Codifying SEO Knowledge

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SEO knowledge is something that can be measured, but often isn’t. Or when it is measured, it’s done imprecisely, or with a lot of biases built in. So far I haven’t seen too many attempts to classify SEO knowledge, until this post: Ranking SEO Knowledge by Michael Martinez. Make sure to check out his excellent SEO Theory Blog, which is, frankly, one of the very few SEO blogs I read.

I have to admit that I agree with these broad classifications. In particular, I think this statement is worth noting:

An Intermediate SEO will stay at the Journeyman SEO level for maybe 3-5 years (so, yes, most of your SEO heroes are probably no better than Journeyman SEOs). You need solid experience to become a Master SEO. You need to have handled a lot of different situations. You need to have written a lot of copy, a lot of link anchors, a lot of directory-style descriptions — you just need to have done a lot of different projects.

There’s no doubt that these skills are quite important. If you aren’t that hot at on-page factors, you’ll end up in a heap of trouble, especially with future iterations of search engine algos. In particular, being able to write good, sellable copy is important. And when I mean sellable, I’m not just referring to selling a product. Even web surfers have to be sold on the idea of click on a link. The crisper all elements of a website are, the more likely the site is to rank well.

Personally, my SEO Knowledge level isn’t listed in his post. I’m a Dilettante SEO. I’m sure I represent a lot of people interested in the practice of SEO, but who are only interested in doing it for their own websites.

What kind of SEO are you?

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