guy. That’s how you can guarantee they have a good experience and come back again.”

“Uncle Jim” Tyler says, “If I attract a fish to my line, I’m not going to give it a very good experience, am I?”

“Well, I guess your right about that kid but that’s not what I’m getting at. Besides which, website visitors are NOT fish…. We’re just trying to tell a story here.”

I go on describing site structure as a well kept boat, webmaster tools as a well stocked tackle box and a fast computer (with html and image editing software) as a good set of rods. I explain that solid analytics are like having fish finding sonar and GPS on your boat. I even go as far as to compare the Internet to the dominant watershed in the region, the same one that pushes an enormous volume of water between Lake Huron and the St. Lawrence River.

Tyler interrupts. “Gee Uncle Jim, that’s a lot of stuff to remember. How did you ever learn so much about fishing?”

“Kiddo, Grampa taught me and your father everything we know and let me tell ya, he has forgotten more about fishing than I’ll ever know.” I see my chance to get a moral lesson on the value of education and hard work.

“You’re right about one thing Ty, there is a lot of information to remember about fishing and those who take the time to learn it will catch the most fish. It’s the same thing as being a good webmaster. Those who take the time to learn and even better, listen to the experts stand a far better chance of success.”

“This is the first spot right Uncle?” Ty asks. “Would you call this a hotspot?”

I chuckle at his joke, feeling good about the morning and even better about the prospect of spending the rest of the day in the wilderness doing one of those things I do far too infrequently. It’s good to have the chance to step back and think about the web when one is too far to actually see it.

After a decade of doing this, I tend to forget how much information webmasters and search engine marketers need to know to do their jobs. Both seem as natural as teaching a kid how to fish.