Mon 15 Dec 2008
10,000 Hours To Be An Expert SEO or Linkbuilder?
Blurb by Shaun Anderson (Hobo)According to analysis theory, it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert or elite performer, in any industry, science and art form. I wonder if this theory applies to SEO?
Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years… No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.
Supposedly, you need to also learn how to be an expert.
I’ve put in a lot more hours than this, especially in the first year of Hobo (3 next year) but I know I still have a lot to learn, so I think it might be even longer than this to master SEO (in a broad sense). Sure the basics seem VERY simple but it’s probably impossible to know it all, and I have been doing this since about 2000.
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I don’t think 10000 hours is required to become an expert SEO or Link builder.If we try to find new technic for the SEO and link building we can become an expert in this field.
Why are you repeating this Malcolm Fagwell nonsense?
It certainly takes long to become an expert. To be an expert does not mean that you have to know everything, which you cannot anyway considering that the only constant is change in many fields of knowledge.
I agree with this. In any field experience matters. There are two quite different feelings about “experience” and “skill”. More experienced certainly become skilled. Learning in any field is never ending process. I feel this is also so in SEO.
That doesn’t seem an unreasonable number for being considered an expert in a field, but SEO is special – the goalposts keep getting moved more, I think, than any other industry.
So last year’s expert is this year’s “person who will get you banned”, which is hard
and a lot of people are faking ‘expertise’ with a lot less experience than that.
Can you imagine an SEO expert from 1997 (magically time travelled to now) trying to rank a site?
Now compare that to a painter, plumber, electrician, accountant or lawyer.
Sure, there are latest trends and current legislation that change in any industry, but in no other field, I think, does the whole freaking ball game change, as is the case in SEO!
What six hours a day for five years doesn’t count anymore?
This is too logical and not a good measure of learning on matters that count. It’s not about time it’s about, well, a lot of other things. Targeted involvement in any one thing. I don’t want to be an expert on anything. I like the idea of having a forte instead.
The whole research is probably nonsense
Thanks for the comments all.
Lea especially makes a couple of good points
@ BS Meter – for discussion of course, and perhaps to rank for ‘expert seo’. It’s not rocket science
Comment made me laugh nonetheless although I think you’ll find it’s Malcolm Gladwell LOL
I like the idea of 10000 hours. It’s a nice round number, however, I think someone can be effective on a lot less hours. 5000+ is “mastery”, in my opinion.
Should I keep a log book of working SEO hours?
What about all the other duties of publishing and running a website??
I know what I learnt 4 years ago is already out of date.
I spent many hours trying to learn some things before giving up. If that amount of time magically added up to 10000 I would still not consider myself to know very much about something I had given up.
Of course this just depends on how ‘an expert’ is defined.
Someone with only 3000 hours of SEO experience seems like an expert from a novice point-of-view. But from the POV of someone with 10.000 hours of experience that person is simply a beginner who still has a lot to learn.
I think that to be an SEO expert you need alot of experience. I don’t think you will need quite as many as 10,000 hours experience, but I think you will need thousands of hours.
I also think that to be an SEO, you could learn it, and be capable of optimising a site with less than 500 hours experience, IF… you had an active interest in SEO, you had a website to practice on, and you had a good teacher, or resources too.
How many people who work for an SEO company, or even own an SEO company actually have 10,000 or more hours experience? thats about 416 days worth of experience, NON STOP! So in realistic terms 3 years worth of experience, now that puts it in to perspective.
I proberbly have about 18,000 hours experience, but im not an expert!
OK, I have changed my mind, I think you need alot more than 10,000 hours experience to be an expert!!!!!!!!!! ha ha ha…
I voted yes, I thought I knew loads about SEO, but nothing is paying off….
I think I’ll just advertise my site through youtube…. like everyone else
SEO is like playing bass guitar….
Its easy to be average and get by, but near on impossible to truly be a master…
10,000 hours huh? thats a hell of a lot of flying hours….10 years of flying hours! Wonder what the web will look like in 5-10 years!
I think it doesn’t take that much time if we have a will power to do so.Though the number of techniques and tools for SEO keeps increasing there are some major skills that must be developed.
I somewhat agree as I do not believe you can really “master” a subject(SEO) that is changing rapidly. I would call someone a SEO Expert if they were able to adapt to the changing SEO world faster and with as less mistakes as anyone else.
It certainly takes long to become an expert. To be an expert does not mean that you have to know everything, which you cannot anyway considering that the only constant is change in many fields of knowledge.
First of all thanks for this information and I don’t think that 10,000 hours required to be an expert of SEO or Linkbuilder and anyone of us want to be expert in any field and I think that he/she have to stay updated an regular with his/her profession.