Search Engine Marketing Spot

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Whether you are just starting out with search engine marketing or you have been involved with it for years, you need to realize that not everything you read is true. Separating truth from speculation is something that will take time, your own testing, plenty of reading and getting to know other people in the industry. Just because you read something on a forum or a blog, does not mean it is always true. Some people do not look much further past what they have read. Instead they start making changes to there site or marketing campaign based on a single discussion in hopes of it working. Later to find out that it did more harm then good for them. Before making any major changes, participate in the discussion to ask further questions. You need to fully understand what the topic is at hand, realize the good and bad from it. Try and dissect the theory behind what is being talked about before trying to utilize it for your self. By doing this you will not only have a better understanding of what it is you are trying to do, you will be educating yourself further on the subject for future reference. By referencing back to it in the future, you can then start to come up with your own ideas for your marketing efforts.

Realize that in many cases what you read is not the entire story; it is nothing more then a bit of information to start with. Some parts could have been left out on purpose in an effort for that person to have there 15 minutes of fame. What they left out though was probably what makes the technique effective. In some cases what you read is a flat out lie in an effort to deceive people into thinking it really works. It sucks to have to read that last sentence, but it is true. Some search engine marketers will say whatever they think sounds good to throw other people off and even harm there rankings. That is why it is important to follow up more before implementing it to your website.

After spending a good amount of time at your favorite forums, you should be able to tell the good people from the ones that are full of crap. These are the people that you can, for the most part, trust in what they say. Get in contact with them, introduce yourself, and even try and help them out if you can. If you scratch there back, they will scratch yours. The search engine marketing industry does have some really helpful people in it; you just have to find them.

Here is a short list of people and there websites that I trust on what they say. This list could be much longer, but I am just going with a quick 15 to start. Some on the list are household names in the search industry. Even though I have never met them, what I have read by them along with there reputation is why they are on the list. You can read them on your own and discover other marketing methods that can help you.

Danny Sullivan
Barry Swartz
Andy Beard
Sebastian
Jill Whalen
Marty Weintraub (AimClear)
Jaan Kanellis (Incrediblehelp)
Michael Gray (Graywolf)
Rand Fishkin
Bill Slawski
Donna Fontenot (Dazzlin Donna)
Tamar Weinberg
Aaron Wall
Ruck
Lisa Barone

One thing you have to realize is there are circle’s of friends in this industry that help each other out. In these circle’s there are techniques that each of them use that they hardly tell anyone. In the end improving your SERP’s is a competition, so if you have found something that is really helping out, chances are you are not going to share it right away.

I hope you come to understand the difference between truth and speculation in this industry. You will find the truth by exploring, researching, and participating more on what it is you have read. You then can determine if the technique is worth the time and effort and how it COULD help or hurt you.

This can be compared to a drag race, where what you have read tells you how to run a 9 second ¼ mile time. “Just increase the boost of your turbo, increase the fuel flow and use nitrous”. Ok great, you just increased the boost to 22lbs. (22 was a good number to use I guess since I didn’t bother to research what effect it has), increased the fuel flow by over ½ and I will use nitrous right at the start and not let off until I reach the finish line in 9 seconds. After reading about it for the first time, implementing into your car you head down to the track. Your up next and start to shake in anticipation…will what I read really work for me…I can’t wait! The light turns greet, you drop the clutch and hit stage 1 of your nitrous and your…oh shit……BOOOOOMMMMM! You then realize that your fuel management system was turned up to high, thus flooding the car at the start and by hitting the nitrous you just shot your pistons out the side of your fender.

See what can happen when you speculate on something that was supposed to work. I guess next time you might look a little deeper into the source of your information.