Looking back at my SEO career so far, I’ve come to realize a few things.
The first year was go, go, go, learn, learn, learn. I had to re-learn html, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and on top of all that, learn this “crazy new concept” of SEO. I can say, without reservation, during my first year I put in more 14 to 16 hour days working on something that was nothing but fun. I would eat, sleep, and dream SEO. There’s nothing scarier than when you catch yourself dreaming in code.
I saw the world and the Internet from an entirely new perspective. The Internet was forever changed in my mind because I suddenly saw it as an untapped frontier of opportunity. SEO to me represented an even playing field where anyone who put in the time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears could take on any sized competitor. It was “king of the hill” in the purest form. It was with this mindset that I really learned how to develop a strong work ethic and learned why it is important to love what you do.
So I immersed myself in all things SEO. This is probably where I started to hone my A.D.D. skills as I jumped from page to page, bookmarking everything that was remotely related to SEO. Every time I discovered some new keyword tool, rank checking tool, or some new blog, I would divert for a few days and follow that rabbit down its hole before recovering and getting back on track. Whatever “being on track” was.
I remember the first time that my first site had popped up in some random organic search. I almost fell out of my chair. The phrase was “Seattle 41st rainiest” (without quotes). My first thought was, “who the hell would be searching for THAT?!”.
- Why keyword research is important (and which tools suck)
- The importance of laying out a site completely before building it
- Setting up the necessary sources of raw data in which to make content
- Developing a systematic approach to developing content
- Having a set number of tools in which to track everything on your site
I’m probably leaving out a couple of things, but this is the majority of what I learned my first year in. There will be more in this series as time goes on.
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