This article, blog, guest post, or whatever you want to call it, is written for those who are new and learning SEO. I hope I don’t come off as cocky or arrogant. I simply want to help make the SEO community a better place. After practicing SEO for several years and assisting businesses in succeeding online, I feel I have learned some very valuable lessons I’d like to share with those who care.
1. Read These Documents
As the SEO market becomes saturated with new content each day, there are some pieces of content that have withstood the test of time. I would categorize the following SEO related documents as “must reads”. I wouldn’t say they need to be completely comprehended but they definitely should be read.
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The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine: This paper is essentially the birth of Google. Whether or not everything in this paper is still current and relevant is debatable. However, the article provides valuable insights on how Google is/was supposed to operate.
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The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web: Any experienced SEO reading this knows PageRank is not what it used to be. However, it is fascinating to study the value of links and the authority they can pass. Understanding how links work and why they are important are essential to being successful at SEO.
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Search Engine Optimization Secrets: I did not realize how important links were until I read this book. Danny Dover said something along the lines of, “Most of the problems SEOs run up against can be addressed by adding inbound links”. In my opinion this is one of the better books on SEO.
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Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide: This piece is worth reading in it’s entirety at least once. In it Google lays out the basics of what SEO is and what they expect to see. It’s then worth browsing every now and then, as it changes with Google’s updates.
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Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: There are a lot of similarities in this piece and the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. However, they provide bullet points on some of the “No No’s” in SEO. If some of these guidelines are broken it can wreak havoc on your website and search engine rankings.
2. Keep Trying
When it comes to SEO, keep trying and keep being creative. I guarantee that most people, and companies for that matter, are looking for easy ways to produce results. They are searching for the next best “guest posting” tactic. While that’s fine, I suggest trying to develop new and creative ways to earn links and create content that will distance you from spammers. Like any good experiment, as you keep trying and tweaking different variables you will begin to see what brings forth the best results. Don’t be afraid to try new things. More often than not, you will succeed and the tactic will become easier and more fruitful each time you implement it.
3. Do Some Black-Hat SEO
Many readers may not like this one, but I believe you never know how something works until you try it. I have found it valuable to understand how and why black-hat SEO sometimes works (at least temporarily). Once I learn why it works, I then replace it in a white-hat way. Have you ever rented a link? Have you ever used exact match anchor text? Have you ever cloaked a site? What about using a link wheel? By the way, back in the day, link wheels worked like a charm ;). By trying some of these tactics, you can better understand useful and effective white-hat methods that work. For example, I had no clue what a link hub was until I used a link wheel (link hubs are referenced in the PageRank Citation Paper). Learning about link hubs helped me realize the value of high authority and relevant websites. Another example would be to rent an anchor text rich link or a high value link. Wow, I have never seen something work so well! Again, this taught me the worth of high quality links.
Warning: Test some of these tactics out on a domain you don’t need or a website you don’t use anymore. Failing to do so may result in harsh consequences. So proceed with caution.
4. Branch Out to Other SEO Website Resources
I love Moz. I love Search Engine Journal. I love Search Engine Land. These sites, along with several other websites and blogs, provide exceptional content, information and tools. There are probably a hundred great resources available, but I just want to share a few of my favorites that may be less known by some. Time after time, these individuals and companies have provided me and my business with invaluable information.
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Link Moses: Eric Ward has been building links since I was in diapers. Okay, maybe not that long, but the advice he gives is invaluable and his theories are time-tested. Read everything he writes and says.
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Backlinko: Brian’s creativity is exceptional and he always has great link building ideas. We once had a song written for a client of ours thanks to his creativity. The quality of the song is debatable, and the link too for that matter, but it opened the door for our minds to think outside the box.
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SEO Theory: The name says it all. SEO Theory always has great insights and commentary on SEO.
(Please share some of your favorite websites, blogs and tools as I am always looking for new resources!)
5. Budget Money for Your Client’s Business
Great content doesn’t grow on trees and neither does money. Dollar bills are the currency of the web. Whether you are a large company, a small business or an in-house SEO team, odds are you have to pay someone to create great content. At my company, we designate between 35-45% of each client’s monthly budget for link earning and/or content creation. It is better to create one piece of solid content for $500 than it is to create four pieces of content for $125 each. You’ll get better results and keep the internet clean. That is one reason the spam emails you get every day offering a 100 directories, 100 guest posts, 100 forums, and 100 social likes, and on and on and on, don’t work. They are simply building crap links for pennies. Take all the money you would spend on that and spend it on one bad ass digital asset.
6. Learn How to Write or Hire Someone Who Can
I hate writing. In fact, typing this up is hurting as I do it. The truth of the matter is being able to write in the SEO industry is invaluable. Everything you do is writing… titles, descriptions, blogs, guides, etc. If you are not particularly good at creating content, hire someone who is or outsource your writing to a writer you can trust. I recently read a great book called ReWork, written by the creators of Basecamp. One piece of advice they give in the book, which I second, is to hire the best writer out there, even if it costs a pretty penny. This couldn’t be more true in our industry.
7. Relationships and Networking
It’s not what you know, but who you know. I believe this to be true with all my heart! My business started by knowing people who needed websites. It had nothing to do with what I knew, because to be frank, I knew diddly squat when I started. Building solid relationships can get you very far in life and in SEO. I’ve learned that when you treat people fair and honest, they will reciprocate the same. In reaching out to some relevant sites for one of our clients recently, we found a website owner who was willing to write and advertise for us on his site. The cost was XXX for the write-up and advertising. He would write a solid 1000+ word article, post it on his blog and share it with his followers via Twitter and Facebook. We exchanged several emails over the course of a month or so and in the end he emailed us with the article enclosed, and kindly asked for payment via PayPal. I replied I would take care of it right away. Well, I ended up getting pulled away for something and totally forgot. He patiently emailed me a day or two later asking if there was a problem. I apologized for the wait and rectified my “oops” moment right way. He ended up introducing us to 10+ bloggers within the niche. My point is building real relationships with trust will benefit both parties. By introducing me to multiple bloggers, this individual essentially vouched for me and endorsed me to his network of friends and I would do the same for him.
8. Don’t Believe Everything You Read or Hear
Every time you hear or read something new in the industry, research the hell out of it. Read everything you can on it. Try it out. See which parts work and which don’t. When Google announced their Panda and Penguin updates, I researched and dissected everything people were writing and saying about the updates. After doing so, I gained a deeper understanding of what was going on and how it might impact some of the things we were doing for clients. I went on to write one of my first in depth blog posts, “Anchor Text Penguin and Co Citation.” By researching and then trying to articulate what I had learned, I furthered my understanding even more. From all of my reading and studying on the first Penguin update, I came to the conclusion that as a business, we needed to start doing higher quality guest and blog posts . While our current content was decent, it could easily fall by the wayside at any point in time. We stopped using sites that would only give us links in the author bio and we wouldn’t post content on sites that were similar to article directories but for guest posts. We felt it was only a matter of time before Google hammered down on guest posting, and look what is happening now.
9. Do the Hard Things First
When I first entered the SEO world, I relied on directories as my main link building source. Man was that easy. Then I found it was even easier to pay Directory Maximizer to build the links for me. However, I do not recommend this path, as I quickly discovered it was not effective and I needed to try something else. The first time I decided to create a truly link-worthy asset, it was hard. Very, very hard. And not only was it hard, it was also extremely time consuming. However, it was rewarding because genuine links were built to support it and the rankings for the client were positively impacted. It took a few months for my company’s mindset to shift and start building these linkable assets each month, as it was quite a change from the original 500-word blog posts and directories we were cranking out. My employees and I were not incompetent; it was simply getting over the fact that we could no longer take the easy path and that we were now entering unknown territory. With the 500-word blogs we knew what to expect and what to do. However, they weren’t working to the extent we needed. If we had decided to build an infographic, or another linkable asset from the get-go, it wouldn’t have been as difficult to make that transition and the learning curve would have been far shorter. I guess we all live and learn! And we are happy to now be above and beyond the learning curve.
10. Learn Trends, Stay Ahead of Them and Watch for Patterns
Once you have an in-depth understanding of the basics and how and why things work the way they do, build upon them. Take that knowledge and apply it to different strategies in SEO. For example, one of the first SEO books I read recommended doing articles and article submissions. A few years later, Google released Panda and nailed the majority of article directories and thin-content sites. Jump ahead to January 20, 2013 and Matt Cutts basically waged war on low quality guest posting. Article marketing evolved into guest posting and now what will guest posting evolve into? Soon a new “link building trend” will emerge just like article submissions and guest posts did. So you should just wait and catch the new wave, right? Wrong. I have found the best way to stay ahead of trends is to not follow them to begin with. Stick with the good old tried and proven SEO strategies. Write good titles, metas, and content. Create exceptional content for your client’s audience that has the power to earn links instead of create links.
Knowledge and learning is one of the many reasons I love SEO. There is forever knowledge out there to consume. SEO is constantly evolving and changing, and no one will ever know all the answers. It’s a constant learning process. I’d love to hear some of the lessons other seasoned marketers have learned or even what those newbies to the industry have learned.
