Seven Principles Before you even start with Search Engines

I found myself thinking today about newbies to SEO that I have encountered on Warriors. There are a lot of different questions (and various answers) to ask but I realized there are some guiding principles that have helped me greatly to rank sites.

So here are my seven principles in case anyone finds them useful

1) It starts with keyword research.

If you are starting with a website, a name or even a product then you are one step behind (Doesn't mean you can't catch up). Its about customers and if you are looking for search engine traffic then its about terms people look for. too many people start with something else besides keyword research and it kills them.

2) Do it fully or don't bother.

I encounter a lot of people who want and expect to be an overnight success. They do the things they should (write content , do a link building campaign et) for a few weeks and then give up. Search engine optimization is not a week or month project. If you aren't going to take a long term view then you shouldn't bother. You're building a work horse that makes money for you while you sleep so it takes time to get it going.

3) Its on page AND off page.

You have work to do on your site and on other sites promoting your site. Too often we talk about one over the other and people wrongly claim that one is all thats needed.

4) Follow whats known not what you heard.

I get into it sometimes on the forums because I will take what Google says or some researcher has proven any day over the latest claim made on forums. This is your potential livelihood ( you hope so at least) you are talking about. Would you risk your job to what you heard on some street corner?


5) Tests beat an opinion any day.

At first I hated it but now I love doing testing. Google is like chemicals in a test tube just sitting thre waiting for you to test it. Tell me another business market where you can get market research for the cost of a domain. Instead of floating my opinions about what will work I just get a domain and test it.

6) Don't ask for it to be too easy.

Savor the challenge. If you didn't have to do a little work and learning then there wouldn't be ANY opportunity. All the best careers and businesses take something to get going. People who want it to be as easy as clicking one button and thats it forget that if it were that easy too many buttons would be pushed to make it profitable for ANYONE anymore.

7) Tools make the tradesman.

By all means take the shortcuts when they don't take away from doing good work. Sure you can do everything by hand but over the years I've found some great tools - free and paid that make SEO life more rewarding. Don't be afraid to use them and if they cost something weigh the value and realize every good business has expenses.

I actually think if you take those approaches you are well on your way in SEO even if you think you are still wet behind the ears.