Why You Don’t Need a Degree in Rocket Science to Master SEO

Many people who are just getting started in SEO think that there is a “magic trick” to making it all come together. They scour the online forums, blog posts and social networking sites looking for the magic technique that will make it all come together. Even some old-timers in the search engine optimization world are on this question for the SEO secret; what they all find out sooner or later is there is no magic wand of SEO – but there is a lot of reading and keeping up with the Internet industry as a whole.

It really all boils down to the fact that SEO isn’t some mysterious trade that only a few gifted people can ever master; it also isn’t something that you need a degree in rocket science in order to master and comprehend. Search is only one part of the whole marketing puzzle – and as many people have found over the years, you can be great at SEO but still have a site that does lackluster in performance and revenue.

Most often people who are a quest for the secrets of SEO have failed to establish a solid business model for their websites. They jump right in with dollar signs in their eyes and don’t have a firm foundation onto which to build their sites. They will spend all day and night trying to get people to link to them and trying the latest SEO techniques on their sites and fail to realize that why it isn’t working is because their content just absolutely sucks!

Having said all of that, let’s focus in on a few of the essential pieces of SEO that every firm should understand:

• Focus on your market and keywords that fit your market. If you don’t know what your market is, then you need to stop right here and develop your business model.
• Make sure your site is able to be indexed by web crawlers. You’d be surprised how many sites are blocking some of their best content!
• Content, content, content – it’s what it all boils down to in the end.
• Build inbound links and outbound links.

Once you have mastered their four areas, most of the rest of what you will read about SEO is just icing on the cake. In fact, you’d be better off spending that extra time focusing in on your business strategy and your marketing plan. You’ll see much bigger return on investments. Just remember, if your business fundamentals are lacking or poor, no amount of SEO trickery is going to help.

Just think about it for a minute – let’s say that you get to a site because it ranks #1 in a query. If the site provides nothing you want, or the pricing is more than what you would pay elsewhere, then why stay there?

SEO is more than just website techniques; it’s about business as well. The better you understand how business and marketing works, the greater your return on investment will be for your SEO efforts.