SEO ain't easy. No matter what industry you're in, there's an overwhelming amount of competition.

To make things more difficult, most category leaders have more resources than you. They have more people power. But the best SEOs have 3 mindsets that set them apart.

There are billions of searches every day. Many are brand new. If you adopt these tenets, you'll find success in search engine optimization.

What do successful SEOs all do that raises them to the top?

They don't trust anyone but the data (and even then, they still question the data)

Organic traffic analytics can point you in the right direction.

• Google gives us clues about best practices. But they're frequently misleading.

• Other SEOs share hacks. But they don't last. You can't game the system forever.

• Even customers lie. What we say we do and what we actually do? They don't always align.

SEOs experiment. They look at the data. They adjust. Rinse and repeat.

They never stop iterating

Being an SEO is like being a shark. Not in the Jaws, take your lunch money sort of way.

Did you know some sharks need to keep moving for oxygen or they suffocate?

Well, it's not as dire for SEO, but...

• Strategies that worked one day may not work the next.

• Competitors appear out of thin air with better, more authoritative content.

• Algorithms increase the weight of certain factors and content helpfulness is reassessed.

SEOs experiment. They look at the data. They adjust. Rinse and repeat.

SEOs never stop learning

Thirsty for knowledge?

• The best SEOs talk to others. They build relationships and feedback loops. They take advice with a grain of salt and an open ear.

• They read about strategies and tactics. They study processes and relationships.

• They learn from their wins and failures. Every situation is unique. Applies only to them. You learn from your experiments.

SEOs experiment. They look at the data. They adjust. Rinse and repeat.

Algorithm updates, technology, and user behavior change all the time

The best SEOs evolve. Soak up information. Focus on their audiences. They build on their own experience. There's no definitive success. They find the wins in mountains of losses. They just find a few more.