SEO Aphorism: know when to fight

It was Kenny Rogers who said: “You got to know when to hold him and know when to fold’em”. He was undoubtedly paraphrasing ageless warrior-philospher Sun Tzu:

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

This timeless advice holds true to this day, and is especially fitting for the modern SEO. Most people who enter the world of SEO do so out of necessity, or at least the perception of necessity. They’re attracted to the competitive nature of the field and they want to achieve excellent rankings for their website. But they often don’t have a good feel for what it would take to rank certain keyword terms. In fact, many newbies pick terms that are totally un-winnable, and worse yet, are too vague to be of consequence.

The key is that newbies don’t do a ton of keyword research prior to engaging in SEO campaigns, and this lack of preparation is deadly to their long-term plans. To engage in a battle for a term like “web design” or “web hosting” the participant will need a ton of resources, and will need to know all the intricacies of the industry. In reality, the chance of the website in question even being worthy of ranking number one in these keyword categories is remote. More importantly, the traffic is a mis-fit. It’s not specific enough to help the webmaster build a business with anyway.

Before beginning any SEO fight, you need to look at the competition and see if you can win. If you can’t, you need to follow the words of Sun Tzu, and not fight. If you attempt to fight too many un-winnable wars on too many search engine fronts, your growth will probably be stunted. Make sure you realistically analyze what it takes to win, then make your plan.

Knowing when not to fight also means you have to have a good grasp of your innate strengths and weaknesses. If you know what you excel at, you can leverage your talents to help you compete in the niches where your products and services can actually make a difference, and where your marketing prescence gives you a realistic shot at survival. You only need one good website in one great niche to earn a powerful income online.