How to be an SEO Consultant without even trying

A client once asked me where to look for SEO consultants and how will they know that the person is the real thing. Surprised that they knew about Search Engine Optimization, I told them I’ll point them to the right people. Then again, how do we really know who are the right people?

You’ll have to thank Marc for this one. He practically made SEO a household term in the Philippines in just less than a year.

Now that SEO awareness is locally taking shape, here are some tips to become an SEO specialist without even trying:

• Write an SEO blog. Do it on BlogSpot or WordPress.com. Better yet, make one on Friendster Blogs or LiveJournal.
• Link to big-names in the search industry like Matt Cutts, ShoeMoney, Danny Sullivan, John Battelle, Jeremy Zawodny, Dave Naylor, Michael Gray, Jim Boykin, Andy Beal, and Marc Macalua.
• Blog about them everyday and leave a comment on their blogs after every post. If you’re the first one to comment, the better.
• Talk about that super-secret SEO experiments you have but don’t give specifics or links to the project. The less details, the better. Mystery is a huge ingredient in doing experiments.
• Always talk and write in acronyms and codes — SERPs, PR, SEM, SMO, 301, SES, PPC, ROI, CPC, CPM, IBL, REP, Big Daddy, One Box, Sandbox, Trust Rank. Don’t bother explaining them at the footer of your entry.
• If you use WordPress, do a future post for each and every quarter from now until 2010 and title them “PR Update Coming up!”. In between those posts, you can also write “There’s a slight movement in the SERPs!”
• If asked for you recent consulting project, always say “Sorry, but I have a non-disclosure agreement with past clients” or “Our tools are proprietary and our methods are well-guarded secrets so I can’t share them with you”.
• In your about page/section, write the term SEO Consultant in big bold letters along with all other professions you have. This is the killer step actually. You can skip all the rest except this and get the same overall effect. Why, nobody would dare add those words if they don’t know their sh*t, right?

So, ok, I lied! Don’t listen to these advice. I posted them for fun after reading about Jason Calacanis’ keynote at SES Chicago saying, and I quote. “SEO is bull$#!t”. (Old news, I know.)

P.S.
Marc, pre, best man pa rin ako, ha? :D