
Six facts about the SEO industry that nobody told me
I got into Search Engine Optimisation very early on by today's standard. I'm almost 30 which is considered to be very old for an SEO. The majority of my peers are generally people under 25.
I've met some of them at special gatherings, and I also read a lot of them online on forums and blogs. Most of them are on the right track, but a huge portion of the young SEO specialists out there don't know enough about the problematic part of SEO.
So here are six facts about the SEO industry nobody told me about and I had to learn them myself through years of experience. I wish I had somebody explain this stuff to me when I first started working in the niche.
1. The "target" is continuously on the move
The "target" is your SEO goal for whatever project you are dealing with. The problem is that the goal is constantly on the move and you need to learn to anticipate where the target will be when you shoot. Its just like in those western movies scenes: Don't shoot where the target is, shoot where the target will be.
That's the same with SEO. Because it is constantly on the move, you need to learn to anticipate where things will be when you are done implementing your plan. Otherwise, the target will move along, and you will be left behind with a failed goal.
2. There are multiple solutions to one specific problem
I figured this out when I've asked three SEO experts about how they'd solve a specific SEO problem and goal. I got three different SEO strategies, all of them valid.
Highly confusing right? Well, it is. SEO is complicated, and you have lots of options. You just need to figure out which one will work best.
3. Most people won't understand what you do
Don't insist on explaining to people what it is that you do. Not even to your friends and family. If they aren't working in the digital industry, chances are they won't understand what you do, not really.
I gave up explaining stuff like this years ago. Now I just tell people I work in "web designing." Everyone gets that, and I rarely get additional questions, solves me a lot of headaches.
4. Tools can help but don't expect miracles
There is a lot of SEO tools out there. Some better than others. But none of them do any overnight miracles.
Don't chance every new tool like it was the cure for all of your problems. Test new tools every knows and then but overall stick to your guns and the favorite tools out there because they are famous for a reason!
5. Most clients are a pain, especially new ones
Expect a high level of skepticism when it comes to SEO from every client out there! Same as your family and friends, few understand what SEO is and how it works. They all want immediate results, and they all want to rank first on Google.
Be patient, explain and educate your clients. Show them the value SEO can bring their companies and work as hard as you can to create results, give them a reason to want SEO in the future.
6. You will constantly need to learn new stuff
SEO is probably the industry with the highest demand for constant learning out there! I find it highly difficult to keep track with everything that is happening in the SEO scene month and trust me, there are a lot of new things you need to keep an eye for if you want to be a successful SEO.
I've met some of them at special gatherings, and I also read a lot of them online on forums and blogs. Most of them are on the right track, but a huge portion of the young SEO specialists out there don't know enough about the problematic part of SEO.
So here are six facts about the SEO industry nobody told me about and I had to learn them myself through years of experience. I wish I had somebody explain this stuff to me when I first started working in the niche.
1. The "target" is continuously on the move
The "target" is your SEO goal for whatever project you are dealing with. The problem is that the goal is constantly on the move and you need to learn to anticipate where the target will be when you shoot. Its just like in those western movies scenes: Don't shoot where the target is, shoot where the target will be.
That's the same with SEO. Because it is constantly on the move, you need to learn to anticipate where things will be when you are done implementing your plan. Otherwise, the target will move along, and you will be left behind with a failed goal.
2. There are multiple solutions to one specific problem
I figured this out when I've asked three SEO experts about how they'd solve a specific SEO problem and goal. I got three different SEO strategies, all of them valid.
Highly confusing right? Well, it is. SEO is complicated, and you have lots of options. You just need to figure out which one will work best.
3. Most people won't understand what you do
Don't insist on explaining to people what it is that you do. Not even to your friends and family. If they aren't working in the digital industry, chances are they won't understand what you do, not really.
I gave up explaining stuff like this years ago. Now I just tell people I work in "web designing." Everyone gets that, and I rarely get additional questions, solves me a lot of headaches.
4. Tools can help but don't expect miracles
There is a lot of SEO tools out there. Some better than others. But none of them do any overnight miracles.
Don't chance every new tool like it was the cure for all of your problems. Test new tools every knows and then but overall stick to your guns and the favorite tools out there because they are famous for a reason!
5. Most clients are a pain, especially new ones
Expect a high level of skepticism when it comes to SEO from every client out there! Same as your family and friends, few understand what SEO is and how it works. They all want immediate results, and they all want to rank first on Google.
Be patient, explain and educate your clients. Show them the value SEO can bring their companies and work as hard as you can to create results, give them a reason to want SEO in the future.
6. You will constantly need to learn new stuff
SEO is probably the industry with the highest demand for constant learning out there! I find it highly difficult to keep track with everything that is happening in the SEO scene month and trust me, there are a lot of new things you need to keep an eye for if you want to be a successful SEO.
December 10, 2017, 4:06 pm
Responses (45)
They don't know some of the core secret and root for making a living while making use of a computer system, laptops or even phone devices. They are simply ignorant of these things, it's only the open minded ones that might try understanding what you are trying to explain.
The truth is that some don't even want to learn even when you try teaching them. I have experience with 2 friends of mine, I tried my very best to teach both of them how to exploit the internet and social media networks to make a living for themselves but all to no avail.
I am pretty blessed because mine does and even understands the basic SEO since I took the effort to explain it in beginners language.
But either way, don't worry. It isn't easy to explain SEO to somebody.
I even tried to explain myself to my immediate family members but none seems to understand what I'm trying to say, they just believe I'm trying to justify my being lazy, so I gave up making any explanation for anyone.
Very true, it's like fishing if you really think about it. You could have a great fishing spot one day and the next time you go out there, it's like there has never been a fish within 10 miles lol. This is why I'm always working on new ways to acquire new clients, even if they are just old methods that I need to revamp
2. There are multiple solutions to one specific problem
SEO is ridiculous like this. It's like asking "Where do you build a backlink to increase your rankings the most?" and you'll get 9,382 different answers because everyone thinks they know what they're doing, or you get people who actually know what they're talking about and still get 1,593 answers haha
One of my favorite questions is "How long will it take until I'm ranked #1 for my keyword?" haha
3. Most people won't understand what you do
YESSSSS!!!!!!!!! On dozens of occasions I've attempted to tell people what I do and they always think I'm a blogger or I just spam links across the internet lol. One of my close friends still thinks I just spam links all over the internet because when I say "I help my clients increase their rankings by doing proper off page optimization and on page optimization. And yes, I build backlinks for my clients all the time" he thinks I'm the person on facebook spamming affiliate links lmao
4. Tools can help but don't expect miracles
I remember the day when SEO software was what everyone was using and claiming they were getting top rankings haha. They might have been #1 for a little while, maybe a day or two, but then they got banned from the search results because of the 1,000,000 profile links they built using xrumer
I'm not going to lie, I had a lot of SEO software that focused on backlink building, but I never really abused them like others did.
5. Most clients are a pain, especially new ones
Another point that is spot on. Most of my newer clients are more of a burden than a happy time. They pay me pennies on the dollar and expect to beat Google for the keyword "Google" lol. This is one of the main reasons I've stopped many of my websites that were selling backlink packages, it was more of a hassle managing the charge backs and disgruntled clients than it was profitable. Sure, I made some quick money, but it wasn't worth the worries of not knowing if all my orders are going to be getting free services and then I'm out of a lot of money
6. You will constantly need to learn new stuff
Always be learning
I can actually completely relate to the 3rd point. You have no idea how many times I tried to explain to people what SEO even is... And it is extremely hard. The majority of people will not understand it.
And the 6th one is extremely important to know as well. SEO is one of those areas that constantly changes just purely due to the search engine algorithms changing too. You need to adapt fast.