The Early Days
Do you remember when you first got into SEO? Personally, I was studying general Web design when I first heard about it. My teacher was trying to explain us the value of a link and why search engines give so much importance to it. He used the “courtyard metaphor”:
In high school, there is the “Alpha Beta” gang (apologies to Revenge of the Nerds) and the nerds itself. Typically, the guys in the football team get more benefits and attention than nerds. But, if one of the big guys starts hanging with a nerd, it doesn’t go unnoticed. The nerd will suddenly become more popular. That’s the same thing with websites and links. If you get a connection with established sites, your popularity will grow.
Although it was a questionable choice of metaphor to use in front of a bunch of apprentice programmers, we understood well the value of a link.
Since this class, I think I haven’t spent a single day without thinking about SEO. In the first few months I spent several hours a day trying to decipher the truth. I was religiously reading all the
content of Search Engine Watch and a bunch of other sites. I was making “best practices” statements to myself: “The title must be 140 characters long with my best keyword at the beginning, repeat keyword if possible. Keywords should also be included in meta description and meta keywords. My pages should not have more than 500 words with a keyword density of 5%,” etc.
Then I realised the sad truth: I could not be 100% sure of my statements because of all the conflicting opinions. My early research lead me to the evidence: SEO is not and will never be an exact science. But at the same time, I had to deliver because I felt confident enough to go after my first clients. Stress, anguish. Who should I trust? Some advocate that SEO is all about links
and PageRank while some believe that we should “turn off the green bar aspect of our toolbar and move on with our life” . Some say that directory submissions are still worth it when others state that they can actually hurt a website. Nobody seems to agree on anything.
Result? My first client cost me money. And not only because I failed to make his site rank for any significant keywords, but also because I had to rewrite all his content because I first did the
job in an excessive and shameful keyword stuffing way.
Growing Up
I have been doing SEO for 18 months now. Fortunately, I’m more successful now. And since this contest is about sharing tips, I’ll tell you how I manage to achieve good results: I stopped listening to people. Now, that’s obviously a little drastic, as I should say something like “I stopped listening to every(no)body”. There are undisputable resources on the Web. But as you gain experience you might have to disagree even with the same people you used to listen to blindly. Really, one of my best moves was to stop worrying about what others think and start figuring out by myself.
What an Inexperienced SEO Should Do
Get your hands dirty. Start from scratch. Choose a subject you know well (SEO’s an easy one, but it’s getting a little crowded these days. You may want to try a less competitive area). Buy a
domain name, create your content and design, start a link campaign. Now give your site a couple months. While you are waiting, improve your design, work hard on your content and choose carefully which site to target for a link request. Your new site should now be ready for its real purpose: tests. You hear someone preaching keyword density? Test it for yourself. Can internal linking really help to improve your ranking? Give it a shot. And so on. I’m sure there are many SEO approaches you are taking for granted. I can assure you that you will feel much more confident in front of your client if you have actually tried the techniques you are advising.
And, of course, stay tuned with the authority sites and never hesitate to reconsider what you thought was a case closed.
Do you remember when you first got into SEO? Personally, I was studying general Web design when I first heard about it. My teacher was trying to explain us the value of a link and why search engines give so much importance to it. He used the “courtyard metaphor”:
In high school, there is the “Alpha Beta” gang (apologies to Revenge of the Nerds) and the nerds itself. Typically, the guys in the football team get more benefits and attention than nerds. But, if one of the big guys starts hanging with a nerd, it doesn’t go unnoticed. The nerd will suddenly become more popular. That’s the same thing with websites and links. If you get a connection with established sites, your popularity will grow.
Although it was a questionable choice of metaphor to use in front of a bunch of apprentice programmers, we understood well the value of a link.
Since this class, I think I haven’t spent a single day without thinking about SEO. In the first few months I spent several hours a day trying to decipher the truth. I was religiously reading all the
content of Search Engine Watch and a bunch of other sites. I was making “best practices” statements to myself: “The title must be 140 characters long with my best keyword at the beginning, repeat keyword if possible. Keywords should also be included in meta description and meta keywords. My pages should not have more than 500 words with a keyword density of 5%,” etc.
Then I realised the sad truth: I could not be 100% sure of my statements because of all the conflicting opinions. My early research lead me to the evidence: SEO is not and will never be an exact science. But at the same time, I had to deliver because I felt confident enough to go after my first clients. Stress, anguish. Who should I trust? Some advocate that SEO is all about links
and PageRank while some believe that we should “turn off the green bar aspect of our toolbar and move on with our life” . Some say that directory submissions are still worth it when others state that they can actually hurt a website. Nobody seems to agree on anything.
Result? My first client cost me money. And not only because I failed to make his site rank for any significant keywords, but also because I had to rewrite all his content because I first did the
job in an excessive and shameful keyword stuffing way.
Growing Up
I have been doing SEO for 18 months now. Fortunately, I’m more successful now. And since this contest is about sharing tips, I’ll tell you how I manage to achieve good results: I stopped listening to people. Now, that’s obviously a little drastic, as I should say something like “I stopped listening to every(no)body”. There are undisputable resources on the Web. But as you gain experience you might have to disagree even with the same people you used to listen to blindly. Really, one of my best moves was to stop worrying about what others think and start figuring out by myself.
What an Inexperienced SEO Should Do
Get your hands dirty. Start from scratch. Choose a subject you know well (SEO’s an easy one, but it’s getting a little crowded these days. You may want to try a less competitive area). Buy a
domain name, create your content and design, start a link campaign. Now give your site a couple months. While you are waiting, improve your design, work hard on your content and choose carefully which site to target for a link request. Your new site should now be ready for its real purpose: tests. You hear someone preaching keyword density? Test it for yourself. Can internal linking really help to improve your ranking? Give it a shot. And so on. I’m sure there are many SEO approaches you are taking for granted. I can assure you that you will feel much more confident in front of your client if you have actually tried the techniques you are advising.
And, of course, stay tuned with the authority sites and never hesitate to reconsider what you thought was a case closed.
Julien Raby
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