Bernardus. adventures in SEO land

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Austen McDowell
8 years ago
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1 Bernardus adventures in SEO land

2 adventures in SEO land Page 2 of 7 the most asked question of my life? Why would anyone attend a SEO seminar? Just search for SEO tip and Google will return over 74 million pages with free tips!!! Exactly. I know. I ve been there. 74 million pages with SEO tips during a decade I wasn t able to read more than a few hundred of those articles or a few dozen manuals. I can safely say that 99% of them are identical or not giving up to date information. That still leaves close to a million pages consequently: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. I am not ashamed to say I have made every possible SEO mistake on earth, and learned from every one of those mistakes. If anyone knows just how expensive a faulty strategy is, then that is me. It took 3 years of my life, before I arrived at a few very basic and very simple conclusions. Here they are. Ben (Bernardus) Geurts In the summer you will find me in a small hilltop village in Spain, where I conduct private and discreet Internet marketing seminars to business owners. I have given this concept the name of Guaronomics.

I can safely say that 99% of them are identical or not giving up to date information. That still leaves close to a million pages consequently: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.

3 adventures in SEO land Page 3 of 7 adventures in SEO land In February 2007 I ended my career in Online marketing (Hotelrentalgroup.Com and GlobRes.Com), unplugged everything and moved my computer to a small village in inland Spain. The aim was: test the search engines. I had to do that, because even after being a Marketing Manager for 5 years, SEO still seemed to come with dozens of opinions and contradictions. This time I wanted to know. That same month I launched my first self-made web page. 300 more would follow, spread over 10 test websites. For 2 years on end, full time, I analyzed the results and cross-referenced the techniques. By 2009 I was in all major search engines in the Top 10 for SEO Advisor. At that point I settled as an independent website designer. But it was still only Part I of the learning curve: in the next 2 years I focused on converting website visitors into clients, as well as Branding. So, what did I learn in all those years? Too much to summarize, even in a 100 page document it s no miracle that my seminars can go from 3 hours up to a week-long workshop. Here are the basics though: if it s free, it s worth ZIP Today, I sincerely do not know why I ever thought differently. It should have been obvious from the start. What do you receive for free in a supermarket? A plastic key ring. That s the value of most free tips online: they are worth a plastic key ring. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you ever spot an advert along the lines of On top of Google for 49 run! For it will not only make you lose that 49 and waste your time; it will make you lose much more; all the potential you could have from a serious solution. When I think of all the years I didn t grasp that, I could bang my head against the desk. Just as the gold diggers of the 19 th century, I was digging for that gold of the 21 st century: WHAT makes a website successful?

I had to do that, because even after being a Marketing Manager for 5 years, SEO still seemed to come with dozens of opinions and contradictions. This time I wanted to know.

4 adventures in SEO land Page 4 of 7 It goes without saying gold is very hard to find It really is no miracle at all that an estimated 85% of all 400 million active websites are either not generating business, or are performing under their potential. Yes, for every 10 websites, there are almost 9 that fail. There are millions of articles out there promising you the secret of online success. Either they do offer a valuable tip, which will then instantly be read and applied by tens of millions, making the tip obsolete or, even more logical, people who find gold do not tend to tell millions of others where it is. That would be like Coca Cola posting its recipe. Forget about secrets. You will not find them. So far, after 10 years in Online marketing, I can say that the secrets are very, very basic: The level of your website dictates the level of your customer The relevancy of your information dictates your rankings Your reliability is the big motor behind conversion Pretty basic, isn t it? These phrases always result in an almost choir-like response: Yes, of course, we know that! And then you visit the web pages of the business owner who knew that, and realize there is an immense discrepancy between knowing something and applying it. are all online tips useless? Of course not. There are actually quite a number of very good, very reputable specialists out there who post online tips and are of immense help. The issue with any such tips though, is that once they are online, they are read by millions, who instantly spread the message to millions of others. Making the tip useless. Just one example: a few years ago Hotelmarketing.com posted an article about the importance of being on YouTube. In the week after that article, I received 4 s from friends asking: Did you see this article?

Either they do offer a valuable tip, which will then instantly be read and applied by tens of millions, making the tip obsolete or, even more logical, people who find gold do not tend to tell

5 adventures in SEO land Page 5 of 7 Now, hotelmarketing.com has 100,000 visitors a month. So you can imagine just how many hoteliers and hotel marketing managers got the message, and how many of them informed others. When I write this, there are 3 million videos promoting hotels, on YouTube. That means that very quickly after that article, being on YouTube had become obsolete, and the expression YouTube optimization was born. The issue no longer was just being there, but how to be better at it than others. From the moment a good tip is posted online, it goes viral and it generates more competition, instead of avoiding it. It is never ever being there it is the HOW. That was the second lesson I had to learn. That seems very obvious in hindsight. rankings are not clients Misconception Number One in search engine land? I have no clients I must get better rankings! Yes, well, if your existing website does not convert visitors into clients, having more visitors will not help. In such a scenario, don t even think of starting with paid advertising or social networking or any other strategy promoting your website. For the problem starts with the website itself. I manage websites with visitors a month and just 20 clients, and websites with 500 visitors a month with 30 clients. Which website would you rather have? This is the very first thing a SEO Advisor should tell you: very high rankings does NOT mean more clients. are SEO specialists worth their while? A very reliable and reputable one? Simply yes! Only 4 years ago I laughed when I heard of a SEO advisor charging 1000 an hour. What a fraud, I thought. I ll do it myself. Today I wish I could go back to those moments! If I had just taken SEO seriously and professionally in 2007, it would not have taken until 2010 before my websites turned profitable.

When I write this, there are 3 million videos promoting hotels, on YouTube.

6 adventures in SEO land Page 6 of 7 For sure, this applies to everything. If only I had invested in a business consultant 4 years ago, if only I had But, no, I had to do it my way, and had to learn the hard way that: A website of 500 costs 500 A website of 2000 makes you earn 10,000 And so on. Those websites I created that cost me 500 in fact cost me thousands in lost potential and time wasted on promotion. how to get a SEO specialist fuming? Just say this: Is that how you make a living, putting pieces of code into web pages? Yes, indeed, in 1999 that was all SEO was about. For a year or so. Today, SEO is research, thought, cleverness, tests forever trying to unearth those techniques a few months before others find them, and 2-3 years before someone considers them no longer that profitable and posts them online. SEO is Judo. It s gathering the focus to, as a tiny company, beat the very big ones. It is shadowboxing. Half of the time you don t exactly know who or what you are fighting against. It is technology, history, psychology, sociology, art and craft rolled into one. And, lastly, it is all about quality. No quality you might as well not do anything at all. when to be fuming with a SEO specialist? From the split second he or she provides a guarantee or promise. No SEO advisor can EVER provide a promise when it comes to rankings. For the simple reason far too much is out of his or her control. In that, he is like a surgeon or solicitor. Your solicitor cannot promise you will win the lawsuit, your surgeon cannot promise the operation will turn out fine nor can your soccer team promise your country will make it to the World Cup. All you can do is optimize your chances by going for the best one in each category. The expression is Search Engine Optimization, not Search Engine Perfection. Between optimization and perfection there are hundreds of levels.

earn 10,000 And so on. Those websites I created that cost me 500 in fact cost me thousands in lost potential and time wasted on promotion. how to get a SEO specialist fuming?

7 adventures in SEO land Page 7 of 7 any questions regarding my seminars? Feel free to contact me. I will always get back to you on the same day. Thank you for reading.

Your FREE Report The Ultimate Guide To SEO Success In 2015 How To Maximise Your Leads, Sales And Profits Via Google

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