Why You Should Learn SEO

Learning basic SEO is imperative to running your website efficiently. Even if you hire your SEO out to experts, knowing what is good and bad SEO is necessary to be sure you are receiving proper handling.

The basic tenets of SEO is to use interesting original content to attract users, and to collect natural, organic links to boost traffic. The optimization comes in with a little manipulation of wording to include keywords and smart linking tactics to obtain PageRank.

Don’t be fooled. It’s not always as easy as it sounds! You have to do these things without appearing to do them. Not doing them, however, leaves you standing alone in a field wondering where the world went. It’s kind of like putting on make-up – if you do it just right, it looks like you aren’t wearing any – but if you forgo it altogether you better believe everybody can tell. (Guys, I apologize for the gender slanted analogy – I’ll have one for you in a minute.)

If you study SEO enough, you will find all portions of your site start doing better. SEO isn’t hard – it’s just a matter of keeping in mind that you are trying to get noticed, and that keeping yourself in the line of sight is the best thing for you. Kind of like when you are trying to get that raise, and you know your superior is going to be talking to the powers that be today. You dress in your best, make sure you are overheard being clever, keep bumping into your immediate boss – you are trying to get noticed but trying to play it cool at the same time.

Guys, here’s an analogy that might work for you – when you are putting an engine on a car, you have to make sure all the little stuff is bolted on as well as the block and manifold. Leave off the one washer and you could be left stranded on the side of the road watching your well oiled and put together competitor zoom past.

Take care of your car. All it needs is a little attention. Keep it subtle, no crazy racing stripes! Just wax on, wax off: adding content, or looking for new links. Being fresh is very important. Use your keywords judiciously, stay away from shady linking practices, and make darn sure your mechanic isn’t cutting corners!!

If your SEO is evasive or not willing to tell you what he / she is doing, ditch them and find new ones. It is not worth jeopardizing the future of your site for a quickie run up Google that will fall just as fast. If you make sure everything that goes on your website goes through you first, and educate yourself to know good practices so you can recognize when they are trying to take advantage or go black hat on your site.

Many unscrupulous SEOs will promise things that nothing short of black hat can accomplish in the time frame allowed. Be extremely skeptical of these, and concentrate on the simple plans that are known to work.

Being an amateur SEO will stand you in good stead!