SEO Education: Take Anything You Read with a Grain of Salt
SEO is a young industry and to some extent based on the assumptions. The only tactics that are officially confirmed are: create awesome content, use clean code, make your site for people, not for search engines. Much of what you read besides that should be considered before implementing.
It makes me sad when I am told that after reading my post (that retells someone else’s internal anchor text experiment) a webmaster went ahead and deleted / nofollowed all links in his site navigation menus. Nowhere in the post did I recommend to do that and even if I had mentioned that it would possibly help, I’d emphasize that it depends on numerous factors (among them: site age, term competitiveness, site structure, etc, etc). And even if I didn’t emphasize that, it would be meant anyway because that was only my opinion which should be considered and argued.
Each case is unique, what works for one site might ruin another one. Besides, people err. If you see me blogging often and I may sound like I know what I am saying, it doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes, nor am I always right. The same goes about any SEO blogger you follow and read. No matter how smart an SEO person sounds or how professional an SEO company is, they are sure to NOT know everything.
Recently, Loren published a tip saying you need to read SEO blogs and forums to constantly self-educate. And I completely agree. Some very smart people think blogs are useless. I read and write blogs and I do SEO, so I am sure, blogs help if you treat the information you receive right.
So what’s my advice? Constantly research and try to improve, experiment (if you can allow the risk) and never rush to change anything unless you have a reason and actually take time to think about what and why you are doing. Never trust anyone’s word but collect the information and consider it.
Now, let’s discuss 
Ann Smarty
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24 Responses to “SEO Education: Take Anything You Read with a Grain of Salt”
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SEO Education: Take Anything Your Read with a Grain of Salt http://is.gd/ncvb
Well, at least, these folks who take your word as the “must do” and start changing everything learn something by trying it. Not that it’s the best strategy, but they may learn something.
However, I tottaly agree with you and Loren. You must keep reading, consuming information and considering what people say, instead of believe everything that it’s said.
Nice post!
Frank Marcel’s last incredible blog post..Captologia e Credibilidade na Web
High five! SEO is part science and part art. In science, some hypotheses are substantiated opinion and not theory. In art, much of the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Best practices for SEO, usability and design, for example, will not produce the same results on A/B tests for sites with differing content and audience.
I especially like that you said, “that was only my opinion which should be considered and argued.” Research and testing is invaluable, so we can “argue” with data.
Dana Lookadoo’s last incredible blog post..Hyphens vs. Underscores – Who Wins “Best Keyword Separator?”
Your best article yet ann
Surely no other industry in the world is as stuffed full of false gurus and opinionated idiots as is SEO.
I mean, its gotta be up with alternative medicine or the self-help / well-being industry…
But there are some excellent, well-informed blogs and sites out there… it’s just that you may well have to spend time looking for them…
AndyW’s last incredible blog post..Digital Point Vs Warrior Fourms Vs Sitepoint Forums Vs Sphinn
Great post Ann!
I follow you as well as several other SEOs on Twitter, etc. I read a lot of blogs, mags and trade pubs since I am relatively new to the game (2 years). Even when I was just starting out, I wouldn’t read something and them immediatly implement it. YOu definitely need to do your research. What works for one person may not work for others. There are a lot of external factors.
Ann, you freakin’ rock! In fact, I’m going to bump you to my top slot for SEO writers (even over Rand, who is brilliant). As we are heading into March Madness, I would have you as a #1 seed along with Rand, Aaron, and Chris ( Silver Smith). Here’s why… you have a near perfect balance of technical expertise, real world advice, and authenticity. The other writers mentioned have these traits as well, it just seems that you’ve been on a tear lately. Keep up the good work! Anyway, enough gushing. This article sums up my past week of conversations with clients. People just seem to want black & white answers. They want to read an article and believe it as fact. What they don’t want to hear is that it takes time and effort to navigate all that is SEO and very little of it is fact. I agree that you’ve got to read a lot to stay on top of your game. But, you also have to test new techniques yourself, adapt your own ideas out of them, and measure the results over time. As for your poll regarding trust, I have a handful of SEO’s I trust implicitly. But that doesn’t mean I don’t test their suggestions to make sure any new tactic/strategy is in the best interest of my clients. It’s truly a balance. One it appears that you’ve mastered. Thank you for all of the great information!
Ed Reese’s last incredible blog post..Off to Searchfest!
Ann Smarty Reply:
March 9th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Wow, Ed, putting my name alongside with Rand, Aaron and Chris… That’s the best complinent I’ve ever received. Thank you so much!
True. Sometimes not just a pinch of salt but more a pint. And this is not only true for blogs and similar, but for a lot of other sites too.
Never seen the Twitter vote before – cool.
In Denmark we only have a few good SEO’s the rest are working based on rumors and what they saw in the latest blog posts.
SEO is like everything else only hard work will get you moving.
Steen Öhman’s last incredible blog post..Danish Site Search!
There are various problems when writing online about SEO. The normal user will accept what a site will say if it sounds coherent and will not question it until he/she reads something that will incentive that line of tought.
The other problem is that there are so many people talking about SEO that the information might be miss leading.
Than when we write we have a line of tought that will not be the same for everybody so it will cause some confusing or miss lead the reader.
A perfect example of this was when the news came out “google doesn’t like paid links” and took the whole web thinking paid links will ban your website when this is not true depending on your paid link strategy.
Mario Andrade’s last incredible blog post..SEO Siloing
A very interesting article, as i am just starting out in understanding and learning about SEO this post is a definate insight and i will take on board about research, reading in order to stay ahead of new techniques
Good review. I agree that you’ve got to read a lot to stay on top of your game. But, you also have to test new techniques yourself, adapt your own ideas out of them, and measure the results over time.
Beside SEO is saying what is right according to our version.SEO educations is about self learning to understand the “in”of our self experienced to the “outside”everyday we get education,and from the education we respond it with cheer and happiness and sad sometimes.for this case we blog and we share ,and that what make our Blog Live,I agree that SEO is about talking to People.And only with our “form as ordinary people does” we could be “not ordinary Blogger with “awesome SEO
There are people I trust. It doesn’t mean I trust that their advice will work for all websites 100%.
malcolm coles’s last incredible blog post..Newspaper sites: don’t read or link to us …
The Search Engine College (www.searchenginecollege.com/) has been in existence for about 2 years. It’s run by Kalena Jordan and her husband. You (and readers) may recognize some of the instructors. The college offers certificates, as well as a wide range of study, including usability. There are self-taught and tutor-taught options. Perhaps a follow up interview with Kal would be beneficial to your readers?
great http://www.clweb.org/
The only seo blog to read is Matt Cutt (hope I got his name). It is because he is Google. Also reading blogs that implement seo tips is also good
This is very important, to read the SEO blogs and forums to self educate.
Thanks Ann
High five! SEO is part science and part art. In science, some hypotheses are substantiated opinion and not theory. In art, much of the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Best practices for SEO, usability and design, for example, will not produce the same results on A/B tests for sites with differing content and audience.
“The only seo blog to read is Matt Cutt (hope I got his name).”
If you use behavoral targeting (which is all a search engine algorithm does), do you really want to be 100% honest with your behavorial targets?
Think about it…
The Mollusk
Udover SEO er at sige, hvad der er rigtigt ifølge vores version. SEO uddannelser er ved selv at lære at forstå i vores egen erfarne på ydersiden hverdagen vi får uddannelse, og fra den uddannelse vi reagerer det med juble og glæde og trist til tider.
Amen to that, “No matter how smart an SEO person sounds or how professional an SEO company is, they are sure to NOT know everything”.
But it all comes down to, what an SEO expert is – To become an expert, you need to learn by your own experience… But in SEO, everybody gets different results.. So, everything may be true, in some cases…
But nobody know everything – The only sure way is _testing_
You need to make your own informed decisions in SEO, you really cannot take the word of one person in order to plan your SEO project. While some will be better at SEO than others you really need to look at the bigger picture and follow the path you feel is correct. Obviously reading lots of information will help you choose the right path with less risk.
SEO has a lot of different flavors of SEO strategies that bring satisfaction, and you usually want to try more than one.