I interviewed an SEO copywriting candidate this morning, and researched a few copywriting interview questions before it. One of the questions that caught my attention was “There’s a saying ‘Do what it takes to get the job done’.  What does it mean to you?” This particularly resonated with me as it pretty much sums up the motto of our SEO team. Stress levels run high, deadlines are always creeping up, and yet we do what’s needed to get the job done skillfully.

I ended up asking that question during my interview, and was very impressed with the answer – he noted that despite not working in a customer-facing department, he still brainstormed ideas on ways to educate customers on the suite of services the business offered and assist in upselling the client.

It’s a motto that sounds a bit cheesy, sure, but you either embrace it or you move on. Life is a series of choices, and despite the outcome, it’s not what happens, it’s how you handle it. We all have those days where we’re down and stressed, but overall, you wake up and do what it ethically takes to get the results you want.

And that goes for SEO, too. It’s all in the mind set.

Ever have one of those weeks where you start out feeling like all those tasks on your to-do list just look so intimidating, but the end of the week just feels like a rush, in a good way? That’s exactly how this week has been for me. It’s been busy and jam-packed every second of the day, but it just felt so energetic, like a whirlwind, and renewing my excitement to be part of one awesome industry. I even had the chance to speak with a competitor on some SEO client revenue trends, and it was great to see two competing companies having an open chat and sharing information and feeling like we’re all in this together, rather than clawing at each other for clients. Now that is what is going to push the SEO industry forward.

Last week pretty much zapped the energy right out of me! The weather was gloomy, I had a few problem/resolution situations to take care of, and a great deal of monthly work left with the end of the month just a few days away. Yet, it was one of the most inspiring weeks I’ve had recently. We developed a plan of action to get our name out more, with our investment being mostly our time, expertise, and our motivation to illustrate that we are industry experts and have the proven experience to back it up.

A lot of great ideas get a lot of spark in the brainstorming phase, but seem to fizzle out after that. I was so proud to see my team fully embrace our plan of action and set out on it, needing only just a few words of encouragement and direction. It’s a trait I’ve seen again and again in our industry – such a desire to constantly move forward, learn more, and better ourselves. We’re not 9-5 pencil pushers, we’re creatives that happen to know quite a bit about search. This passion to continue thriving, regardless of the stressful days, gives us the motivation to want to continue growing a small business in this economic landscape. In turn, we have a desire to learn more, pass this knowledge on to client’s via their SEO and social media services, and always keep moving ahead.

I’ve been a posting slacker once again! My SEO job has been extremely busy over the last few months, with me hitting the treadmill after a long day, spending time with friends, or simply relaxing with some tea once I’m home. I’ll try my best to post more, but you’ll need to bear with me, as I’ll be venting my stress from time to time. But hey, any online marketing or advertising job out there is stressful, but we still love it! You can check out posts on SEO techniques from just about anywhere, but you can kick back and empathize after a long day here with me

Online marketing has always been pretty cutthroat, but we’re noticing more and more competitors with underhanded techniques – using completely spammy SEO techniques or techniques that “sound good” but have little value, and others banding together to squash smaller companies. All’s fair in love, war, and SEO, but what happened to sharing accurate knowledge, employing “pure” SEO techniques, and advancing SEO as an industry that’s ethical and employs tactics that actually work. Companies out to deceive their clients are giving SEO a bad name, and it’s going to hurt every SEO company out there. After all, if the fly-by-night companies are making quick money, then the actually ethical companies are going to need to dilute their techniques in order to survive. It’s simply lowering the bar, and it’s a shame to see it.

I do believe this can be turned around, but we need to band together and hold ourselves to a higher ethical standard. By actually knowing your stuff in SEO and educating clients on the techniques that really matter, you’re advancing our industry, getting clients to trust SEO experts again, and creating more SEO jobs in the process. So speak out: What kind of standards should exist in the SEO industry?

You already know how much I love SEO, and believe me, I have a lot of love to go around. While you’re feeling the love this Valentine’s Day, do your part to help the Geeks With Heart movement!

Geek Girls Network™ & Geeky Clean have created a fundraiser to support the Haiti Relief called Geeks With Heart.

Through Mercy Corp, Geeks With Heart has a fundraising goal of $2500 and there’s no minimum for donations. If you can spare just one special cup of coffee, an iTunes download, or a crispy chicken sandwich, donate to Haiti instead. Show Haiti why geeks have heart!

As extra incentive, and not that you need any, once Geeks With Heart reaches $2500, all who donated will have the chance to win a prize from an amazing grab bag of geek prizes!

So donate, tweet it up, put a badge on your website, and tell all your friends and family. Thanks!

Geeks With Heart: http://www.mercycorps.org/fundraising/geekgirls

If you’re lucky enough to be part of a thriving SEO company, you’re likely going to be working long hours. If you don’t love the industry and the work you’re doing, you’re going to resent it, just like you would with any industry, even if you worked at it just 4 hours a day. I work an easy 50 hours a week at my not-so-easy SEO job, and usually log another 4 hours throughout the weekend. Yet, I’m happy as a clam (okay, not every second, but overall I’m a pretty happy SEO girl).

What sets us apart is that we love our SEO jobs. We’re part of an industry that’s always changing and questioning preconceived ideas, along with being lucky to have some great people in our industry. The days are long and results are never immediate, but loving the work you’re doing goes a long way towards maintaining your happiness level. There’s always going to be those difficult days and even more difficult clients, but have faith that you’re in an industry that’s going places and evolving.

I’ve been told I work too much and that I’m a workaholic more times than I can count, but I still have that smile on my face and excitement to keep going, even after almost 4 years of being in this industry. It hasn’t been easy and clients try my patience all the time, but there’s a big difference from working just for a paycheck and working because you love what you do. I’m lucky to have the latter.

Don’t we all sometimes find ourselves wanting a bit of control in our lives?. I like change, but there’s just certain things that I like the way I like them. You can’t blame a girl for liking a lil order in her life, can you?

Well, it would also make me one not-so-great SEO client. I’ve dealt with a ton of SEO clients over the years, and the ones I’ve had the most success in working with were the clients who allowed me to actually implement the ideas we discussed. I’ve had other clients who loved the new ideas, but were very cautious to actually implement them, and as a result, the campaign did not see as much success as it could have. As long as the SEO Specialist you’re working with is from a reputable company or background, and is indeed an expert, trusting them and giving up some of your control is a must in a successful SEO relationship.

I understand that if you’ve worked with an SEO “guru” who turned out to just be a shadester, you’re understandably going to have a hard time trusting your new SEO Specialist. But starting the new SEO relationship by needing control over every aspect of the campaign is going to result in just another failed relationship. Once you’ve established case studies and credentials, trust your SEO expert, and you’ll both be on to a happy future in SEO land.

It’s time for this SEO Girl to get a bit mushy With Thanksgiving just a few days, I’ve started to think about all the things in my life I’m thankful for. I don’t have a perfect life (nor want one!), but my thankful list is quite long! In addition to being thankful for all the great people in my life, I’m so happy to be a part of the SEO industry, and all the people who helped take me from a copywriter to motivating me to learn the in’s and out’s of SEO. If you work in SEO, especially with clients, you know how stressful it is. Not only are you juggling the many client personalities, but you’re working to implement creative and successful SEO techniques for their sites, usually on less time than you really need! Yet, tackling SEO challenges and succeeding, working with clients no matter the stress levels sometimes, and being able to meet so many intelligent and interesting people makes me so thankful to be in this industry.

We’re in an industry that’s continually changing, with a growing emphasis on a more purer form of SEO and social media that works to engage your audience, rather than game search engines. To anyone reading this, thank you so much for reading, indulging me, and motivating me to keep posting!

How about you? What makes you thankful to be part of the SEO industry?

So say you check out a blog or website and are asked to describe that website in 20 random words. Most likely, your word choices will be a little all over the place, but they’ll probably tie together enough to form a picture on what the blog is mostly about. This is the same concept as a “tag cloud” – a tag cloud is simply a collection of main themes on a blog or website – often seem a bit disjointed, but actually do go together to form an idea of what you mainly talk about on your blog.

There’s tons of tag cloud generators out there, and I recently used Wordle to generate a tag cloud for The SEO Girl blog, only the very best blog out there, of course (just nod along). The larger the font in a tag cloud, the more often you talk about that topic or theme. For The SEO Girl, I’m big on “SEO” of course, another was “industry” which makes sense, “blog”, “search”, and “PageRank”. Nearly all the words in my tag cloud related to the search industry, so it looks like despite my rambling posts, I’m on track! I encourage you to do the same with your blog or website – it’ll allow you to get a quick snapshot on the theme of your blog posts to be sure the big topics on your blog are actually what you want them to be, and if the keyword phrases you’d like to rank for on your website show up in a larger font in your tag cloud, chances are you’re on target with your SEO keyword targeting. Happy tag clouding!

Check out The SEO Girl blog’s tag cloud, courtesy of Wordle. Note how “love” is inside the “S” in SEO – how true for me!

I was doing some research today on what SEO companies out there are charging for their services. I found a great article in SEOmoz called “How to Price an SEO Campaign” – excellent job highlighting what a good SEO company will do for your site, and the SEO services you actually need for your site. Of course, it’s SEOmoz, so they can charge quite a bit more than a regular old jane who’s plain fantastic at SEO.

But! I did a Google search for “SEO services”, just for a quick pricing glimpse, and was oh-so-discouraged at what I saw. I did see a few reputable companies in the first few pages, and hats off to them, but then there were the companies who promised “search engine submissions”, “blog and forum comments”, “free directory submissions”, and “meta-tag rewrites”. There was even one company who charged $1K for little more than a simple Website Grader SEO evaluation! The horror, and it’s not even Halloween yet!

Rather than choosing a company that says they’ll get you SEO results fast and cheap, look for companies that not only will advise you on on-page and off-page SEO best practices, but will actually implement those practices. You’re a busy website owner, and you need a professional who will do the work and do it right, even if it’s going to cost you a bit more. Invest the time and money into doing it right the first time. If you don’t see results until month 3 or 4 into your campaign – that’s a good thing! That shows they’re implementing ethical SEO techniques and getting search engine attention over time, rather than buying 100 paid links and washing their hands of your website.

Remember, quantity does not equal quality. Going with a company who presents you with an impressive looking report filled with all the blog and forums they spammed with your link, the free directory submissions they submitted your site to, and a few links they bought for you on spammy sites has relatively little value. Go with a reputable company who spends time crafting creative SEO content, manually contacting only a handful of sites each month for link building with a personalized email or phone call, maintains a blog and writes interesting posts, ensures your site is optimized correctly, and maybe even does a bit of social media is the way to go. Their time is likely worth more money, in the $1-2K per month range, but it’s money spent wisely.