Right now, the SEO market as a whole is still reeling from the Panda Update. Yes, Panda.
Very, very few SEO’s understand how Google works now. As a result, many SEO firms are closing their doors. Because any website they touch turns into a ticking time bomb that will blast off the Google rankings in the near future.
But the demand for SEO is still there. In fact, the demand is GROWING, consistently!
Feast your eyes on this:
- SEO job posting on indeed.com increased 1900% over the last year (conductor.com)
- For both B2B and B2C customers, SEO ranks highest for lead generation at 59% B2B, 49% B2C
- Organic search drives 50% of all referring traffic
Now, it’s obvious why SEO is such a huge industry… if you can get a website ranking on page #1 of Google, leads come in on autopilot! However, the problem has always been, how do we reach page #1?
And this is the reason why NOW is the best time to open an SEO firm. Many “leaders” are closing their doors, but the demand is higher than ever!
For the remainder of this article, we’ll be talking about a few ways you can make sure you can provide SEO that actually ranks a site, instead of getting it blown off the rankings!
Limit your Clients: Focus on VALUE, Not SEO!
First and foremost, remember the pillar of “New SEO” – Google is a business! If the site you’re trying to rank is garbage, it’s not going to rank well! And even if you do get it ranking, it’ll be blown off the SERPs in the future.
The way to avoid this—and to build up an incredible reputation—is to be VERY selective about who you work with. Only work for companies that are providing massive value, or have the potential to provide massive value to anyone who lands on the site.
SEO is changing. It’s much less “technical metrics” and MUCH MORE VALUE. As an SEO, your job isn’t just about spamming anymore. No, it’s about understanding the company you’re working for, and learning exactly how to provide value in your niche.
THEN, it’s about making sure you’re using all the SEO best practices as you create and deliver massive value.
SEO is the afterthought! THIS is how you can create an SEO firm that has a fantastic reputation, delivers consistently, and is profitable!
It’s All About The Brand
“New SEO” is about branding. Instead of creating a spam site with five pages of spun content, the new goal is to create a strong brand in your niche. A brand that can withstand the test of time, and continue to deliver value to customers for as long as they need the products and services.
This directly relates to your link building and social media efforts (because you need to be doing both!).
When building links, focus on linking to the page AS IF IT WAS ALREADY AN AUTHORITY BRAND. What do I mean by that? Well, remember how we used to do anchor text that was focused at the keywords we were targeting?
It worked great, but was entirely unnatural! If you have a strong brand, when people link to you, they use your BRAND NAME as the anchor text. Therefore, focus on building up your client’s site’s authority through branded anchor text links. Then, once you have a significant amount of link authority, use a small number of targeted links with keyword optimized anchor text.
Go the Extra Mile
Lastly, focus on areas you can provide value to your client, that you haven’t agreed to beforehand! Look for any way you can provide extra value through your services.
Treat a client’s website like your own (or better!). Only do the SEO on a client’s site that you would do on your own, provided you wanted it to rank long-term! By providing a phenomenal service AND getting real results, you’ll quickly build an SEO firm that dominates in this “uncertain” era of SEO.
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If you liked this article, you may also enjoy:
Anatomy of a “Google-Proof” Link
Why Your Business Needs to Be Value Focused