Terrified of SEO To a Published "Expert" on Top SEO Blogs! Thanks To WA
Hi WA'rriors and WA'rriorettes,
When I first got started at Wealthy Affiliate I was completely terrified of Search Engine Optimisation - the thought of it got me shaking like a leaf and that is no exaggeration.
When even the thought or question of SEO came up - it used to make me go all negative and frustrated at the very thought.
In fact,
Other training programs turned me away "We think you are not a good fit for us, please don't join our program!".
Nobody, but nobody explained that SEO is so simple...except one guy - my mentor!.
And seriously!
SEO is simple. Super simple, easy - there is in fact nothing to it!. Absolutely nothing. As the years have rolled on I have found SEO to be fun - F-U-N!. One of the better thing is to never be afraid to experiment try something new, particularly if and when you have a hunch about something.
Imagine my shock and delight when I got this email....
The name of the site I won't reveal, (I don't want to fall foul of sneakily breaking spam rules).
The site I can tell you is a leading publication in the SEO industry and is one of the top 50,000 sites (all industries) in terms of traffic.
The article relates to my hunch regarding the BERT update, and what I did to get a significant increase in both traffic and keywords ranked for.
Getting published soon is an interview by a Provider of SEO Tools with Blogging and Affiliate SEO being the topic. It's an interview that took quite a while - mostly due to self doubts as the site does not particularly request interviews but have done so in the past with:
- Rand Fishkin - The guy that owns Moz!
- Britney Muller - Moz Senior SEO Scientist and outstanding SEO Blogger.
- Ammon Johns - The guy that invented the term Search Engine Optimisation!.
I'll be only the 5th person to be interviewed by this particular company...seeing who they have interviewed - made me very nervous about going ahead with it.
Me?
little old me?
I used to be terrified of SEO!.
Why me?
(I'm still baffled! (confused for you non-Scots!).
I certainly don't consider myself as an expert (hence the parenthesis in the title). Either way, if anyone is telling you or trying to convince you that the training at Wealthy Affiliate is very basic or SEO is not covered in any great depth, trust me they are mistaken.
Sure a lot of off page stuff is not covered but, like I digress in the article I featured as an expert I spoke about the BERT update and Natural Language Processing in the context of on-page SEO.
At Wealthy Affiliate you are given all the tools and training - the greatest of which is how to think for yourself in terms of SEO, your site, and what you need to do.
And if you have any doubts you have a community of proven experts all ready to help you.
And that is awesome!.
What is more awesome is how surprised you will be with how much you can learn and how much you have learned when you look back retrospectively.
I'm still stunned!
Derek!.
Recent Comments
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The great thing about WA is that you learn about SEO gradually and spontaneously. One day you realize you are doing SEO and didn't even know it. Some months ago I thought of the word "SEO" as something that is super technical and that only certain certified professional know how to do. Now I know that that SEO is just a fancy word for "doing stuff that helps you get better rankings on Google and other search engines". Thanks for sharing your experience by the way. Very inspiring. Cheers.
Exactly, SEO is simple and taught gradually here. I tend to think of SEO as helping google to find your content and correctly figure out what it is about and in what context.
Excellent stuff Derek, well done!
Testimony to your point about SEO teaching within the WA platform, I'm not by any stretch an expert on the subject (far from it!) but after faffing about online for a good number of years and learning the square root of zero, it was in here that I finally started to learn about it and other related subjects.
I know some people will bang on about how much WA "costs" a month (about 40 quid to us Brit based members) but really it is negligible in comparison to the value it provides.
It is astonishing really when you actually see what you get for your money and the SEO element alone is worth it and much more.
I'm really glad that, as an acknowledged expert in the field, you feel confident enough to vouch for that and to put your name to a blog in here stating it for other members to read and be inspired by.
Thanks :-)
Mark
Thank you kindly Mark,
The best part about SEO and Wealthy Affiliate Training is the way it is taught - not as a separate topic but integrated into the training where guys like me (like I was) who are (illogically) fearful of it learn it it in a very organic way without realising it.
That’s brilliant, Congrats, you are quite right about the training here at Wealthy Affiliate. I have had an offline service business for many years, have built 2 websites myself for it and thought I had learnt all I could about on page and off page SEO until I delved into the training here and especially the live training with Jay at the moment.
Thanks for the post.
Andy.
Absolutely, Jay is a tremendous resource - Kyle too!. Kyle doesn't post nor talk so much about SEO but he is definitely a real top guy in terms of SEO - as good as any out there.
That's pretty cool! Just goes to show that we can all overcome our fears and obstacles. Thanks for sharing that with us. Congrats!
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Wow Derek,
4 previous Interviews, and Mr Derek Marshall number. 5 ......that is chuffing fantastic, (I won’t explain what chuffing means in this context for non Brits...) but never the less it is bloody amazing, and one helluva an achievement.
The boy done good...👍
I am so delighted for you and also the fact you feel WA was the very route of your learning, it’s very positive affirmation.
💥👏
It really goes to show what can be learned here when you focus and apply what is taught.
I credit my mentor here who reassured me SEO was easy and that he has my back should I need any help!.