I’ve been doing SEO in Malaysia every day since the year 2021, and today I want to show you those mistakes you gotta avoid if you wanna build a lucrative career in the SEO industry.
1. Don't Too Focused On Traffic
So let’s get into mistake number one, and that is: don’t juice your traffic numbers. SEO is nothing more than a means to an end, and that end is more traffic, leads, and sales.
And that is really why one should never be obsessed just with traffic; you need to become obsessed with generating revenue, and that all starts and stops with keyword research.
One can’t control through SEO the product quality, how an offer is portrayed, or even the capabilities of a business in actually selling its product. What you can control is the quality of the traffic you send to a website.
Unfortunately, too many agencies understand the way to game the system by targeting informational keywords with a lot of search volume to make their client’s traffic number look good.
Eventually, the customer is left wondering why traffic has gone up but sales have not improved. This is because informational keywords rarely lead to direct conversions.
My keyword research process follows a bottom-up approach. It focuses more on intent and conversion rather than search volume. Such as ranking for “SEO training St. Louis,” I’d create a page that is 100% targeted at that keyword.
From there, I would want to brainstorm informational keywords, such as “Is SEO a good career?” or “Does coding need to be known for SEO?” of some sort.
These informational keywords support the commercial ones. Always remember to start with the end and work your way backward to create a content strategy that will support the keywords that actually drive revenue.
More: Here’s how to optimize page title for SEO.
2. Too Focused On SEO Alone
Mistake number two: think SEO is all that matters. SEO is just one of numerous marketing techniques that can drive organic traffic from places like Google; Google is not a source in and of itself.
Diversifying your customer acquisition channels, whether on YouTube or through email marketing, will make your SEO better but also safe your business against relying on only one single platform.
3. Don't Rely On Salary
A third mistake is when you think that your salary will make you rich. While affiliate marketing, course creation, or your e-commerce can be super lucrative, not having the capital is something that can hold many people back.
It’s believed that most the newbies are being pushed into affiliate marketing, but it too requires huge investments sometimes in content creation or backlinks.
In client SEO, money is generated fast with which one can reinvest into another venture. Even making $10,000 a month with SEO profit puts you ahead of 99% of people.
4. Action Over Consumption
Mistake number four is prioritizing consumption over action. You can watch all the videos about SEO and read every blog post, but the only way you’re going to really master it is by doing the work.
As you take action, learn from your mistakes and successes; your experience compounds over time and you get better and better.
5. Obsessing Over Lagging Metrics
The fifth mistake is obsessing over lagging metrics. There are two kinds of metrics to track; they are lag measures and lead measures.
The lag measure is the big thing you want-the primary goal-you can’t control today. It is something like this: “I will earn $20,000 per month from SEO services by December 31st.”
What you can control is the lead measures-the things you’re supposed to be doing today to achieve that goal: something like “I will call 10 local businesses every single day and give them a free SEO audit.”
6. Obsessing Over Something You Can't Control
Number six-something you cannot control, and that is caring for things you can’t control. That came from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”: it was to focus on your circle of influence, things you can control.
Block out distractions; avoid focusing on external noise and dedicate your time to the things that will move the needle.
7. Diversify Your Income Stream
Mistake number seven: not diversifying streams of income. The pandemic taught many of us a valuable lesson-that depending upon one stream of income is very risky.
Over time, I’ve diversified from client SEO into affiliate marketing and my own SEO training program, which enables my business to do great even if some avenue slows down.
The thing to remember here is not to jump into areas where they don’t have any experience but to diversify in the skill set.
8. Not Learning Supplementary Skills
Mistake number eight: not learning supplementary skills. The more value you bring into the marketplace, the more income you’re going to generate.
In order for your income to increase, your value has to increase, and that’s where building additional skills, like conversion optimization, paid ads, sales funnels, copywriting, persuasion, become really important.
These added skills make you more valuable and, thus, can command a higher rate of return.
9. Not Building Systems
Not building systems is mistake number nine. Great SEOs don’t rely on experience alone; they create repeatable step-by-step processes that yield predictable results.
Systems make your business more efficient and effective, and can definitely be scaled.
10. Being Smartest Person in The Room
Mistake number ten: being the smartest person in the room. That’s where the most important tactic of surrounding yourself with people who are more knowledgeable in what you want to be doing and have already achieved the things that you’re trying to achieve.
It comes in by the company you keep reflecting your mindset and how you advance.
11. Not Learning From Experts
Number eleven is a very serious mistake: trying to be a superhero. Another way to turbocharge your success is finding mentors who have already achieved what you want to reach.
They are in a position to advise you around mistakes and shortcut your learning. I know this from personal experience when I wrestled with Facebook Ads for years until I found the right teacher, and voilà: my first profitable campaign was online within a month.
12. Complacency
Finally, mistake number twelve is complacency. Stay curious. Keep learning. There’s always more to know, and adopting a learner’s mindset will serve you well in business and life.
That wasn’t easy for me while at school, but afterwards I became a learner. So basically, that means if I could do it, so can you.
Thank you so much for investing your time to read, and I’ll see you in the next one.
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