How to become an SEO Guru/Consultant?

I was thinking. I've been interested in SEO for a while and I have a friend that runs a professional company for webdesign but he knows nothing of SEO nor are any of his sites very SEO oriented. Just very nice looking sites. I'm kind of starting to develop a general interest in SEO and maybe down the road work with him and start a small SEO Consulting service on the side for him. Where should I start?

practice.


pick some obscure term, and set up landing pages on a dummy domain trying different techniques.

see which one ranks the highest, and why.

evolve.

yah thats right.. research can help you a lot.. SEO is dynamic and everchanging, there's always something new to explore..

The best of luck...

read, research, trial and error

Originally Posted by tigurius

I was thinking. I've been interested in SEO for a while and I have a friend that runs a professional company for webdesign but he knows nothing of SEO nor are any of his sites very SEO oriented. Just very nice looking sites. I'm kind of starting to develop a general interest in SEO and maybe down the road work with him and start a small SEO Consulting service on the side for him. Where should I start?

SEO has become whole lot complicated in the current phase.

I am sure you will have to devote time and energy learning SEO in detail

You could do well even just helping to fix some of the basics of SEO, if you provided that as a consulting service. I would identify a list of say the top 20 basic mistakes, and then provide corrective services for your future clients.

You won't have to have expert level SEO (or knowledge of the blackhat wizards) to do so, and you will still be providing a valuable service.

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

You could do well even just helping to fix some of the basics of SEO, if you provided that as a consulting service. I would identify a list of say the top 20 basic mistakes, and then provide corrective services for your future clients.

You won't have to have expert level SEO (or knowledge of the blackhat wizards) to do so, and you will still be providing a valuable service.

Black Hat SEO is used to lower rankings of your website. It doesnt necessarily means keyword stuffing, and other seo ranking activities.

You should have sound knowledge of both good, and bad SEO. Otherwise you will never know whether the strategy you are following is good or bad.

Originally Posted by seo_india

Black Hat SEO is used to lower rankings of your website.

um, no. lol

Originally Posted by briansol

um, no. lol

How about..

"Black Hat SEO, if used, will eventually lower rankings of your website [when the SE catches on]."?

better

I would define blackhat seo, more specifically, as:

Any technique or strategy of manipulating search engine results, with the goal of increasing a site/page's ranking for 1 or more terms, either a) when the pages are not highly relevant to the search terms, or (b) when monopolistic or anti-competitive practices are used, or (c) when specific outlawed practices (non-consistent with webmaster guidelines) are used.

Sabotage of one or more competing sites through strategies designed to negatively impact the competitors search engine positioning could also be included.

Here's a simpler version:

Black Hat SEO is sometimes called spamdexing (the opposite of White Hat SEO). Black Hat SEO can be any optimization tactics that cause a site to rank more highly than its content would otherwise justify or any changes made specifically for search engines that don’t improve the user’s experience of the site. In other words, Black Hat SEO is optimizations that are against search engine guidelines. If you step too far over the mark, your site may be penalized or even removed from the index.

Reference:
Black Hat SEO | Search Engine Optimization

This is also an interesting blog post on the topic, that likes to be more specific about the levels of activity in a fun way:
Shades of SEO

This is also a valuable perspective on the topic:
What is black hat SEO?

Originally Posted by Ace Shattock

How about..

"Black Hat SEO, if used, will eventually lower rankings of your website [when the SE catches on]."?

Hmm !! Thats better

Black HAT SEO is used to bring down rankings of other websites as well as to use sneaky techniques which will result in inflated higher rankings of your website.