How to be a successful SEO ? (Who is one?)

I’d like to share an interesting story with you today.

Back in Feb 2009, at the Google SearchMasters conference at Google’s Bangalore office, I got to meet the most popular blogger in India, Mr. Amit Agarwal of Labnol.

On our first meeting, Amit asked me an interesting question. He asked me..

“So Mani..you are an SEO or Blogger ?”

And I replied..

“A bit of both, but more of SEO may be !”,  and Amit replied –

“You know Mani, I’m glad you said that. In fact some people get offended being called an SEO, so I wasn’t sure how you’d take it.”

Even though his reply got me laughing, it stuck to the back of my mind and on my return journey, it kept looping in my head.

So why would anyone get offended being called an SEO ?

My only guess is that they are probably insecure about being one. Or else, why in the world ?

Or it may also be that some people do “perceive” SEO to be something to belittle about. Unfortunately some SEO’s themselves belong to this category and I think its complete fair from their part to “feel” offended being called one.

While obviously neither of these reasons are true, I sincerely wish if people changed their thoughts on SEO.(If at al they think its silly.)

And I think I might have to address both the crowds here.

One – To SEOs who get offended being called one.

Please understand that SEO is not about H1 tags and sprinkling magic, at least not any more. If you “design” yourself as an SEO Expert or an SEO magician without any results to show, then its natural that people see you as “snake oil salesmen”. Now you created a reason for yourself. So break out of it.

Two – To others who thinks that SEO is silly and just one-month of reading an e-book.

You might be true. Reading an E-Book or reading a few blogs can reach you a few skills but keep in mind that if you call yourself an expert taking the short cut, one million smarter guys would’ve already done it. I mean, give me one good reason why you are the first person in this world to have read that e-book ?

So anyone who think that they have the skills can call themselves an SEO, fine and good !

But please keep in mind that SEO is not a subject (if at all it is one self contained subject) that can be summarized in a 40 page e-book.

In my opinion, SEO isn’t even a subject, it is a set of standards.

Its a skill set and a knowledge pool that keeps changing (have been so far), and evolving in to complex forms, attaching itself with other streams of online standards like social media and analytics.

So if you thought what you read about H1 tags, keyword densities, and cloaking is all that you need to know, and is all that is SEO. Then, I pity you.

So what or who is a successful SEO ?

Well, technically, an SEO should always be ready to deliver numbers for a client. Be it traffic, authority or ranks. They should work in harmony for a successful SEO.

Otherwise, he is a constant learner, who fine tunes his tools and thoughts and align his practices along the lines of authority yielding white hat methods.

“Hey Mani, nice blog. I’m an SEO Expert too from XXXXXX.
Where do you go for link exchanges? Pls suggest me the best tools and methods for great link exchange.”

Now, looking at the above email (which is a real one I got recently) you can easily make out if the guy is actually an “expert”. I guess, people like this have all the right to make a fool out of themselves. And there is nothing wrong others looking down on you.

The word “expert” is kinda funny by its usage, is it not ? I can guarantee that anyone who says that he’s an “expert” would be looking at taking something away from you.

Anyways, thanks to Amit for “leading” me to think about this. No summaries here, I hope the point is clear. Think about it, no offences to anyone.

Hail SEO (old school, new age, white hat, blue hat and all that..) !

BTW, you can spot both Amit and Me in this video from SearchMasters, if you haven’t seen it aready.

Recommended SEO Software SEO SpyGlass enables you to secretly (and ethically) spy on your competition and see exactly why they rank better than you. Just launch SEO SpyGlass, and in a matter of minutes you will know everything humanly possible about why any site ranks well. Try it today!