The author's views are entirely their own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
How does a person become successful in the world of SEO? I wish I could tell you all the secrets but if I knew them, I would be sitting on a beach in Tahiti, sipping mai tais, instead of writing this post. About a year ago I ran across a video of Richard St. John giving a quick 3 minute presentation at TED about the 8 secrets of success and started to wonder if those same 8 secrets where true within the SEO industry. Take 3 minutes, watch the video and think about how you can implement his secrets into your SEO work and then read my take on his secrets related to SEO.
1.) Passion
The SEO is industry is full of successful people whose passion for SEO is unbelievable. Take Rhea Drysdale for example, she spent thousands of dollars of her own money to help protect the industry from someone that tried to trademark the term "SEO". that could have affected the whole industry. Rhea isn’t the only one with an intense passion for the SEO industry but she is the most recent example. How does your passion for SEO rate compared to the industry leaders? SEOmoz users have a huge passion for SEO and a large number of them are at the top of the top ranked user list.
2.) Work
Hard work is one secret that every SEO will tell you is true, things don’t come easy in this industry. SEO doesn’t happen overnight and isn’t something just anyone can do, it takes someone who enjoys diving into link reports, analytics, and writing reports to clients. SEO’s are a hard working bunch and to be successful you need to put a bit of sweat into your projects. Are you spending your fair share of time invested in your SEO techniques, if not, imagine if you were putting your full potential into all your project, the results could be endless! Prioritize your projects and put more effort into those that will give the most in return.
3.) Good
Practice, practice, practice – to become successful at SEO you need to practice everything you read in real world situations. Since SEO is ever changing, you need to continue to practice the techniques you have acquired and make sure those techniques are still valid and will work with your current project. Without practicing of SEO techniques we still might be stuffing our meta keywords tag, which is a scary thought. Setup a domain and website where you can test your theories and explore the results without effecting your clients websites.
4.) Ideas
Successful SEOs are always coming up with new ideas! Richards gave some great tips on how to come up with ideas, they included: listen, observe, be curious, ask questions, problem solve, and make connections. All of those things can be done in communities like the one here at SEOmoz, get out there and start making those connections and asking questions. Making comments on blog posts is a great way to start making connections or even creating your own YOUmoz post with techniques you use.
5.) Focus
Focus on the good techniques that are going to make your clients achieve results. Some of us are spread too thin working on web design, web development, and many of the other things that go into creating a successful website. Having the ability to focus all your energy into just SEO can really help you succeed within the industry or help you achieve your SEO goals. This might be easier for people in large organization who have co-workers who can focus on the other needs of the clients. If you don't have the man power to focus on just one topic make sure you are part of a community that shares their techniques and tips.
6.) Push
In the video Richard talks about how it’s not always easy to push yourself but that’s why they invented mothers. Personally my mother wouldn’t know what SEO is and would have no idea how to push me to be better at it. I’ve found that clients are always going to be pushy when it comes to rankings and that can be who pushes you to educate yourself on the newest techniques within the SEO industry and help you and them succeed.
7.) Serve
Serve your clients something of value and not just empty promises like some of the shady emails your clients receive. Happy clients will lead to great referrals and increase your bottom line. Along with serving them great results in the SERPs, provide them with some useful knowledge to help them understand why SEO is important to continue to do and not just a onetime thing. Increases you clients knowledge about the SEO process will reduce questions and concerns in the long run.
8.) Persist
Persistence is one of the most important tips for success as an SEO. I bet almost every successful SEO had a few failures in their SEO life but they kept moving forward and didn’t let it slow them down. Richard made a great acronym for the word “CRAP” that will help you persist through some of the C.R.A.P. out there. Don’t let one speed bump slow you down, put your head down and continue to grind forward. Nothing feels better than seeing something you have worked really hard on meet the goals you set down, though lessons can always be learned from your failures.
What do you think helps people become successfully in the SEO industry? What are the secrets to your success in this industry and what can a newbie do to get started on the right foot? We would like to hear what you think makes people successful in this industry and what you consider when calling a person successful in SEO.
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