If 50 Cent Was Your SEO Mentor, Here’s What He’d Teach You

Yes, we know we maybe should be talking about Fat Joe the rapper… But we didn’t name our link building service after him, honest – the name has just kinda stuck. One rapper we are really interested in though, in terms of mindset, is 50 Cent, particularly after reading his book, 50th Law which he did with Power & War writer Robert Greene. I really recommend the book because you can apply it to anything in life, wherever you are at.

Since reading it I have actually applied it to SEO. This is not some fluffy law of attraction or magnetism kinda advice. This is juicy mindset shifting stuff you should try when you’re coming up with search marketing strategies or coming across any problems in the world of SEO.

50 Cent SEO Tip 1: Intense Realism: See things For What They Really Are & See Past the SEO Bullshit

In the world of SEO, it can be really easy to get caught up in Google propaganda, flash in the pan SEO tactics or the constant wave of doom or glory the blogosphere kicks out. 50 cent would recommend you keep a fair, open, and balanced mind. See things for what they really are.

If there is a new tool or strategy being talked about as the answer to all your ranking problems… and every blog and his dog are talking about it, take a step back and think about it.

If the SEO blogosphere is talking of a strategy that is now ‘Dead’, or you shouldn’t do ‘this’ or ‘that’, don’t blindly listen to them. Make your own decision based on your own facts, and what’s realistic.

The firmer your grasp on reality, the more power you will have to alter it for your purposes.

If your rankings are sky-high because of a little thing you did, maybe a certain link strategy on or onsite change, don’t milk it and think it will work every time. Take a balanced approach, and consider the possibility that it may have been by chance. By all means test, but don’t get carried away just because things are working now. You need to keep on your toes.

On the same tangent don’t get down in the dumps if you’re doing everything right but Google hasn’t started ranking you. You should be realistic about it and consider the fact that it will happen soon. Just keep plugging away!

50 Cent SEO Tip 2: Turn Shit Into Sugar: Opportunism

Sometimes working in SEO means you’re going to have some shit things happen. Be it to you, or your clients, sometimes things won’t go as planned, or things out of your control mean that you can’t deliver on promises.

Every negative situation contains the possibility for something positive, an opportunity. It is how you look at it that matters.

I experienced this working in an SEO agency, having had clients come to us with penalized sites asking what to do. I saw the opportunity with some of these clients to start again, rebrand. Do something exciting. Strip down 80% of your products and services. Some of them loved the ideas and we worked to build a better business and have a much better branding and marketing strategy. Out of a bleak penalization came an exciting proposition to rebrand and be better!

50 Cent SEO Tip 3: Keep Moving: Calculated Momentum

So much changes in SEO from day to day, most of it beyond our control. Google is changing things, your competitors are changing things. Bloggers are saying things. Matt Cutts is saying things. Your SEO friend is recommending you don’t do things. He saying to do other things. The links you’ve built are being removed. The links you’ve built are being strengthened. Lots going on, I’m sure you’d agree.

In the present there is constant change and so much we cannot control. If you try to micromanage it all, you lose even greater control in the long run.

Don’t try and micromanage it all. Don’t try and learn every new little trick. You won’t be able to develop SEO Momentum. You’ll lose control and won’t know where to start with stuff. You should let go, stick to your guns, be fearless. You know what the right thing to do is. Again, looking at step 1. Take a realistic approach to everything.

Don’t develop a Google fearing mindset where you’re paralyzed to do anything because of things bloggers say. What do you think?

50 Cent SEO Tip 4: Lead From The Front: SEO Authority

If you are managing a team, you should lead by example. Don’t be fearful, hesitant or afraid to take risks. SEO, depending on how you play it can be risky at times. Especially in aggressive markets. Your clients will also value you more for being a good leader. You know you haven’t got all the answers, but that doesn’t mean your confidence should waver.

Complaining and haranguing people to work harder has a counterproductive effect. You must adopt the opposite style: imbue your troops with the proper spirit through your actions, not words. They see you working harder than anyone, holding yourself to the highest standards, taking risks with confidence, and making tough decisions. This inspires and binds the group together.

Work hard, and your SEO team will too. Show an effort and your client will comply more. Asking or pleading them to do so is counterproductive.

50 Cent SEO Tip 5: Respect The Process: Mastery

Perhaps one of the most fitting chapters of the book, 50 talks about how the fools in life want things fast and easy. It just reminded me of flash in the pan link building services, 1 million directories and social bookmarks, that kinda thing. Rank #1 in 24 hours. Some of that blackhat stuff works, but not for long.

The fools in life want things fast and easy – money, success, attention. Boredom is their great enemy and fear. Whatever they manage to get slips through their hands as fast as it comes in. You, on the other hand, want to outlast your rivals. You are building the foundation for something that can continue to expand.

If you want to be a master you must put in the hours. It’s a slow, slow process. It’s a waiting game, but you know if you put the hours in an SEO promotion, from the finer details of the onsite optimization, to the careful planning on the inbound campaign, success will come, and you will outlast the “fools” who want it now.

50 Cent SEO Tip 6: Push Beyond your Limits: Self Belief

Have a sense of what you want to achieve as an SEO and where you want to be. This can even apply to the campaigns you are working on. What do you want to achieve with them? Know what is possible, and expect great things. With it, you can increase your confidence to achieve and work on better things.

 With a rising confidence in your abilities, you will take risks that will increase your chances of success.

Don’t be fearful and helpless when thinking of what you can achieve in SEO. For example, if you want to shoot for 20,000 visitors a month on a certain client, then let that be your goal. you want #1 for ‘vanity keyword’ then go for it. Whatever your carrot is, go after it fearlessly, and have the confidence you can do it.

50 Cent SEO Tip 7: Confront Your SEO Mortality – the Sublime

I’ve taken this one a little bit out of context. In the book, 50 talks about confronting your own death, and accepting it. Because only then, it is you will have no fear of anything at all. Think about it. If you have no fear of your own death, what’s left to be scared of?

So being the SEO obsessive I am, I thought about this in SEO terms.

The scariest thing in SEO… the equivalent to ‘death’ is I suppose, a site being penalized for work you have done on it. That must be the greatest fear amongst SEOs? Or maybe something not working at all. Especially when I worked in an agency this was my fear.

So why not accept this circumstance that, the worst scenario is your SEO doesn’t work, or even worse it has a negative effect on a website. Embrace this. immerse yourself in this scenario, almost so you can feel the wrath of the punishment…. or whatever may happen to you if the SEO you practice has a negative effect.

Now you’ve done that what’s left to fear? 

Have a fearless, confident approach to your SEO, you’ve accepted the worst, but you expect the best!

Just like 50 Cent, avoid getting shot too much.