Loading ...In the early days (way back in the early-mid 2000’s), search was nearly always an organic thing – you learned a tip or two to make your company’s website perform a little better, or your boss showed up with some extra budget and told you to start buying keywords. Sure, there were classes here and there – usually prohibitively priced and/or largely useless – and the odd online resource, but you jumped in and learned.
Today…well, not much has changed. Self-taught is still the MO of most SEOs, followed by a distant second by on-site training. I’ll go out on a limb and say that most of those people’s on-site training turned out to be getting the basics, and then tossed into the deep end. And today, getting tossed into the deep end, even for a brief moment, can get you a high-end job straight out of school.
The point is that search marketing, paid or natural, is a very specialized area to get into with what is really a very low entry barrier: For either side, you need a website, and a couple of bucks if you’re buying keywords. This might be why online agencies were the only variety hiring at the onset of this latest recession. The ability to jump in and learn is there for anyone, but it’s very much a minute to learn, lifetime to master kind of thing – like checkers, or tax evasion. This puts those who want to learn at an advantage.
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You’re hardly on your own when you first get involved in search; there are a host of pathetic rookies out there just like you. These rookies and the vets that are out there hang out, post and discuss at a number of sites. Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Land are the two biggies; SEOMoz is a great source for those specifically looking to get into SEO and ancillary skills like social marketing and blogging. Sphinn tends to carry a very wide range of topics; even better, they link you into the network of independent blogs out there from the rock stars (Gray Wolf, Shoe Money, etc) to the specialists (SEO By The Sea) and the dozens, if not hundreds, of blogs on the topic of search engine marketing. And from there then you can step into the bigger picture of online marketing as a whole, where search fits into the advertising world and how the big fish are approaching it. Places like Mediapost and Shop.org offer a wide range of news and topics.
Books are thin on the ground and even thinner are the ranks of the useful – however, Search Engine Marketing Inc should be considered an essential for anyone looking to forge ahead on search efforts within an organization. There are plenty of others that offer tremendous value and are more specialized, but this tome should be read by all.
Search Engine Snark is compiling lists of favored online resources and books that will be updated as time allows and new opportunities come to light.
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Read all you want, though, you’ll never actually learn these skills until you practice them yourself. Really and truly, every situation is a little different, and all the lessons, tips and the lame-ass ‘top 5 lists’ will never, ever replace training in your vertical, against your competition and with your aims.
- Start small:Get an easy win. Address your branded terms first on the paid or natural side. Use the paid side to show incremental revenue on cheap terms and promotional messaging; use the natural to make sure that your name is well covered (unless your company is something like womensclothing.com – if so, best of luck jerky) to max out your easy traffic and make your brand look good. Look for something easy on the technical / crawlability side to point out for your first real scoreboard. Play around with multiple messages and keywords that you should be able to have an easy first swing at – both of which will drive value.
- Step it up: Once you get your feet under you, a little more budget and some leverage with your development team, move into the nonbrand side. Build a keyword list for both efforts – play around with match types on the paid end, site structures on the natural.
- Go freaking nuts: Thousands of keywords across multiple match types in tightly grouped campaigns with 3+ ads apiece. Blogs, linkbuilding, social sharing. Massive. Year over Year. Growth. And by this point, hopefully, at least an addition to your title.
Of course, without a corporate site and budget, you’ll need to build one of your own. Even better – accountability only to yourself! Growth at your own pace! Choosing your own topics!
Seriously, no better way to do it. Takes awhile to get to the point where you can do search ads, but it works wonders for those SEO pecs. Couple bucks on a domain and hosting, and a whole lot of time and not only will you have enough expertise to do some serious damage in the real world, you’ll have a great platform to sell some links place some very clearly marked affiliate links.
I'm kind of a cross between Led Zepplin and these guys:
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- Range Blog Post – Long tail for natural search
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