When you consult in Search Engine Optimization, folks look at your stuff with a different focus. They want to know what you’re up to, and more importantly see if you really know your stuff. And really, who can blame them? Until the last year or so folks in the SEO industry have acted like the Mighty OZ behind the curtain. If you even breathe the letters SEO, they are already suspicious that your hand may be reaching into their pocket -even when you’re not.
So when I tell folks in the “small” town of Jacksonville, Florida I deal in Search Engine Optimization, they can hardly believe it. Really? People in Jacksonville “do SEO.” They think it’s only done in technology hotbeds like Silicon Valley or New York City. NOPE right here in Jacksonville, FL there are bunches of individuals and companies who leave, breathe and love SEO. And I am one of them. Now while I don’t do SEO as a direct service, I work with corporations and entrepreneurs who need someone to help them develop a strategy for Search Engine Optimization yes even in Jacksonville, FL
The scary part about SEO is that while there are tactics to Search Engine Optimization, tricks of the trade as it were, there are no real secrets. Look high and low around the web and if you want to apply yourself to it, within 6-8 months, left to your own accord, you can master many basics to Search Engine Optimization. It’s a skill, nothing more, nothing less. Now some other SEO folks may be getting a little nervous — not to fear — I am not saying SEO professionals are hucksters. It’s a profession, just like plumbing, brick laying, accounting. SURE anyone can do it, but are you willing to apply yourself to learn the task?
Mastering skills of SEO are like mastering the skills of bricklaying. You can understand the concepts on mortar and spacing, but that does not make you qualified to build even a wall. Know the skill isn’t enough, its understanding the application, knowing how to make the bricks work together, keeping things properly aligned, making sure the mortar is the right consistency, know how to layout the design, understanding footer placement so your wall has a good foundation.
The thing is, SEO like brick laying is not really where the trick is; the trick is in understanding what keywords you’re customers may type to look for you, and where they may be in the buying process mentally. That’s where the Marketing comes in. Someone asked me the other day if you could teach a Tech person SEO. My reply was “YES and NO”. Really when I teach and train in SEO, I prefer to train folks with Marketing Brains. It is much easier to teach Marketing People how to do “Search Engine Optimization”, than to teach Tech People how to think like a Marketer. Now understand I once was a “tech” person, too, but fortunately I inherited Marketing Intuition from my Father, making the web an extraordinary playground for me. But I digress . . . Entrepreneurs who understand their business can even learn the concepts of SEO far better than their techie employees.
Sometimes Jacksonville is not thought of a technology haven, but you would be amazed if you look around. For instance in our Jacksonville Search Engine Optimization Meetup, we have more than 200 folks in the meetup, interested in the services of professionals, or desiring to learn how to DIY SEO. The Jacksonville Web Development Group has more than 90 members, and there’s even a Jacksonville Ruby on Rails Group, too. And that’s only the folks who are out in public.
So if you are in Jacksonville, FL and looking for Search Engine Optimization Services, you don’t have to go far to find a whole bunch of folks who’d love nothing better than to get their hands on your Title Tags. If you’d like to meet them, join up with up at an upcoming Jacksonville SEO Meetup, and there’s no secret handshake required.