Nearly 1/3 of SEO’s are new to the game.
Nearly 1/3 of all "SEO’s" have been SEOing less than 1 year.
(according to my small poll).
My last poll asked: How many years have you been doing SEO?
and the results were:
less than 1 year - 31%
2-3 years - 31%
4-5 years - 18%
5-6 years - 13%
7 or more years - 8%
Do you think that newbies to SEO have a chance in this game, and why?
Also, please vote in my new poll (to the left) where I ask, "How many websites do you work on?".
November 27th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
Good question. I think the answer is, “Yes and No”.
Everything changes so quickly that if somebody started out a year ago, they’d probably still be able to get in the game, learn, and then adopt to the latest cycle. This should allow them to compete for mid-level competitive queries. I doubt they’ll have the resources developed to go DaveN and try to battle the Sandbox, Trustbox, or whatever your favorite term may be, though. Old SEO’s have cooler tools, more data to mine, and relationships that go a long way to compete in the heavy stuff.
November 27th, 2005 at 7:27 pm
I’ve been SEOing for about 18 months now. I’m far from pulling in 7 figures a year, but if I said I was struggling I’d be lieing.
I think its more of a question who the person is than how long they’ve been in the game. Every football player, every scientist, every CEO, every US President, once was a newbie.. and plenty of those “newbies” went on to break the records the veterans made before them.
November 27th, 2005 at 8:05 pm
[…] Jim Boykin hat gerade in seinem Internet Marketing Blog eine interessante kleine Umfrage zum Thema SEO und Erfahrung abgeschlossen. Sicherlich keine repräsentative Umfrage mit 101 Teilnehmern, aber tendenziell schon interessant. Die Frage lautete: How many years have you been doing SEO? Das Ergebnis: less than 1 year - 31% 2-3 years - 31% 4-5 years - 18% 5-6 years - 13% 7 or more years - 8% […]
November 27th, 2005 at 8:44 pm
Absolutely, this industry changes so fast, weather you have been doing this for 5 years or one you can read through pages of archives and catch up. The person who learns every day and stays on top of what works and what does not will do well. I only SEO for myself but 1 year ago when I started, I only applied the newest of trends in SEO. Now that Jagger hit I am doing great while SEO’s using older trends suffered. Follow the trends and you can see what the next big wave will be. My advice to the new guys would be to focus on local SEO.
November 28th, 2005 at 8:27 am
BP, Andrew, & Jacob,
I agree with all of you. Though experience is a great teacher, in this industry one can become a great SEO rather quickly if they get the right training.
November 28th, 2005 at 6:59 pm
Every one of us was green at some point. The market is still so young that getting in the door now shouldn’t prove much of a problem. The question is, do you have what it takes to be around for the long haul?
Do you have a keen eye? Can you easily spot trends? Have a taste for math? Follow logical sequences? WIlling to buck the trend? Those are the ingredients for a true SEO player IMO…