Home > Blog > SEO > 20 Timeless Quotes From SEO Experts to Apply to Your SEO Campaign 20 Timeless Quotes From SEO Experts to Apply to Your SEO Campaign It’s hard to keep up with the numerous search engine algorithm updates that Google releases each year. As such, SEO tactics that work a couple of years ago may be rendered obsolete today. Yes, that’s how volatile and fast-changing the SEO industry is. You’ll find it frustrating to keep up with every little part of each algorithm update. And there’s no point in second-guessing what Google may do next. However, there are certain guiding principles that remain unchanged and they serve as the direction of where Google search is heading. Seasoned SEO experts are aware of the underlying principles of how Google search works and here are some helpful SEO quotes that will help you for the next decade. seo quote dave davies Contents [hide] 1. “Content is what the search engines use to fulfill user intent." 2. “Impactful SEO is rarely executed by a lone wolf.” 3. “It’s important to look beyond rankings and rather ensure a website is usable for everyone.” 4. “No matter how niche or mainstream your market is, great content remains a significant focus for SEO.” 5. "Ensure you’re writing content the way that you’d explain it to someone over the phone.” 6. “One of the often-overlooked SEO opportunities has to do with images.” 7. “Create content in a format that is suitable to the needs and expectations of Google’s user for the question they have asked.” 8. “It’s no longer enough to rank for 10 blue links.” 9. “A good SEO professional not only understands the searcher but the competitive landscape as well.” 10. “The best source of a link is a website that is both considered authoritative and relevant to your website.” 11. “SEO doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Every situation offers a unique set of variables.” 12. “One unfortunate part about the world of SEO is that sometimes things go wrong.” 13. “Remember, search engines have about a 6th grade reading/understanding level.” 14. “Google might be the world’s largest search engine in the world, but it is by no means the only one.” 15. “If you don’t have a long-tail SEO strategy, you’re missing out.” 16. “The reality of SEO is the reality of any successful endeavor: It will take strategic, consistent, and sufficient efforts to rank well” 17. “Almost anything can be improved in some way.” 18. “And in SEO, being the best doesn’t always mean being number one for the most competitive keyword phrase.” 19. “User-centric performance optimization is the future” 20. “Do the difficult things" 1. “Content is what the search engines use to fulfill user intent." Dave Davies, Co-founder of Beanstalk Internet Marketing. You can get a tremendous number of backlinks, but if you don’t get your content right, you’ll have difficulty ranking. Remember that Google is first and foremost a search tool that returns relevant results to users. When a user searches ‘how to bake apple pie’, Google will return content that shows an apple pie recipe and the preparation steps involved. Therefore, it’s important to step into the audience’s shoes, and think about which type of content serves the purpose of the search phrases best. seo quote jes scholz 2. “Impactful SEO is rarely executed by a lone wolf.” Jes Scholz, International Digital Director at Ringier AG SEO optimization is more than publishing content and building backlinks. There are 200+ ranking signals used by Google. Some of them require technical understanding of how websites operate. Even SEO professionals may find it tough to run a SEO campaign on their own. Often, you’ll need to work in a team, leverage SEO tools or outsource certain parts of the work involved. Also, SEO practices evolve quickly and it’s hard for a single individual to stay on top of the changes. An effective SEO strategy involves various stakeholders: product development, marketing, website development, PR, SEO, content, and branding teams. seo quote ruth everett 3. “It’s important to look beyond rankings and rather ensure a website is usable for everyone.” Ruth Everett, Technical SEO Analyst at DeepCrawl Landing on the first page for a particular search phrase scores you bragging points. However, if your website has poor usability, it’s only a matter of time before it slides off the ranking. User experience or UX, needs to be given ample consideration if you want to remain competitive on Google search. Factors like loading speed, mobile responsiveness and layout are some UX factors that affect search performance. If users find your site too difficult to navigate, they’ll just hit the back button and click onto your competitors. Google takes that as a sign that perhaps, your site does have a UX issue. seo quote kristopher jones 4. “No matter how niche or mainstream your market is, great content remains a significant focus for SEO.” Kristopher Jones, Founder of LSEO You’ll find that many SEO quotes are centered on content. That’s because content is the foundation of any SEO campaign. Whether you’re running a local business or an international e-commerce site, publishing SEO-optimized content helps you to attract search traffic. Without high-quality, targeted content, you can’t go far with SEO. Whether it’s industrial articles or blogs for a local e-commerce website, they help in attracting search traffic. seo quote carolyn lyden 5. "Ensure you’re writing content the way that you’d explain it to someone over the phone.” Carolyn Lyden, Lead SEO at Search Hermit While keywords are important, you should never over-optimize them to the extent that it makes the content sound unnatural. Remember that you’re writing for users and not search bots. Therefore, your content needs to be engaging and as if you’re conversing with the audience. Never churn out content just to meet a certain keyword density. Google has a knack for detecting poorly-written, unnatural content and that’s bad news if you’re not producing high-quality content. If readers love your content, Google naturally does. seo quote mindy weinstein 6. “One of the often-overlooked SEO opportunities has to do with images.” Mindy Weinstein. Founder of Market MindShift Images can make or break your SEO strategy. They are good at visually convey certain types of content. Yet, if you’re not using the right format or compress them to an acceptable size, images can increase webpage loading time. You can’t afford to have users waiting for a webpage to load, just because it has uncompressed, high-resolution images. Also, it’s important to optimize the alt-tag of the images with descriptive and keyword-targeted text. seo quote jason barnard 7. “Create content in a format that is suitable to the needs and expectations of Google’s user for the question they have asked.” Jason Barnard, Founder of Kalicube You can be a terrific writer, but sometimes words alone are not sufficient to rank a webpage. The reason is simple, certain subjects are better explained in other formats. For example, a comparison table is more effective than lengthy explanations with text for a product X vs product Y article. A combination of a step-by-step guide and a video tutorial works best on a Yoga blog. Rather than sticking with one format, you’ll want to think about which type of content is the most effective in fulfilling the user’s purpose. seo quote brian harnish 8. “It’s no longer enough to rank for 10 blue links.” Brian Harnish, Lead SEO at iLoveSEO Back then, popping up on the first page of Google was the lofty goal of SEOs. Now, you ought to aim for the coveted Google featured snippet spot. The snippet is featured above the top organic result and potentially draws more traffic. While Google doesn’t reveal what are the requirements to be featured on snippets, you’ll have a good idea by examining existing featured results. For example, ‘how to’ guides with step-by-step instruction are more likely to rank on Google snippets. If you’re not optimizing for Google snippets, you need to rethink your SEO strategy. seo quotes ryan jones 9. “A good SEO professional not only understands the searcher but the competitive landscape as well.” Ryan Jones, SEO Group Director at Razorfish While it’s important to learn what your audience it’s searching for, it’s equally important to check out your competitors. Sometimes, it doesn’t pay to rank for highly competitive keywords when your website is relatively new. You’ll need to play smart and make the best use of your resources or you’ll end up with frustrating results. Try to find keyword opportunities that are not dominated by more established sites. Targeting multiple low-traffic, low competition keywords is better than focusing all your efforts on ranking for a high volume, generic keyword. seo quotes helen pollitt 10. “The best source of a link is a website that is both considered authoritative and relevant to your website.” Helen Pollitt, Lead SEO at Arrows Up Here’s one SEO quote that will clear up many confusions on link building. It puts an end to the question of which type of backlink carries the most SEO juice. Ideally, you’ll want to get a link from an authoritative site that is also relevant to your niche. It’s harder said than done and it requires patience, time and effort to link build from such sites. Do relevant websites but with lesser authorities work? Yes, they are preferable to authoritative websites that have nothing to do with your industry. seo quotes chuck price 11. “SEO doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Every situation offers a unique set of variables.” Chuck Price, Founder of Measurable SEO Just because you’ve managed to rank a webpage in 3 months, it doesn’t mean you’ll repeat the feat with others. There are many factors in play