SEO: Snake Oil or a Miracle Cure?

After six years of DIY SEO including reading a number of SEO books, scouring forums and trial and error I think I can safely say SEO is a lot like dieting. Every month there are new diet fads coming out competing for your hard earned money.  In much the same way there are SEO firms hawking the latest and greatest solution to make your site number one in Google and Yahoo! We receive about 5 of these emails a week.

The similarity between the two is that both can be accomplished successfully with common sense and perseverance. Where they differ is that SEO is more front loaded with work being required when setting up a new site or overhauling an existing one, but once that is accomplished the rest is maintenance and following the same protocols for each new page or blog post.

Not only can you waste a lot of money on SEO services that you could do yourself, you may even end up with someone who practices black hat SEO and get blocked from Google.

Once you pierce the veil so to speak and understand the big picture the bulk of SEO is no longer that complicated, and much of the drudge work is better suited to lower wage temps or interns than for a highly paid SEO specialist.

An article at Entrepreneur.com, “What You Don't Know About SEO” does a good job of explaining the world of SEO.