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Intermediate SEO: Developing Intermediate SEO Techniques

Posted by Michael Martinez on June 29, 2007 in Intermediate SEO

Intermediate SEO Techniques

What is the difference between an intermediate SEO (a Journeyman SEO) and a beginner SEO (an apprentice SEO)? Intermediate search engine optimization demands a level of research and innovation that the beginner is just not ready for.

The Apprentice SEO is still learning the fundamental principles and doing things by the book. The Journeyman SEO should also do things by the book, but the Intermediate SEO book needs to challenge the Journeyman. The Apprentice SEO book gives you all the answers. The Journeyman SEO book makes you think about the problems and ask the right questions that lead you to the answers.

Intermediate SEO goes beyond the fundamental principles of search engine optimization and refines them.

Four Fundamental Principles of SEO

1. Visibility
2. Content Organization
3. Keyword Research
4. Links

Successful search engine optimization buids or enhances visibility, manages content organization, promotes ongoing keyword research, and incorporates links into its strategy.

If you’re not thinking about all four aspects of search engine optimization, you’re not engaging in intermediate-level SEO.

Visibility is the most difficult principle to master for many people because it cannot easily be measured. You can define a metric. For example, you can say you have achieved visibility when your site hits the top ten results for one or more queries.

Content organization was once considered to be the most important aspect of search engine optimization. Unfortunately for many Webmasters, link bombing tactics became easy and popular, and today’s Web is littered with the damage that link bombing has inflicted on Internet Marketing.

If you cannot optimize content (and that includes organizing it), you are not ready for intermediate SEO.

Keyword research never ends. I think most SEOs who have been around for a few years understand that but it’s hard to persuade clients that they should re-evaluate their keyword choices. Clients never change their vocabularies, but intermediate SEOs absolutely must update their query vocabularies or they’ll lose track of the markets they deal with.

Links are the baby food of search engine optimization. Anyone can get links. The difference between a Journeyman SEO and an Apprentice SEO is measured not in the quantity of the links but in their quality. One Intermediate SEO link should be worth 10, maybe 100 Apprentice SEO links. Spammers rarely move beyond Apprentice Level linking. Since they deal in volume they don’t need to.

Sadly, most SEOs are so obsessed with linkage they never move beyond Apprentice Level linking either. If you’re spending most of your time getting links you’re doing it wrong (unless you’re in one of a handful of competitive queries). SEO link obsession is not only stupid, it’s self-destructive. We can thank spammers and white hat SEOs alike for the Google Supplemental Index. Had it not been for all the link building tips and techniques people have shared on blogs and forums through the years we wouldn’t have ever heard of Google Supplemental Hell.

Intermediate SEO: Managing Visibility

If you’re an Apprentice SEO you’re just trying to achieve visibility. If you’re a Journeyman SEO you should be able to manage visibility. The Apprentice celebrates when the client page hits the top ten results. The Journeyman celebrates when the client page has maintained a top 5 listing through 2 or more updates. The Master SEO puts the page in the first or second position, locks it down, and moves on.

You manage visibility by evaluating the results you have achieved and making adjustments. You make adjustments by adding, changing, or deleting copy and/or by adding, changing, or deleting links. That’s the textbook explanation.

At the intermediate level search engine optimization has no obvious, easy answers. You’re not just dealing with search engine algorithms, you’re dealing with competition. It’s a rare Apprentice SEO who can take a top ten position in a competitive field. It’s a rare Journeyman SEO who cannot move a 10th position page into the competitive top 5. But the top 5 positions on any query have to be earned regardless of how good you are.

Master SEOs get no breaks or special dispensation. Journeyman SEOs wish they could get them. Remember that you have to earn the top 5 slots. Everything else is relatively easy.

Intermediate SEO: Content Organization

In an idea situation the Journeyman SEO is the architect of the Web site. The client tells you what the objectives are, gives you the resources you need (a competent Web developer and plenty of content), and gets out of the way. That actually sometimes happens. In the less than ideal situation the Journeyman SEO is the plumber who has to dig up the broken pipes and fix them.

Web sites leak. They leak content. They leak traffic. They leak value. They leak everything but PageRank.

You leak content when you orphan pages, block pages from being indexed, create too many copies of pages, break the HTML code so that page copy cannot be indexed, etc. Think of the Web site as a bucket and think of the copy as water. You have to carry the water to people in the bucket. How much water do you get to the people if the bucket is full of holes?

Web sites leak traffic by creating bouncebacks, by directing people to the wrong resources, by carrying intrusive advertising that drives people away, by being annoying, by making it difficult for people to see that there is more for them on the site than off. What does that have to do with search engine optimization? The Journeyman SEO has to learn the answer to that question if he ever wants to become a Master SEO.

It doesn’t matter when the site was designed, who designed it, or what the design goals were. You’re facing an Intermediate SEO task if the site is not working. Your challenge is not to change the site, but rather to make the site work. Do you understand the difference? The Journeyman SEO has to learn how to make sites work in impossible situations. The Apprentice SEO won’t be able to handle that challenge. The Apprentice SEO just goes out and gets more links. That don’t cut the mustard.

Intermediate SEO: Managing Links

Link management has been redefined over the past few years. People think that link management has something to do with swapping links, sending out emails, asking for links, etc. That isn’t link management. That is paperwork.

The Apprentice SEO looks for links wherever he can get them. The Journeyman SEO stops and looks at the Webscape, analyzing the potential non-search value of links. Just because you’re doing search engine optimization doesn’t mean you’re not doing Web marketing. You have to create visibility, remember, and visibility is found wherever you have people. People use search less than half the time to find Web content. If your linking strategy focuses on search, you’re doing it wrong.

The Journeyman SEO has to build a repertoire of linking maneuvers that leave Apprentice SEOs scratching their heads in frustration. The Journeyman SEO uses links to get the PR 2 site crawled and indexed, not to boost the site’s Toolbar PR to 4, 5, or 7. People who think in terms of “PR X” sites are either looking to sell domains or links or they are stuck at the Apprentice level of SEO.

Search engine optimization does not depend on links. Links depend on search engine optimization. Do you understand what that means? The Journeyman SEO doesn’t use links to drive rankings. The Journeyman SEO uses links to improve rankings. The Apprentice thinks you need links to rank. The Journeyman gets a good base ranking first and then brings in links where needed.

Journeyman SEOs don’t create profiles on social media sites, forums, or other “SEO friendly” resources. They can (and often do) build blogs, create secondary Web sites, build out existing Web sites, spread content to other sites, and do other things to make links happen rather than asking for them, swapping for them, or buying them.

A Journeyman SEO can buy links like everyone else (he had to go through his Apprenticeship). A Journeyman SEO can live with or without the paid links. Paid links make the Journeyman SEO’s job a little easier but more expensive. They are not really worth the hassle so the Journeyman SEO gets away from paid links as soon as possible.

A Journeyman SEO doesn’t evaluate links on the basis of Toolbar PR. A Journeyman SEO looks at the page, the site, and the placement of the link. A Journeyman SEO looks at the traffic potential of the linking site. A Journeyman SEO looks at the content organizaion of the linking site. A Journeyman SEO looks at the keywords of the linking site.

But do you understand why? If you’re thinking “relevant links from relevant sites” you have not yet learned the lesson. A Journeyman SEO, in order to become a Master SEO, has to understand why “relevant links from relevant sites” is just a pattern to follow. This ain’t your mama’s sewing class. Understand when and why you want a link from a relevant site and from an irrelevant site.

CNN and Yahoo! are never relevant to your site. Their links are always relevant. To graduate from Journeyman SEO status to Master SEO status, you have to avoid the pitfalls of the Relevant Link Myth. All links are relevant by definition. The Journeyman SEO is building relevance, not looking for it.

Intermediate SEO: Keyword Research

Keyword research never ends. When your clients lose traffic because people are no longer searching on their keywords you have to know which keywords will bring the traffic back to them. When your clients lose traffic because someone has beaten you out of the top ten results you need to know which keywords to fall back on until you can recover your lost rankings.

The Journeyman SEO makes backup plans. Before he can become a Master SEO he has to be able to pull the bacon out of the fire in many different situations. He has to be ready to change horses in the middle of the stream because a search engine just rewrote its algorithm. He has to be ready to think in new and different ways because “that little no-account search engine” is now the biggest, most popular search engine out there.

Keyword patterns change by year, by season, by age group, by search engine. The Journeyman SEO cannot just dip into WordTracker and look at what is popular. The Journeyman SEO has to scour the Web for references to new expressions that might signal a shift in searcher activity. The difference between the Journeyman SEO and the Master SEO is that the ongoing research is second nature to the Master SEO.

A Journeyman SEO must be absolutely sure he has the right keywords. A Master SEO knows he can make adjustments if he doesn’t have a perfect match.

A Journeyman SEO has to make the client keywords work. A Master SEO can make the client keywords work with the right keywords. That’s a very subtle distinction. You may be ready to move on to Master SEO status if you can not only explain it but implement it.

Intermediate SEO: The Art of Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is the art of persuasion exercised on both machines and people. You have to persuade them both that your content is more relevant to a query than anyone else’s. And that means capturing traffic from 1st position listings in the search results pages. An Apprentice SEO has no idea of how to do that. A Journeyman SEO has to figure out how to make the 3rd listing more compelling than the 1st listing.

The Journeyman SEO’s day is never done. You eat, sleep, and breathe search engine analysis. You look at every query you type in as if you were about to optimize for it. You study other people’s search engine optimization problems and help them find solutions that you may be able to use later on.

The Journeyman SEO’s task is to learn how to get along without shortcuts and cheats. The Apprentice SEO paints by the numbers. The Journeyman SEO may be lucky enough to draw his own lines before he has to start applying oil paint to the canvas.

You’re an Apprentice SEO if you reach for a tip sheet or SEO tutorial every time you are stumped. You are a Journeyman SEO if you are asked to contribute to a tip sheet or tutorial.

An Apprentice SEO studies other people’s research. A Journeyman SEO tries to do his own research and gets mixed results. The closer you get to doing really good research the closer you get to becoming a Master SEO. Learning how to test, evaluate, and collect data is part of the Journeyman SEO experience.

An Apprentice SEO runs reports. A Journeyman SEO writes reports, explains reports beyond the obvious implications, and appreciates the finesse of moving a page up in rankings for several keywords at the same time.

An Apprentice SEO panics when a search engine changes radically overnight. A Master SEO rolls his eyes, checks his watch, and waits. A Journeyman SEO looks at what is happening in depth. He analyzes every complaint about lost rankings and lost indexings. The Journeyman SEO never stops asking “Why?” until he is confident that his pages either won’t drop out of the index or will at least return quickly.

When you no longer care if the search engines are updating, you may be ready to graduate to Master SEO status. But you cannot stop caring about search engine updates until you can design an SEO campaign that is rock solid. You have to be that good to justify your confidence. Just because I say things will return to normal is no excuse for you to believe they will.

Why do I say they will return to normal?

Intermediate SEO: The Difference Between Beginner and Intermediate SEO

When you are ready to try things you have not read about in SEO blogs and forums, when you take on a Web site where things are not done to your specification, when you start getting involved in competitive SEO, you’re ready for Journeryman status.

Intermediate SEO looks for advantages in everything: other people’s optimization mistakes, other people’s generosity, other people’s marketing oversights. Beginning SEO relies on the advantages handed down by a mentor or free service provider.

Intermediate SEO may produce the next great thing, the next successful service site. Apprentice SEO may get the local craft shop’s Web site onto the first page for a geolocal keyword.

You don’t have to be a Master SEO to be successful. Intermediate SEO is very often successful. Intermediate SEO requires resourcefulness, tenacity, and a very judicious application of techniques and tips shared by other people. Intermediate SEO challenges you to question everything. Intermediate SEO demands that you start explaining things. Intermediate SEO means you have to understand what you are doing, at least enough so that you can recover from any mistakes you make.

Your kit of intermediate SEO tools should include at least:

• Five successfully optimized Web sites you can study to remind yourself of why they succeeded
• A growing list of resources you can use for linking, visibility, and testing
• Two or three reliable references to help you learn the terminology that Web tools and services use
• A set of analytical tools that let you look at Web page code, server-provided information, and other useful “under-the-hood” things
• Your own Web site (server account) where you can experiment, prepare files for presentations, and play without worrying about hurting client campaigns

You’ll add your own tools as you improve and grow.

Intermediate SEO works on complex, challenging opportunities. You go after multiple keywords, multiple verticals. You work with inadequate content, insufficient linkage. You develop new skills, new resources. You abandon old skillls and resources that no longer help you. You analyze, analyze, analyze. You work endlessly, ceaselessly, tirelessly.

Every site you look at should tell you something about how successful it really is. You have to learn how to read behind the copy. Do you know the difference between a real testimonial and a faux testimonial? Do you know where to find the real testimonials? The Journeyman SEO has to know.

That’s the key to being successful: you have to know. What you do in your quest for knowledge determines what techniques you learn and come to rely upon.