I’ve got to say the SEO bandwagon has become ever more extreme over the last 18 months and it is this that has finally moved me to start blogging.
It seems like an easy bandwagon from the outside – big bucks for easy work in a poorly understood industry.
This lack of knowledge and floods of misinformation allow people like this to work as “SEO specialists” for months while the employer doesn’t know what the employee is actually supposed to be doing.
And since most forums seem to suggest optimisation is simply about building links the concept “$$$$ to sit at home and build links” is just dreamy.
So every day n thousand people (here is another) decide they are also going to be an “expert” because all an expert needs to know is how to build links … right?
Queuing up to get on the Bandwagon?
Well here’s what you’ll definitely want to ignore…
- SEO is part of a business strategy, not all of it, so careful planning is requried
- It’s not all about links and getting websites to the top of Google, Yahoo and Bing can be done without these
- If you recognise yourself in 7 SEO Idiots to Avoid or 12 more SEO Idiots to Avoid then bail out now.
What do you need to know to be in SEO?
Well this is just a taster but if 99% of all the people currently thinking of moving into this industry read it they wouldn’t be climbing up the side of the bandwagon!
Search Engine Optimiser skill set:
- A good understanding of HTML, css, php (or asp), javascript and JQuery
- The ability to write in good, clear and grammatically correct English (or the language of the websites you are working on
- The ability talk, jargon free, to clients
- Excellent knowledge of spreadsheets for analysis and an analytic mind to go with it
- Experience of using Google Adwords, Google Analytics and the other Webmaster Tools
Now the list goes on way beyond this but that would clear out most people. Feel free to add your own!