If Tom Brady was an SEO expert, here are the 5 things he would do

Photo by Brook Ward

SEO consultants come in all shapes and sizes. Some are good, some are bad and some are so unbelievable that their prices start at $100,000 a month.

I even had a subcontractor told me he worked on a project where the budget for search engine optimization was not only over $1 million a month but it was unlimited.

Who knows if that’s even true and who gets those kinds of jobs if it is?

It’s the Tom Brady’s of the world. The Michael Jordan’s. The Larry Birds.

Like Neil Patel being called one of the world’s top ten marketers by Forbes and having over a million visitors a month to at least one of his successful blogs.

Here are some of the things that make SEO experts go from good to great:

1. Be humble and love learning

Lately search engine optimization has changed so much that I am going back and hitting the books again. I am taking a class from Neil Patel on SEO even though I have been doing it for 22 years and read about it every day.

I love it. I know I have more to learn.

Very inspiring and tons of amazing information but what’s the most awesome thing about it is that Neil himself is the one giving the instruction and you can hear it in his voice how much he loves learning and sharing what he knows.

It’s the people who claim to know everything are the ones you have to worry about.

2. Master the basics

They say that Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics and one of the greatest basketball players ever would practice foul shots at all kinds of weird times. He didn’t want to miss a single point.

Photo by Steve Lipofsky

“Larry Bird said that in high school he would shoot 500 free throws every morning before his first class.” Bill Miller

Tom Brady does the same thing. Going over and over and over the same drills with slight variations until he knows he can repeat a process every time or alter it as needed.

So you have to practice the basics until your hands are blue and then keep going past the point where you should have stopped long before.

Link building is like this. I have had some very successful link building campaigns but one of my resolutions for this year is to take Neil Patel’s advice when he said something along the lines of: “the reason I get so many links is because I consistently do outreach to get people to link to and share my content”.

Sometimes it’s not the latest greatest thing with search engine optimization but rather implementing what you’ve learned.

3. Envision a successful outcome

SEO is so hard… Google changed. Everything is harder. So what. That just means that some of your competitors will leave, which will make it easier again.

If you’re constantly complaining and worrying if it’s going to work, it probably won’t. When you get excited about seeing your success of rising up in the rankings and getting leads from your website, your energy feeds on itself and everything gets better.

That’s what successful people do. They envision the end result and they keep seeing it over and over in their mind.

For me this means breaking the habit of negative talk and even saying out loud that I am a successful blogger and get tons of traffic and make lots of money from the Internet.

4. Inspire others

Photo by mccarmona23

When you hear Tom Brady’s team members talking on TV after a game, they sing his praises.

They don’t just say how amazing he is but they say he is one of the hardest workers. He leads others by doing and practicing what he preaches.

To be a great SEO expert you have to emanate a love for tackling the latest algorithms and study your ass off.

Most importantly you have to put what you learned into practice so that others see it actually working and not just in theory.

5. Be successful even when situations change constantly

Most of the New England Patriots coaching staff is going to change again after the Super Bowl. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have been through that before. It doesn’t scare them.

If the team members at your agency or your subcontractors change, let them go.

If you are truly great at making results from content marketing and SEO, it doesn’t matter who is around you. You should be able to pick up with new people and train them and find new ways to get things done.

If mobile page speed optimization, user experience, click through rate, super  long and deep content written with true authority and the power of your brand are what is important, when previously you could get by on title tags and cheesy back links, you can’t let that bother you.

If Tom Brady gave up because his team members changed or he was losing by a huge deficit with little time left on the clock, he wouldn’t be great.

Change and pressure is something that truly great athletes and experts can use to their advantage.

Conclusion

I am no Tom Brady and I have had my share of defeat with all of the changes in digital marketing but when I see someone pull off winning consistently, even when the chips are down, it keeps me in the game long enough to do things I never dreamed of.