We often associate the word “amateur” with negative connotations, as if something amateurish were less desirable or not worthwhile. But how many of us would want to fight the World Amateur Karate Champion, or play against the World Amateur Chess Champion?

Amateurity is contextually denoted with both respect and disrespect. In some contexts, particularly sports, immense respect is accorded to the amateur leaders and champions.

I suspect that many people in the SEO community secretly or subconsciously strive to distance themselves from “amateur SEO”. I can think of a few movies, however, where some bad guy who is big on brawn and martial arts sneers at someone else, mutters “amateurs“, and then proceeds to get his butt kicked by the amateurs he dismissed so casually.

Oft-times in real life the difference between an amateur and the professional is the type and amount of support or compensation one receives for performing a set of tasks, not for the quality of the effort one had made.

Many amateur SEO techniques may indeed lead to search penalties and filtration, but there are still good practices that non-professional SEOs quickly adapt. These practices are still used (and are sometimes refined) by the pros. Here are a few examples:

Writing – Just writing a few paragraphs of text on a Web page is sufficient to get started with search engine optimization. Some amateur SEOs are far better writers than many professional SEOs. A good SEO wants to improve his or her writing as much as possible.

Website Publishing – You have to throw your bread upon the waters if you want it returned to you a hundred fold. Some amateur SEOs just love to create Websites. Many professional SEOs sort of take to the task like cats take to water. Truth be told, you should try to publish as many useful sites as possible in order to hone your SEO skills.

Engaging in the conversation – The most successful amateur Website operators are tuned into the conversation in whatever topic they invest themselves in. They don’t just know who the players are, they play with the players, eventually becoming players themselves. These heavyweights of the amateur Web oftentimes cross over into the professional markets, but their expertise becomes stale if they don’t stay engaged.

Many of us old-time SEOs came into the professional markets from amateur markets that grew competitive as the Web figured out ways to monetize itself.

Treat people with respect – This is one of those intangible factors that affects everything you do. Some people in our industry try to make themselves look good by making others look bad. That approach only works with gullible and immature people. Eventually you hit the wall and can go no further with this tactic.

In the amateur side of nearly all endeavors RESPECT is the main currency of exchange. People who don’t treat their peers with respect rarely go far in amateur circles. Professional SEOs should not devote their time to trying to make other people look bad.

There is a difference between offering a critical opinion that may offend someone and going out of your way to attack other people and seek to destroy their credibility. If your professionalism is built on ridiculing or deriding other people in the SEO industry, you’re not going to earn much respect. That lost respect will cost you friends and allies who won’t be there when you need them most.

Link freely to sites without thinking about SEO – This is the hardest lesson for many people in the SEO community to learn. So much bad advice has been published that tells people they must go out and get links to achieve SEO success that people have given up all their SEO power to the sites that provide links.

You have the power to shape your own SEO destiny by deciding carefully who and where you link, but more importantly by just linking out without thinking in terms of PageRank, anchor text, and competition. Amateur SEOs often build really great resources because they don’t “know” any better. They lose that primordial power once they start to believe the link building myths that permeate the SEO community.

Be passionate – People who have lost their passion for a venture become dependent on the passion of others. Passive SEO is completely dispassionate and it leaves you adrift in a cold sea of heartless link moguls who are only interested in what value you’re willing to part with in order to obtain the links they control.

Your passion, whether you’re an amateur or a professional, frees you from the anxiety associated with link building. Your passion drives you to build the kinds of resources other people recognize, respect, and appreciate.

Do these things well, and people will find it more difficult to decide whether you are an amateur or a professional SEO.

SEO Expert India