SEO is a TASK. When it comes to areas of marketing, SEO has always been notoriously complex and time-consuming. It is a branch of marketing that many try to steer clear of but it is an integral component to an online presence and successful marketing strategy. 

Whether you are trying to figure out SEO yourself or you are on the brink of hiring an agency like Boutique Digital Media to help you, we wanted to share some quotes that are super relatable and might even help you get to grips with SEO this week. 

“SEO is only not seen as rocket science by those who already know it” — Danny Sullivan

“The success of a page should be measured by one criteria: Does the visitor do what you want them to do?” — Aaron Wall

“Crawling is not a guarantee you’re indexed” — Rand Fishkin

“A real estate agency in Wichita has no shot at ranking for the phrase “real estate;” a lawyer in Fresno has no shot at ranking for the word “lawyer.” Optimize for relevant, specific keywords that will bring targeted traffic.” — Matt McGee

“SEO is a noun, verb and adjective.” — Todd Malicoat

“My rule of thumb is build a site for a user, not a spider.” — Dave Naylor

“Social may be sexy, but search still pays the bills.” — Tom Pick

“SEO is no longer just a job title, it has become part of everyone’s job description” — Rand Fishkin

“Optimize for what would happen IF you ranked, do not optimize to rank.” — Will Critchlow

“If I spent my time reporting every competitor of mine breaking a rule, that’s all I’d EVER do and my own sites would suck because they’d be getting no attention.” — Rae Hoffman

“Never lose sight of the fact that all SEO ranking signals revolve around content of some kind.” — Duane Forrester

“If you’re not meeting your visitors’ needs, it doesn’t matter how ‘optimized’ your site is.” — Stoney deGeyter

“By creating and publishing remarkable content in the form that educates, informs, inspires and entertains, marketers can begin to build relationships with prospects early on in the buying cycle”. — Jonathon Lister

“On-page SEO is no longer satisfied by raw keyword use. Matching keywords to searcher INTENT is critical.” — Rand Fishkin

“Focus on how to be social, not how to do social.” — Jay Baer

“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.” — Wendy Piersall

“Think about what a user is going to type.” — Matt Cutts

“Marketing has never been about keywords, it’s about people.” — Simon Penson

“If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.” — Guy Kawasaki

“Build it, and they will come” only works in the movies. Social Media is a “built it”, nurture it, engage them, and them may come & stay.” — Seth Godin

“To educate is not just the best way to sell. It’s also the best way to build links.” — Jason Acidre

“I have done zero SEO on my websites and online platforms, but I still rank well on them because of the fact that I focused on content, providing value, answering questions.” — Chris Ducker

“You can’t ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” — Steve Jobs

“Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.” — Mike Volpe

“When taking a content-first approach, our job as marketers is not to create more content … it’s to create the minimum amount of content with the maximum amount of results.” — Robert Rose

“Content is the reason search began in the first place.” — Lee Odden

“You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.”– Beth Comstock

“If you’re a good marketing person, you have to be a little crazy.” — Jim Metcalf

“It is not the job of Search Engine Optimization to make a pig fly. It is the job of the SEO to genetically re-engineer the web site so that it becomes an eagle.” — Bruce Clay

SEO is a marketing function for sure, but it needs to be baked into a product, not slapped on like icing after the cake is baked.” — Duane Forrester

“Great marketers have immense empathy for their audience. They can put themselves in their shoes, live their lives, feel what they feel, go where they go, and respond how they’d respond. That empathy comes out in content that resonates with your audience.” — Rand Fishkin

“Today it’s not about ‘get the traffic’ — it’s about ‘get the targeted and relevant traffic.’” — Adam Audette