Matt Taylor

As a young man in internet marketing, I have had to grow from doing SEO for my own sites (back when arbitrage was all the rage), then doing general internet marketing for clients and customers sites (some which I designed, and others which had already been built) and then managing an in-house SEO team. Each role has had it’s pro’s and con’s, and a focus on different skill-sets. For example, working for yourself can be a great experience and provide boundless flexibility, however you tend to be working autonomously and while many people work best this way, you won’t be interacting with others which can result in your skills being blunted and for laziness to set in.

However I am not here to tell you what is the best working environment for you. I have compiled a list of quick and basic tips for those just starting out in the SEO world.

Read & Stay Up to Date

There is nothing being behind in the SEO world. Did you know that 301 redirects don’t pass full PageRank? Did you know there was a toolbar PageRank update two days ago? If you weren’t aware of these things you need to read more, keep up to date in the dynamic world of SEO! I am by no means saying that I am a guru when it comes to the latest SEO theories and updates, but I do my best to keep ahead of the trend.

As a youngster in SEO, you must keep ahead of the pack, as the pack has more experience than you. Most of the guru’s out there have been plying their trade for 5 or more years (many SEO’s have upwards of 10-12 years experience!), so it’s crucial you partially make up for this inexperience by being on the ball when it comes to changes in Google’s algorithm, linkbait theories etc.

Here are a few RSS feeds I suggest following:

• SEOmoz
• Google Webmaster Central
• Michael Gray
• Matt Cutts

If you see any others that provide really valuable content, be sure to subscribe to their RSS feed, just in case you miss them in your daily browsing.

Get Your Name Out There

This is a point that I myself am still working on, so I can’t give you definitive answers. However I can try and point you in the right direction, and let you know a few things I am trying.

Start a Blog

This allows you to publish your thoughts in full, without too much outside interference. It gives others a point of reference, and allows them to get an insight into what kind of internet marketer you are.

Get on Twitter

I know many of you will already be on Twitter, but if you aren’t, do it. Worst case scenario, you get a handful of followers, but at least it gives you a point of reference for your favourite links! Be sure not to post too reguarly, or too infrequently, and only post about things you are genuinely interested in. For more information check out my post on Using Twitter for SEO.

I was having a chat to a social media specialist today, and she said that Twitter was predominantly a “follow/unfollow” game. So spend some time once a week following people in your industry who you think will post valuable content, then also spend some time unfollowing people that aren’t following you. So by following others, your number of followers should increase in turn.

Twitter drives great traffic for any links you post, so if you couple this with starting a blog, the results can come in quickly.

Audit Your Facebook Profile

This point goes not only for your Facebook profile, but any websites that may have publicly accessible information about yourself.

Now I can’t stress this enough. Make sure the information is clean! Don’t join groups which may be offensive, try to keep wall post’s above-board, and don’t post photos of you after a huge Saturday night out. Also it’s worth making sure all your Facebook profile is set to private.

Now I know this shouldn’t have to be a worry, and it annoys me that this is an issue, but believe me in the internet marketing industry people will Google your name. So it’s worth cleaning up anything out there that could be perceived as in bad taste. You have been warned!

Expand Your Knowledge

Unfortunately we can’t all specialise in everything. But what I can recommend is working out where your knowledge is lacking or could be improved and start trying to increase your knowledge on that subject. For me it was PHP and CSS, so I sat down with a couple of designers, and had a look over some websites just to get up to a basic level of understanding.

For you it might be CRO, or HTML, or design, but whatever it is, be sure to spend some time on improving those skills. It can be so easy trying to fine tune the skill-set you specialise in, that it is easy to move away from the big picture. Even though you might not be hands-on in these areas of internet marketing, having an understanding of them will help ensure your success as an internet marketer.