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I guess all I need to know is how to make a great site.... oh yeah, and it looks like theres a little something at the bottom about links.... whatever that is.

Maybe the next article will fill THAT void.

Was there anything in that article about SEO?

Oh yeah, content and links, as mentioned at the bottom

Pretty much what he said (gypsy)

Whew! That feeling was right! At least now I know why.

It sure didn't seem to stack up with your description for what an SEO specialist actually does, Gypsy, however, I wasn't sure if that just meant this article was obvious stuff or just plain wrong.

It would be worth your while to have a thorough knowledge of just how search engines rank web pages. This knowledge is something that can only be developed by many hours of observation, testing and studying as well as a comparison of the differences between major search engines and their ranking algorithms.

I’d think that this would be more important than learning HTML,CSS and Web design – wouldn’t you? Naw.. we’ll put that at the end of the article. Besides.. one can NEVER know exactly how a given SE ranks pages… that’s the secret sauce baby!!

I was wondering how he got to actually test and study the various algorithms, when the "secret recipe" is guarded better then Bush's Baked Beans recipe. (Hopefully, just an American commericial reference, however I do like the dog. )

You want to know how to become a SEO Specialist – Eat, Sleep, Drink and Breath the stuff – just like any other field of interest.

What does it smell and taste like? If it's sauerkraut, ummm, no thanks, but if it's cake, I think I can even work myself up to dreaming about it too. (OK, have already dreamt about it, but, not being an expert, the dreams are similar to the ones I used to have about being caught roaming the school halls in my underwear -- definitely, a get-me-out-of-this kinda dream. )

Yeah that guy has got me writing an article myself now.. he he... gotta rant ya know..it's cathartic.... I have been hearing to many theories on becomming a SEO Expert lately.... yeeesh

Cool! Got the result I was hoping for by asking.

Since you're ranting AND writing, I sure wouldn't mind finding out the difference between a web designer and SEO specialist. This article seemed to define designer, so it would be helpful for the naive folks (like me) to understand the differences enough to know which type of business to go for, when considering developing a business site. (I'm beginning to wonder if anyone really needs a designer, since optimizing does have to do with the design of the site too, and yet is so much more.)

I guess all I need to know is how to make a great site.... oh yeah, and it looks like theres a little something at the bottom about links.... whatever that is.

Maybe the next article will fill THAT void.

MrStitch,
I dunno. Already wasted my time trying to figure out this article, only to finally simply ask what it meant. Do we really want another full-fledged article about something unrelated to the title?

Was there anything in that article about SEO?

Northie,
That was how I felt, and yet, it did make me wonder, if I missed the boat. Thankfully, no boat to miss?!

Thanks for the verification, Guys. I definitely need help sometimes (OK often, but that's another story), when my gut says, "no," but my mind can't tell me why.

Just so ya know, I did know  much of differences between the two jobs, although I didn't realize it could be broken up into even more jobs. My thought was more along the lines of, "If the content is to be KWP rich and relevant to visitors, as well as the obvious get them to take the desired action, wouldn't the Optimizer end up reworking what the designer wrote?" I also got the idea, some where along the way, that SEO Specialists would go ballistic with anything resembling WYSIWYG (except for Dreamweaver), because of the murky coding playing havoc on what the spiders see.

Never thought that they might just do one aspect of optimizing -- making quality BLs! Of course, knowledgable copy writer sounds like the perfect transitional person to have, if you just wanted to do the designing, and then have the customer go onto SEO afterwards.

Northie, does the place you work create sites for others, or are you working for the kind of business that you're creating on the side (your JV site) -- one aimed to develop its own income? Also, what's a throwaway site, and what is BH?

Thanks for the mind expanding response!

Knowing you, may your JV sites get you rich enough to fly solo soon!

I would have to say that the way to become a seo specialist can be summed up in three words:

Practice, Patience and Persistence

seochristian wrote:

bill.platt wrote:

I would have to say that the way to become a seo specialist can be summed up in three words:

Practice, Patience and Persistence

Yeah, absolutely. And if you're a good one,  Prace, Patience and Persistence will lead to consistancy. Which will be rewarded by smart people and the not-so-smart will take you for granted and assume that the seo-generated business will always be there even without SEO. You know...it'll just grow on trees.

Maybe we should also add that an SEO has got to have thick skin for dealing with wannabe business people.

...and wanna B SEOs too....... been swating a few flies lately mylself...

matte wrote:

what I want to know is how it came to be published on SR in the first place...

erm... lax editorial integrity maybe? If I were editor in chief it would be competing with the big boys.. he he ( fools aspirations)... only da best... or at least close...

Mind U I managed to take a dump on SearhEngineLand and WebProWorld about editorial decision making this year and it's only the 4th..... so hey, becomming a pet peeve in the industry...

What U doing here at this hour (near 3am here)... man, WTF am I doing here?? Oh yea... hanging with U... lol....

I dunno, guys. Not sure how many articles come to SR, but, frankly some of the subject choices just aren't my cup of tea. Even the ones that are my cup of tea, often are so repetitive after 3 years, I can see how having to read them all and then decide what can go in can leave me perusing too quickly at times.

Used to be many articles bounced in that really were bad. Now it's such a rare occasion, this folder rarely gets used anymore, even by ME! LOL

I think it's pretty cool that the really good articles are often coming from folks who participate on this board often (coughGypsy, Bill Platt, and occasionally other). The cream has been rising to the top, it's just that patience is required for it all to get there before trying to seperate it from the milk. Meanwhile, I can always ask, when I'm not sure if it's cream or cow chips!

Hey Tom

Good to hear from you, but sorry to see you were disappointed.

This was not an article that was well written with correct information to spark a conversation

The way I see it, be right or wrong, the article is about a person’s opinion of what it takes to be considered an expert, and like all opinions should be treated as so.

The terms “professionals”, “experts”, “specialist” are increasingly used these days. It’s my belief that they do not command the respect they once did and found this to be an area of interest.

Again, the article is Mikhail’s opinion. I knew some people would disagree (as people do), so I thought it would be interesting to get a discussion going here to see other views – getting a range of opinions always helps me (and hopefully others to) make the best decisions.   

In any case, you may attack the article for being poorly written and so on, but to say it contains ‘incorrect info’ is unjust as opinions, which Mikhail presents, should not be treated as facts.

We strive to do our best to provide beginners to advanced webmasters, articles and discussions on a wide variety of industry related topics. Not everyone’s going to like everything all the time and we’re not always going to hit the nail right on the head. I take full responsibility for all articles that get published.

On a positive note, a lot of people have had great success applying the info they’ve received through SR (and its generous members here in the forums). So it’s unfortunate to see that 1 article has made you lose respect for us.  Hopefully you’ll stick around, give more articles a chance and let us start earning some respect back.

Thank you for letting us know your honest opinions. It’s through them that we can learn to improve.

Nic