Thread by @GiordMarco96

The #SEO world is sadly filled with misinformation. One of the many reasons is that it is a non-academic subject.

A lot of case studies lack rigid methodology and solid proof.

This thread contains my personal considerations on SEO as a whole, considering what's good and bad 🧵

Learning SEO is a nightmare. Contrasting opinions, totally different niches and markets.

The main information sources have outdated info or are just repetitive.

The best solution is right here, this is the most complete offer out there:

learningseo.io

When I was student (literally months ago) we had some meetings with ""SEO experts"".

None of the stuff presented was SEO at all. The focus was on using one tool instead of teaching you the mindset or the basics.

Learn by yourself or have a good mentor.

An academic background is good for many other reasons, not for learning SEO, strictly speaking.

Prestige, networking and improving social skills are the main takeaways. Super technical subjects can be easier at uni if you have good professors.

Most case studies are totally nonsense. SEO doesn't equal to knowing everything, most often is the opposite.

Statistics doesn't end with the magic sentence "correlation is not causation". In fact, correlation can make you raise your eyebrows to investigate more.

The best knowledge is usually on Twitter/LinkedIn (sometimes) and blogs or technical websites.

The super mainstream websites have to cover a huge audience and make "compromises".

That's why I only read what I consider good and prefer detailed articles.

There are plenty of wonderful people or groups that are improving the industry, like @techseowomen.

SEO is a vast world, while you may know many women working in the field, it doesn't mean it's the same elsewhere!

SEO is now more prone to include knowledge from other subjects, i.e. Data Science/ML/AI and you name it.

This can only be a good thing, it enriches your background and your culture. There have been people in the past questioning me because "Python/any data skill is useless" >>>

>>> That's because some people lack to realize that there exist other subjects other than SEO (incredible).

Twitter and some other spaces offer a better environment where you can share your ideas and there is more "control".

One of the things I love about SEO is variety. You may be an expert in ecommerce but what about large publishers or SaaS?

This is also clear when comparing English speaking countries to those which don't. There are infinite opportunities and so many untapped niches.

I think that going for the tools is not a winning mindset. Sure, you need to reduce the time spent working manually, but tools per se do not improve your knowledge.

Use tools to complement your knowledge and get new insights.

SEO is considered witchcraft or sorcery by non-technical people/managers. It's not a set of cool trick to deceive Google.

It's digital marketing, you have to satisfy some needs. This is where you draw the line between professionals and snake oil sellers.

The rise of AI allowed for more tailored content and a proper understanding of search intent.

I don't understand why some advices are still "add keywords" or stuff like that.

The best thing to fight misinformation and prevent some behaviors is to be extremely careful when reading something online.

This goes for what I post as well, be sure to double check in every case.

As some pointed out, there are "influencers" who spread misinformation.

SEO offers a lot of opportunities as well, especially in terms of collaboration between professionals.

There is no need to be enemies when you can enrich the others and create a healthy professional environment.

Another common pitfall (imho) is focusing too much on small fixes or useless details.

Why do you need to fix 10 broken links when you have serious issues?

The same goes for ranking factors, think in terms of value rather than having a checklist.

SEO often intertwines with business and for me they are strictly related in every possible way. If you consider them as standalone subjects you are very likely to face problems.

This implies that SEO is not the only mktg channel available, you should diversify when possible.

A great (but not the only) method to improve your SEO game is to have a personal blog or project. I am working on that as well and it's quite interesting.

This is what I recommend the most to students who are looking for some extra money/networking.

Since countries may have totally different SEO scenarios, it is very hard to trust a lot of case studies.

What is true in the US is probably false in Italy or France. Maybe there is a specific niche that is more competitive in Indonesia than Japan.

And the list goes on...

SEO is an exciting career because there is a lot of variety and is challenging.

You can mix it up with a lot of other subjects and launch projects on your favorite niche(s). Helping experts to get a share of voice is also another possible reason.

At the same time, SEO has some disadvantages. The steep learning curve, the presence of few good learning resources and the speed at which misinformation spreads are some examples.

Communication is the toughest part of the job as well.

Another good point about SEO is that some niches require serious expertise to be dominated. AI and/or cloned content work but fail to provide value to the customers.

Editing AI content is like writing it from scratch for me.

One of the main points is differentiating SEO for the money and for creating actual value to the user.

Sure, you can make a lot of money with some dirty tactics but what's the point? You cannot have a sustainable business activity powered by tricks

Large publishers often write articles for the sake of it, just to get more traffic. This doesn't help their brands and the quality of the information in a country.

I think that SEOs should collaborate with domain experts to improve the online market.

Ethics is not discussed so often in SEO but should be a priority for all of us.

This encompasses all the areas of our life but I am specifically talking about SEO and content creation.

If you want to improve the SEO community and fight misinformation, be sure to follow trusted sources and double check everything.

That's why I prefer documenting all the steps and show what I did, leaving out private data ofc.

In the next few days I will publish a case study detailing what I did. There will be caveats and comments on some elements that can be misleading.

For instance, having massing traffic doesn't mean making tons of money. Pick the right niche first!

On the other hand, making traffic is half the job, now you have a wide audience that you can monetize or that can support you in different ways.

And this is marketing, we are talking about people not search engines.

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