It is bad when one thing becomes two. One should not look for anything else in the Way of the Samurai. It is the same for anything that is called a Way. If one understands things in this manner, he should be able to hear about all ways and be more and more in accord with his own.

When I originally started blogging, I played around with a couple of websites and names before settling on ‘TheWayoftheWeb’. It was inspired by the film Ghost Dog, which in turn led me to finally reading Hagakure, a work which contains thoughts and instruction from the age of the Samurai.

Since then, what began as a personal blog has become much more than that, particularly since TheWayoftheWeb Ltd came into creation. It’s becoming a hub for a growing team of people working under that name to provide a range of services for decent and fast-growing list of clients.

So what is ‘The Way of the Web’?

I did question whether it’s the right name for a company rather than a website. But I think it fits the philosophy and strategy I have for the future, so I felt it was time to clarify the name a little.

• The Way doesn’t refer to a set method of tactics. It’s not a prescription for how to set-up a Facebook page or write a blog post. It refers to a set of principles which should be applied to building a business at a strategic level in our modern digital era, and coping with the benefits and risks which are inherent to the world now and in the future.
• The Web doesn’t mean simply the fixed line internet accessed via a desktop computer. It means all communication technology, both via humans and devices in the coming age of the ‘internet of things’, which encompasses all manner of connected and semi-autonomous devices.

What that means is that we combine a small number of disciplines to allow us to help clients grow their business and understand what changes are required now and in the future, with the right mindset for a digital world.

Or to put in another way, we provide content and content marketing, search engine optimisation, social media marketing, accompanied by the tuition and insight into how this impacts the business as a whole, beyond plans to publish a blog post per day or five tweets a week.

It doesn’t mean that we don’t handle ‘straight’ SEO work, content outsourcing or social media marketing, but it means that we work harder to align that as part of the overall business, no matter what level of investment is being made.

That’s just the right Way.