SEO Pro's Opinion Poll

[seoforumz]

How did you become an SEO, what attracted you to the industry?

Many SEO's have sprung up in the past few years and a lot have different reasons for wanting to be or choosing to jump into the industry.

*example: I originally started doing Web design and development, but with the birth of search engines and the need for web sites to be positioned for certain keywords I decided to offer inhouse SEO. The learning process went quickly for me, but what really attracted me to search engine optimization was the challenge it presented and the income potential for being good at it.

You can be as detailed as you like, but make sure to include the specific reasons SEO attracted you or maybe you simply HAD to learn it to promote your own sites. I am planning on doing a write-up later using the results from multiple forums and the best answers will receive a direct link from the write-up, a basic link and a featured link in my SEO directory. In addition if it's popular enough I may distribute the article, so it is possible there will be links on other sites as well.

Once I publish the main article, I will include what attracted me to SEO and site promotion and the whole industry surrounding.

[gabs]

I sure i've seen this post somewhere b4 ;)

[seoforumz]

I sure i've seen this post somewhere b4 ;)

Sure you have, it has been asked by others in the industry I am sure. Other than that I have also been posting similar threads throughout my favorite forums in order to collect enough data for the article I am planning.

I know it's been covered in certain forums, but I felt I would like to collect my own data from forums I use instead of finding and using others that may be out there.

Plus, it may not have been discussed here yet! Aren't these forums rather new?

[gabs]

I'm not having a go ;) lol

Haven't replied to this so may as well now..

graphic/web design background with a client in 1996 whom wanted to be list on some SE's the games began..

I love competative games..

I then worked for a load of companies doing contracts for seo and web dev/design until I had enough clients to not contract.. the end :D

[St0n3y]

in 1997 I picked up a book, learn HTML in 24 hours. Build a site to sell Christian music CDs. Was asked to build sites for others and moved into the design business. My dad bought me a copy of Web Position so I could "optimize" his site. That started me in SEO, and we moved out of design to focus full time on that. Now as my firm has grown over the years, we are back into offering design and other SEM services.

[everett sizemor]

Everything I ever wanted to know about SEO I learned in Journalism school. Well, that’s not exactly true, but it has a nice ring to it.

I was a journalist from 18 – 25 for a few surf magazines, music magazines and travel websites. At 25 I decided to get a BA in Journalism / Communication double major. I was surprised when I graduated to find that it was MORE difficult for me to find work as a graduate than it was before I went to school. That still doesn’t make any sense to me, but it just goes to show how backwards the field of journalism is these days.

Frustrated, I “sold out” and started doing copywriting and PR instead. As I was writing copy for websites necessity forced me to learn about keyword frequency, keyword research and copywriting for search engine optimization.

I fell quickly for SEO and am now combining my writing background with this new love. To me, it is like getting paid to play an exciting game. I used to conquer the world on Sid Myer’s Civilization game series. My girlfriend got so pissed because I’d spend hours and hours playing that damned game. Now she gets pissed because I spend hours and hours doing SEO.

Nobody understands how I can go to the office all day, come home and start working again until time to sleep. But it’s not difficult when you love what you do.

Not getting a job at a newspaper was the best thing that ever happened to me.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/everett

[pk_synths]

I fell into the field by accident. I was hired as a web designer to build out several hundred websites for a company who at the time thought the more interlinked websites the better for SEO. Since I LOATHED web design I would always find excuses to not build out more sites but to improve the SEO on the main site. Well lets just say several years and a few million visitors later we still only have one website and a few hundred expired domain names :)

SEO is an intriguing game and the money isn't bad either :)