Educating the masses about what SEO really is

So, I came across this pic today:

I’m not really sure where it originated from but I saw it on a popular web design forum I frequent where the poster used the pic during a conversation about social media jobs. I know (or at least hope) that the creator of this pic was just poking fun at the perceptions of your average SEO and social media “experts”. However, this does point out a common misconception regarding the skill set your average SEO “expert” possesses.

Most SEO experts are just marketers!

Well, I can tell you that anytime you see a book title “SEO Super Success Secrets” I can guarantee you that it’s 100% complete marketing garbage. The real “Experts” in SEO aren’t going to be selling you anything. They are going to be doing the “expert” SEO for themselves or for their clients. Anyone selling SEO advice, methods or plans are just doing typical marketing. They are nothing more than marketers.

The truth is we SEO’s need to have a thorough, working expertise of everything from design to development and both conventional and online marketing. We have to fully understand analytics, online advertising (such as PPC), user interface design, development platforms and social media. As i’ve said before, SEO is much more than changing some content on a website or altering a website’s structure. It’s virtually anything and everything to assist in getting a website to rank higher in major search engines. That can be accomplished by aggressive link building campaigns or a viral marketing push using Facebook and Twitter…just as a couple of examples.

There are lots of so-called experts in search engine optimization who claim to be able to get websites to the top of search engines quickly and painlessly and there are even more people claiming to sell the secrets of these “experts”. The fact is that the “experts” who truly are experts don’t write books on how you can become rich by following their methods. True experts in SEO are well versed in traditional as well as non-traditional marketing tactics. They have a proven history with analytics and online advertising (like Google’s Adwords). They have a proven background in web and user interface design and are experienced in development platforms such as XML, CSS/HTML, Java, ASP and others. A real expert in search engine optimization is as much a well-rounded marketing strategist as he/she is at knowing how to best keyword stuff a webpage.

If you like this article or want to add your own comment, please feel free to comment below or send Steffan an email. Thanks!