The proof is in the pudding. Great expression. BUT What does this has to do with search engine optimization?

Well, The one good thing about search engine optimization is you really can’t BS. Now I have 1 million search engine optimization firms call me every week, (maybe a slight overstatement) promising to make me number one. The problem? They don’t even know what I do for a living when they call! The reason I say you can’t BS is that those firms typically are NOT in the top hundred for the search phrase “search engine optimization”. If it was so easy, don’t you think they would be number one?

My take on the whole industry is that it’s really a bullshit industry that sprung up with the advent of Google. When someone calls you up and promises to make you number one: hang up the phone. Do it quickly. Do not waste your time. No one can make that promise. (well, they can make that promise but they cannot fulfill it)

When I work on search engine optimization, I do it with a common sense approach. I don’t try and trick the algorithm, no on can. I work within Google’s guidelines. Quality content wins. Consistent solid content achieves desired results. Most people are lazy. If you can commit to a schedule of posting good content on a regular basis, you will improve in search results. Think about it like this. If you add one post a week, at the end of the year you posted over 52 new links within Google’s index. If during that same timeframe, your competition hasn’t added anything to their website. Shouldn’t you improve? Of course you should!

I recently had a chance to prove this to myself. A client (one of my most favorite) emailed me that they had noticed a drop in performance for organic search. We had been following a blueprint I laid out adding a lot of great content. So I was startled when I read the email. A little background: She had recently been working with a so-called SEO expert who fed her this nonsense about her rankings dropping.

I did a bunch of tests and found that not only had her company not dropped, but actually improved considerably! As I said the proof is in the pudding! I sent her the search results and she was thrilled. I made no promises other than we will improve if they follow my roadmap. She was number 1 for over 20 phrases! I was vindicated, and as usual the SO expert was proven wrong!

The pudding tastes excellent by the way.