In October of 2006 I joined a startup as a marketing manager, which means I was the marketing department. My only post college experience was as a marketing/product strategist for a year. I came into the startup with no knowledge of SEO or paid search, but I was responsible for both. About 2 weeks before starting I was handed Aaron Wall’s SEOBook and started my SEO education. With the help of an outsourced SEO consultant already being used by the startup, I had become versed in the meta text, keyword research and link building techniques.
The problem I have now is I’m the average SEO guy.
I want need to get to the next level of SEO. I now manage the SEO tasks for multiple sites and have the chance to test and experiment different SEO tactics (which I believe is essential). I try to read as much as I can but only find a few select authors actually provide a view behind the curtain of advanced SEO tactics. I believe, as with any industry, those that find a competitive advantage are not going to announce it on a blog or forum.
So how do I reach the next level of SEO?
I figured I would continue to test my own theories as well as those I read about from the “experts”. Then I begin to wonder if the real SEO experts are really spending their time blogging at all. SEO bloggers often keep the sites they work on secret so you can’t dissect the links and keywords they use. The only site you can judge SEO experts on is their blog.
So where does this leave me? That’s a good question.
