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Search marketing is a tough industry. Just when a strategy is working, an algorithm changes and it seems like you have to start all over again. Each time rankings fall, you may wonder if it’s time to start looking for real jobs, ones with more concrete, hands-on goals like construction work or house painting. Fortunately, there are quotes from very inspiring people who, although not necessarily search marketers, understood things in a way that all of us can relate to. Here are 10 quotes that can help turn you into a wise marketer:
1. If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? – John Wooden
As algorithms become more sophisticated they’re becoming better at identifying gray and black hat SEO strategies. With the danger of site penalties, either manual or algorithmic, it just makes sense to follow white hat ranking strategies from the start. If you don’t, you may find yourself digging a site out of a hole you created.
2. If at first you don’t succeed, Try, try, try again. – William Edward Hickson
It’s bound to happen: you’ll get your hopes up for a particular strategy, put a lot of time into an infographic or article, and find that it falls flat on its face, returning little or no value for the time you put into it. If it happens once, try again; if it happens three times, it may be time to rethink your strategy.
3. There is nothing good, great or desirable … that does not come by some kind of labor. – Frederick Douglass
SEO has no shortcuts and there is no easy path to rankings. Hiring a copywriter for $5 a page or a link builder for $1 a link sounds too good to be true, and it is. Search marketing takes hard work and dedication, and if you aren’t willing to work to achieve success, this industry isn’t for you.
4. Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. – Napoleon Hill
In tandem with the previous quote, this quote reminds us that hard work is key, as well as lets us know that patience is an important element in this industry. Results may not come instantly (something that clients need to know up front), but if everything is done properly they will come with patience and time.
5. If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? – Albert Einstein
Search engine optimization requires a lot of research, a trial and error process of figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Once we figure out what works, an algorithm changes and we need to shift strategies. It never ends. Conducting research and studying results will help make you a great online marketer.
6. Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. – Thomas Huxley
As marketers, knowing something about a great many things helps us connect with a wider audience; knowing everything about SEO, however, can make us great search marketers, and that should be a primary concern. The search marketing industry is constantly changing, and we should be dedicated to learning something new about it every day. As Abraham Lincoln said, “I don’t think much of a man (or woman) who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” You don’t want Abraham Lincoln to think poorly of you, do you?
7. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. – Bill Gates
Learn from your mistakes, and learn from what your customers like and don’t like. This means A/B testing of content and analysis of resulting bounce rates. It means tracking goals and abandonment rates and figuring out why customers are leaving your site. Are your calls to action weak? Is your checkout process too complicated? Is your site too confusing? Turn unhappy visitors into happy ones and your conversion rate will increase dramatically.
8. Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future. – Denis Waitley
If an SEO strategy isn’t working, move on. Forum posts, reciprocal links, exact match anchor text, and a slew of other SEO strategies have come in gone in the last few years, and if you’re stuck using antiquated techniques, your online campaign will be ineffective and possibly result in penalties.
9. God (Google) grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. – Reinhold Niebuhr
One of the unique elements of search engine optimization is that results are completely out of our control. All we can do as search marketers is follow correlations between rankings and strategies used and expect that what we do results in success. Knowing this (and having our clients understand this) is crucial to staying alive in this business. We’ll never know Google’s algorithm, and we cannot change that, but we can change our strategies to include methods that are accepted by the search engines and will, as a result, prepare a site for success.
10. It will work. I am a marketing genius. – Paris Hilton
If you’re thinking this every time you come up with a new marketing strategy, you’re putting yourself in the company of that world-renowned marketer, Paris Hilton (sarcasm). Not every strategy will work, but if you follow the lesson Thomas Wayne taught his son, you’ll go far in the marketing industry: Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
