SEO: It’s About The Passion, Stupid
SEO is not a technical art. I’ve written two books on it without ever having produced a line of code. It is more of a personal art, one that requires charisma, excitement, and writing skills. And, of course, you need to follow a few basic rules for the sake of Google.
Here are the rules: create a keyword-rich but human-friendly title tag for all your main content pages; use a content management system like WordPress that produces clean, SEO-friendly code; earn high quality links; and… well that’s pretty much it.
Now that you know the rules, it’s time to talk about the important part: the passion. My company employs dozens of writers, but we will never hire someone who claims to be an “SEO writer.” Given that we’re an SEO company, that may seem strange, but in fact the main thing we’re recruiting for is people that love a particular subject. If you can articulate an interesting perspective about pretty much anything in a client’s line of work and you can do it with real energy, we’re good; our editors might tweak a few things to make it SEO-friendly but that’s far less difficult than putting passion on paper. We cherish passion in our writers.
You might be asking “How can I generate passion?” Well, you can’t really coax passion out of yourself, other than to relax or meditate in order to allow your true feelings to come to the forefront of your mind. Trying too hard never helps. But the key is really getting in touch with the things you care about most. You can’t choose to be passionate about the thing that a company does for a living, sorry. But you can figure out what you ARE passionate about and then try to channel it through the company you’re working for. I guarantee that you’ll be good at it even if you have only a modicum of writing talent. (And if not, that’s the reason we love our editors.)
Passion can be found in areas you wouldn’t expect. For example, if someone asked me what subjects I care most about, I’d probably say “communication and connection with people,” “the welfare of children,” and “my personal journey.” I cannot say that I am passionate about the subject “SEO” in the purest sense. Yet, I’m writing a blog on SEO. And that’s because, to me, SEO is a vehicle for the things I care about most. By having an SEO company, I get to challenge myself daily, help clients reach customers they wouldn’t have otherwise come in contact with, work with a team of people I deeply enjoy my connections with, and dedicate some of my earnings to causes that help children. So, I may not be passionate about “SEO” but you better believe I am passionate about my SEO.
What are you excited about right now?
Evan Bailyn is a best-selling author and award-winning speaker on the subjects of SEO and thought leadership. Contact Evan here.