Hi, I have read so many articles and posts regarding SEO and I am wondering whether it's a good idea to specialize in the field, my concerns so far are as follow: Can it be a rewarding job? (it will pays all the bills ) how long does it take to apply SEO to a site reach PR5 and+? ( by putting some decent work) Are there books to study SEO ( as it's a new area i can hardly see it taugh at uni) Most people here are or sound like expert, what is the background if this is a new field? and do you do participate in the forum as a way to get more than what you give? SEO itself sounds a bit limited, as the common question has always the same answer..content, backlinks ( and other few points to stick to) it seems that SEO sounds bigger than what it provides, or at least it's making a big noise for little what it is ( no disrespect for hard working people, I am just asking here). SEO is about internet, forums and promoting one another specially,so is SEO mainly about taking as much people on board in giving a s little as possible to keep web users as long as possible ? this is really what I am not sure of, I graduated and it took me 5 years, nowe the SEO seems rewarding and you can study it in one chapter ! can anyone please shed light on my dark thoughts, thanks
By revewing you some of your questions you got many years of experience and knowledge building required before you could attempt to take this on. I make around $250-$300 a day doing the SEO work I do, and still work a full-time job around 60k a year. I assume I could so SEO full time and consider it often, but I have responsiblities at work as well.
If you are a true SEO expert you will probably have your own sites and make enough with your skills that way. Those who can't teach, those who can do.
My suggestion to you would be to create some websites, try to get number 1 spot in Google or at least a good spot for the keywords you chose and then you can even think about teaching others by making them pay you. Good luck, the only reason why I do SEO is because I'm a bored 14 year old who has nothing better to do.
I really love this field. I do not know what wud be the future. But this is that field where you learn something new everyday. If you say about money then that depends upon your skills & knowledge. But i cud say ther eis no limitation for money in SEO. You cud earn as much as you want.
make SEO expert is not a easy work to anyone, you need to spend lot's of time, effort and hard work, and as ninjashoes said you need to create your own site then you can get much knowledge about seo and earn money as well
Hi Friend, if you want to study the SEO so you must have to check and read all the Topics of SEOBook.com and also visit below very good article from sitepoint.it will give you proper idea about SEO Topics for your job. sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182915 (open with www ) Best of Luck John
If you fear about your carrer and working as SEO, you will out of this industry. You need to dream, that you can be SEO expert, Dream is the first step to get success in life. Best of luck with your future. James.
I think you know basic seo. This is very dynamic field and you have to update your knowledge constantly otherwise you will out of the race. There are lots of SEO. But Good one are very less.
this is revenue getting jobs. If u will get PR5+ means its take 4 months time period. For more information please visit http://www.agriya.com
And I'll bet you that most if not almost all of those articles and posts were pure rubbish that should be exorcised and lobotomized for the public good. Financially? It can be, if you're good and can deliver consistent positive results. Personally, well as the old saying goes, no matter how much money you make, if you don't love what you do, you'll never be happy doing it (and thus it won't be rewarding). That depends on the type of site you're making, the quality and relevance of the links pointing back to your pages that you are receiving. If you have a good content site that has a couple hundred pages all interlinked to each other appropriately, getting a PR 3 or 4 on your site's home page from those internal links alone is very well within the realm of possibility. Of course, if the content of those pages are pure rubbish, it won't matter anyway. People will try and tell you that backlinks are king. They're NOT. Content is - if you have quality unique (and by unique I mean it was written specifically for your site, not syndicated from somewhere else) relevant and well-written content that contains the keywords people search for when they're looking for the topic your site is about or the product/service your site sells you'll find it far easier to get quality relevant links from other sites since they'll find your site to be useful to their users (and probably kicking themselves where it hurts - repeatedly - for not writing about it themselves sooner). What is a quality link? Generally it's a link from a page on another site that has content related to your site which also ranks well in the search engines (generally the top 1,000 results) and has a Google PageRank of 4 or higher. (Search engines rank pages, not sites - which means that a Web page is an independent entity as far as they're concerned). There are, but in general they tend to suck. And by suck I mean "suck like a rotten egg that's been sitting in the sun somewhere in New Jersey during a hot summer day" (or as Homer Simpson from "The Simpsons" once said "they're the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked"). Despite this morbid fact, there ARE some quality resources out there. One of the best ones is The Search Engine Marketing Kit [link: sitepoint.com] by Dan Theis and Dave Davies. (Disclosure: I am an Advisor on the Design Team at the SitePoint Forums; however I am merely an unpaid volunteer who helps out over there as much as I do here because I want to and I find it to be enjoyable; I am not an employee of the company, and I did not get paid or otherwise compensated for recommending this product to you in any way, shape, form, fashion, or manner whatsoever.) Another quality resource, also by SitePoint (this one's free), is the Search Engine Optimization FAQ [link: sitepoint.com]. This is a clear, concise guide that will teach you the basics of what you need to know (without the drivel or nonsense) about search engine optimization. More advanced information (and by advanced I mean intermediate to advanced knowledge - without the bullcrap and nonsense that many people seem to advocate here) is Chris Beasley's SEO Guide [link: websitepublisher.net]. Now, what I'm going to say next will come as a shock to many SEO consultants - I strongly suggest you learn how to build a Web site using HTML and CSS, and how to make your sites accessible and easy to use. You'll also need to learn how to leverage Web copywriting, information architecture and findability as well. Here's a short list of what you should learn to enhance your SEO skill set: HTML and XHTML (the building blocks of the Web - HTML is a structural markup language that tells a user agent how a Web page is structured, such as "this is a heading" and "this is a paragraph" for example) Cascading Style Sheets (CSS is a presentational styling language used to govern how a Web page looks in the browser - it governs everything from layout to typography and more) HTML Semantics (comes along with HTML - elements have meaning; learning what those meanings are and using them properly to create Web sites that are accessible to all will put you above 95% of the other SEOs - I'm not joking) Web Accessibility (learning this will make your sites accessible to everyone - including search engines - and not just "the disabled") Web Usability (if people can't use your Web site, you're SOL - no matter how well the site ranks in the search engines; fortunately there's an easy way to learn this) Information Architecture (how the Web pages in your site are organized) Web Copywriting (writing for the Web is far different than writing for print - or your language arts teacher - learn how to write for the Web and you'll be able to make people do whatever it is you want them to do - no joke!) See above. The SEO industry goes back to the early to mid 90s, so I'd say it's maturing quite nicely at 15 years. There's still a lot of growing up to be done, especially as people with bad intentions try to manipulate the search engines for their own personal gain rather than serving the people they're trying to attract with the information they're really looking for, but nobody ever said that it doesn't have its growing pains. As for forums, I can't speak for the others, but I participate mainly here, SitePoint, and SEO.com when it comes to SEO. For Web design and development, here, SitePoint.com, IWDN.net, CodingForums.com and elsewhere. It's something I love doing for the hell of it and while a part of me is not happy that I've literally given away almost half a million dollars in free advice and work the previous two years, I can tell you first hand that the public recognition and respect I receive for being perceived as an expert who loves to share his knowledge freely with others (read: give way my competitive advantage for nothing in return) is WELL worth it. It's not. Those are just the most common beginner questions that tend to come up around here. I hate to say it, but Digital Point tends to attract a LOT of people who are new to whaever it is they're trying to learn, while other forums, such as SitePoint, tend to attract professionals who work in these areas day in and day out. But it's not a bad thing - eventually the people who are learning today will become experienced tomorrow and will also feel better about helping the next generation of members who come along (it even happens at SitePoint). Actually SEO is about making the content on our Web sites easily accessible so that people can find what they're looking for with the minimum of fuss. The easier it is to find, the more likely it is to be found. The more relevant and useful the content, the more likely it is that people will continue to use the site and recommend it to others. You can't study it in one chapter. It's going to take time, and there is a fairly steep learning curve, but the resources I provided you with earlier in this post will reduce the time it takes to learn what you REALLY need to know significantly since it's laid out for you, easily digestable, and PRACTICAL (meaning you can take it and use it RIGHT FREAKING NOW), rather than dealing with theory and "what can be done". Hmm... assuming $300 a day for consultation work on the side, 5 days a week for 50 weeks a year, why haven't you quit your day job yet? Is the estimated $75,000/year from the freelancing too close for comfort to your salary to take the plunge? (Answering yes to this question would be a WISE idea.) The first part I'll agree with. But I cannot in good conscience agree with the second one. Not only can I do it (SEO), but I also teach others how to do so as well so they too can be successful. And I typically don't charge a dime for it either (see above, where I said I gave away nearly half a million dollars in free advice and work over the past two years for the hell of it). I don't recommend SEO book. Not because you have to pay for it, but because some of the information is inaccurate (and the owner not only knows this, but leaves it in anyway as a means to make himself even moore money). Sometimes, the best SEO resources are FREE (such as the FAQ you linked to). It's really not dynamic, when you think about it. Well it can be, if you're going to be spending most of your time chasing after tricks like a dog chases its own tail, or a third-rate lawyer chases ambulances looking for his next meal ticket. Stick to the fundamentals of SEO, learn about Web site development, information architecture, accessibility and usability, and Web copywriting, and you'll know more than most of the other SEOs on the planet. Literally.
Indeed seo is mostly about links and content management - but there are so many little things one needs to know that it makes it impossible for a layer man to do seo without risks to kill existing rankings.
I'm really getting to the point where I'm going to take the plunge, but again that is an estimated number, this is the average. I just have responsibilities at work that currently right now I just can't up and leave, well I could but it wouldn't be the "right" thing to do. I also need to learn a little more on managing taxes for a small buisness and I'm sure a few other things before I go full time. I total agree on the whole backlinks portion of your post (as I do the whole post), most people give me an insane reply when I explain my backlink building service is only for high quality relevant backlinks, and may only yeild 10-15 actual backlinks for 5-10 hours of service. These links however would be of high quality, from a relevant site with the proper anchor text.
Well let's not go in deep discussion, business industries wants business and they require seo and we provide them services for our earnings as well as our clients earnings. If you can't make your client happy, than you should leave the field. you won't feel happy yourself.