Can SEO Make You An Authority?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

All the gurus now are saying if you want to succeed online then you have to strive to be an authority in your niche. That’s not really anything new. That’s how you’ve achieved success online all along. The trouble is, for many marketers, search engine optimization gets in the way.

Yes, I said it. SEO can be a stumbling block to success. Here’s how:

You build your website around the keywords that you think are profitable for your niche. You start a blog, perform some article marketing, and conduct link building campaigns using your keywords as anchor text. You get so wrapped up in making sure your SEO is tight that you forget all about creating great content. Before you know it you’ve SEOd yourself out of relevance. Ever seen it happen? We have.

So how do you fix this? Well, for starters, you have to make sure that your No. 1 priority is to create great content. Don’t think about search engine optimziation. Think about being great. What will your readers want to read that will be helpful to them?

After you’ve done your research and you’ve create your content, go back over it. Is it optimized? Most likely not. If you aren’t used to writing keyword-rich content then it’s hard to get it right on the first try. Go through your content and find ways to insert your keyword phrases and similar phrases without watering down the content or killing its spirit. SEO by itself can’t make you an authority on any subject, but it can strengthen your position within your niche while your establishing yourself as that authority.