What's your best hidden SEO secret?

[danbocain]

Guest blogging. It's nothing new, it's nothing that requires a lot of talent, but my god! It does the trick for most clients I manage. Helps me acquires custom anchor text dofollow links from themed sites and the long term relationship with these blog owners are worth their "weight" in gold!  You get a great link, you get some referral traffic, and you expand your network. Triple win!

[RedScooter]

I have a whole list. Patience and consistency. SEO is easy, but you have to constantly keep learning and trying new things. It often takes awhile to see results. Keep working and don't give up. As long as you create quality content and links that are relevant, eventually your hard work will pay off. Constantly learning is another key. Search engines change their algorithms over time, and your competitors are always changing, so you'll never be done. I like to set my homepage to an rss feed reader, where I've subscribed to about 10 blogs ranging from SEO to marketing to copywriting. That way new information is always the first thing I see, and I'm less likely to waste time on games or random browsing. Finally, having a network of people to help and encourage you can make the difference between giving up and sticking with it. You can learn from each other and provide sympathy and sometimes a little healthy competition.

[UPform5]

Paid tools... you really have to invest in order for you to conquer, I can share some but I personally think SEOmoz has all of them but you can still find good ones outside which SEOmoz also mentions hehehe

[BlooFusion38]

SEO Metrics: Focus on juicy analytics instead of shallow ranking reports. And get your company (or your clients) to follow you down that path.

[alfredopalconit]

Here's my secret:

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
~ Proverbs 16:3

The rest, I'll never tell 

[NicoleMunoz]

I agree... great answer and very helpful!

[semvibe]

My hidden secret is - a) build the website for the visitor b) be honest on your keyword choices c) follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines and Search comes your way.

[tclendaniel]

Almost identical to Francis, with a twist.  I make almost all my revenue from AdSense (weird, I know).  It took me a while to learn to do things in keyword research- 1) focus on high revenue per 1000 visitors stats for sellecting priority keywords by linking AdSense and Googgle Analytics, and 2) looking for the highest CPC keywords in the GoogleExternal Keyword Tool and then sorting on difficulty- oddly, in my space, a few lower-competition terms have extremely high CPC,making them prime targets for new pages onmy site andSEO efforts behind them.

[spnet]

My best experience to track the competitors, review their strategy and then choose best point from each of competitors and make a strong strategy for project.  I use to analysis strategy on weekly basis. Also used some tools for competitor tracking.

Your competitor give you a lot of new ideas........

[eric_since1910.com]

This is a great question!  My best hidden SEO secret is developing relationships with resources of particular specialties so you can get specific help in the area you are focusing on.  Similiary how a Dr. will refer you to a specialist, in SEO, there are plenty of general SEO's out there, but there are a few stand outs in particular specialties.

[Blargh123]

Gotta love this!!! Most of my days are alot of information gathering then that one day of execution!! very grattifying!

[danbocain]

This is another great one. I've built plenty of professional relationships with previous clients (we refer business back and forth), as well as with a few graphic designers who work mostly in the SEM side of things (banner creation, tracking, tweaking to increase conversions).

[AtoZion]

A marker board schedule.

I am not allowed to do anything (self imposed) that is not on my marker board for a specific time period. That makes me focus and get done what I need done.

Personal Facebook time takes a backburner when I need to do SEO.

[Wayne76]

One of the best SEO secrets I've learned (which took a while) is how to implement what works best and leave the rest alone. Trying to read and stay abreast of everything regarding SEO is a futile venture--it's as much art as it is science, and few 'secrets' exist.

There are large components of SEO that are open to grand interpretation and it's often hard to separate good information from mis-information from out-dated information from just plain flase information. (If you ever get the opportunity to attend PubCon or an SES conference and listen to the bevy of conversation and opinion happening all about you, the quickl realization is that there are few fast and hard rules.)

There are several camps that will advise you a bit differently in all aspects of SEO: some will claim that their methods are proven, others will be more humble and offer a "best-practices" approach sans the 'guarantee'. I often believe I'm only as good at SEO as the success I had yesterday.

Try to find what works for you inside your vertical and then cherry-pick tips from the rest of the SEO community as you see fit. Translation: there is no magic bullet!

Here's to future success!

[Thos003]

In order:

Secret #1 - Work + Time = Awesome SEO

Secret #2 - Core Group of SEOs to work and share with.

Secret #3 - Keeping secrets secret.  ... Sorry had to add that one.

Actually I should probably add that I don't believe there are many true secrets to SEO. Time and work will get you the best long term results.

[AlanMosley]

good to hear that i am not alone.
I can avoid a job day after day after day. but once im on my way, the sun comming up tells me its time to quit

[AlanMosley]

The Microsoft IIS SEO Tool Kit
I am yet to find a site that does not have a pile of errors, I get all my sites free from violations, this gives me a head start (how big that head start is is debatable)

If your technical side is not perfect all your SEM is discounted. Its like fishing with holes in your net.

[Blargh123]

SEO jobs in general put you into positions with business people, and profesionals from all varieties.  Great networking profession! one of my favorite job perks!

[Blargh123]

Niche SEO marketing is how alot of us got into the field! building portfolios much like the one you discuss   What kind of conversions are you seeing from your portfolio?

[Blargh123]

Your correct our jobs would not exist if SEO was easy and automated!  the "easy" button only helps you defeat those who dont know how to press it!  once your past that your normallty competeing head to head with other skilled SEO's for the top spots often one link can be indexed and change me from 1 to spot 3, because the link profiles have grown so similarly between competitors.