Hello and welcome to SEO is not that hard. I'm your host, Ed Dawson, the founder of KeywordsPeopleUse. com, the solution to finding the questions people ask online. In today's episode, I'm going to talk about why SEO is not that hard to outline why I chose this name for the podcast and what kind of topics we'll cover in the future. So why SEO is not that hard?
I chose that name because seo really isn't all that hard, in most cases 80% of all seo results really come from You know, a small core of principles that pretty much anyone can learn. And that's what we want to cover in this podcast. We will cover other things, but we really wanted to show that SEO isn't that hard. And I'm going to give you examples and lead you through how we've built our sites and achieved our results by doing things that really aren't that hard.
So, is SEO really not that hard? Well, the way I look at SEO is that... It's like with the 80 20 rule, which you may have heard of before, that 80 percent of results in most scenarios come from 20 percent of the effort. And it's really the same with SEO. So you can get a good 80 percent or more of the results you want from SEO with about 20 percent of the core basic principles of SEO. So that's why it's not that hard. If you master that 20%, then you'll get 80 percent of the way there.
And then anything else on top really is just a bonus. You'll find an SEO that some things are simple and evergreen. Like for example, making sure your site uses SSL, that it's fast. Don't worry if I'm talking about terms that you don't understand at the moment. We'll cover them more in future podcasts.
Some things are complicated like htmlang and things that really only matter on, on big multinational multi language sites, which for most people, 99 percent of people, you don't even need to worry about. Some things are dangerous.
These are things that are against the terms of services of Google and other search engines where if you do them, you might get results in the short term, but if you get caught, then your site can get removed from the search engines, which is obviously not what you want to happen. And some things are very fleeting. These are hacks that work for a short period of time.
You can sometimes often put these in the dangerous area because the things that might not necessarily be against terms of service, but The things that are going to get tightened up in the future.
So if you don't want to base a long term strategy on them what we will cover in the main is the evergreen, the simple the stuff that will get you the 80 percent there we'll still make stuff a space to talk about the complicated stuff and the trending stuff, and even the dangerous stuff, if only so that you're aware. of these things so that when you hear advice from other people, you can make an informed decision on whether to try them or not.
I'm not necessarily against people who do black, black hat SEO, black hat being the dangerous stuff, the things that's against the terms of service, because, you know, it's SEO is a broad church and people pushing the boundaries. It's not necessarily a bad thing. And you can often learn things from them, but by the same token, if you, you need to know the level of danger is that you're working with. And for most people, they want to build something long term and sustainable.
And to do that, you don't necessarily want to be doing the dangerous stuff because, you know, there can be big risks with big risks can come big rewards, but they can be very fleeting. And if you want to build a long term stable business or income, not necessarily the right way to go, but we'll keep you informed of them. So you understand them and know where they are and whether to use them or not. So what qualifies me to talk about SEO? Well, I've been a student of SEO since the early 2000s.
Very initially as part of my job working on the tech team for an advertising agency, working with big brands. And then since the mid 2000s when, after seeing the opportunity that there was to use SEO, to build my own sites and make my own income, I left to set up on my own. Since then, I've ranked sites in multiple topics, in multiple countries, and generated millions of dollars worth of income, mainly from affiliate and display advertising.
I've bought sites and I've sold sites worth over seven figures, and I still operate a portfolio of sites that generate me a very healthy income every month. I also founded KeywordsPeopleUse. com, the keyword research tool that gets mentioned at the top of every episode. I'll talk more about my SEO experience and how I've built a business around it in more depth in future episodes. So can anyone learn SEO? Simple answer is yes. There's no need for any technical or other qualifications.
In fact, if you look at many professional SEOs, you'll find that most, you know, in many respects have no technical backgrounds whatsoever. Marie Haines is one really good example. She's a very well known SEO now. She spends a lot of time working with people who've been hit by penalties by the search engines. And she does a lot of analysis around that.
And it's got a very big consultancy now, but I remember back in Marie's early days I was at the time, there's a great forum called SEO chat, and I used to spend a lot of time on there. And I remember when Marie first joined that forum and at the time she was working as a vet. And she came along because she was looking to get SEO advice to improve her website for a vet practice. And, you know, she came along very, very green. And yeah, obviously great experience as a vet.
You know, she's Dr. Marie Haines because of her veterinary experience. But she knew nothing technical. She knew nothing about SEO. She had, you know, and. She now is one of the most well respected SEOs in the industry. So it just shows how there isn't really a barrier to entry based on technical or any other qualifications. And that's one of the reasons I can say SEO is not that hard because such a diverse range of people can and have got very good at it.
I think if you're interested, if you're motivated, and you've got that willingness to learn. And especially if you'll experiment and actually dive into it, then it's a career path or a a way of building a business that can be very, very successful, very lucrative for many people. So hopefully now you can see why I decided to call the podcast SEO is not that hard. The SEO actually isn't that hard in many cases.
Why I can actually talk about it with a little bit of qualification and that actually, you know, anyone can earn SEO. You don't need any qualifications or specific background and that it's a really, really good thing to get into. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate it. Please subscribe and share as it really helps. SEO is not that hard is brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse. com, the solution to finding the questions people ask online. See why thousands of people use us every day.
Try it for free at KeywordsPeopleUse. com. If you want to get in touch, I'd love to hear from you. I'm at channel five on Twitter, or you can email me at podcast at KeywordsPeopleUse. com. Bye for now and see you in the next episode of SEO is not that hard.