Every so often, an experienced SEO in our SEO Chat forums makes a post with the goal of answering most of the concerns of those who are new to search engine optimization. Since newbies often ask the same kinds of questions, this gives them one thread to turn to, and saves time and space. Here’s the lowdown from the most recent version of this thread.
This time the call was answered by “The Berg,” who explains that he has been designing websites for over 10 years, “reading about SEO for as long as it’s been a term,” but only really started to “take advantage of the possibilities in the last 5 years.” He approaches SEO by finding a small niche and dominating it. He readily admits that he might have done as well by building a less strong presence for a more profitable term, but his lessons resonate regardless of the path you choose to take to success.
The Berg’s first point raises the theme of patience that runs through all of his words. “SEO doesn’t come over night,” he explained. Since you’re going to be working on something for quite a while before you see success, you should choose to build your site around a subject about which you’re passionate. If you do it right, you’ll be doing it for a long time, so it really should be something you love.
The road to the top, in SEO as in other things, is rarely smooth. There are tons of variables that can cause your ranking on the search engine results pages to fluctuate, as The Berg explains in his second point. “With the millions of factors that may have caused your change, you most likely won’t be able to point it out anyway without controlled testing,” he noted. And he directly addresses the anxieties of new SEOs when he says, “If your site is less than 6 months old, expect fluctuations and concentrate on solidifying your niche instead of watching every keyword movement.”
On the other hand, you shouldn’t wait too long before you do something. Inaction can be as bad as taking too hasty action in The Berg’s book, as he makes clear in his third point. Overanalyzing, hesitation, and procrastination are an SEO’s worst enemies, he notes; as an antidote, he recommends that you “Take action and record the results.” As a side note, if you’re interested in how this kind of thing is done, there is an entire section of the SEO Chat forum devoted to doing SEO tests and experimentation.
Search Optimization 
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