Before smartphones and social media transformed the way we absorb content and communicate, brands and companies already knew that the distribution of information in the digital space would become a lucrative channel for business marketing.

Today, most of the world's search is undoubtedly conducted through Google's search engine, accounting for roughly 89.44 percent of desktop searches. With the growing thirst for digital entertainment, platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Tiktok and Snapchat have become primary options for brands and people to market and promote their services and products. However, while many turn to social media and search engine platforms to promote their content and businesses, few understand the intricacies of how their algorithm works.

Dialling down good SEO is an elaborate process, and there is an underground group of experts that dedicate their efforts to unlocking complex algorithms that decide what to recommend. What started as small groups of growth experts honing invaluable methods spawned into an underground and illicit industry filled with underhanded tactics meant to push their agendas. But Instagram, Youtube and Google did not remain silent. They evolved and took action by instituting a slew of game-shattering algorithm changes that made old techniques defunct and outdated.

All of this was purposed to kill off spammers while increasing the overall quality of content on social media platforms and search engines.

Today, despite constant algorithm updates, everyone attempts social media marketing and ranking on google search. Regardless of how difficult it may be, most are aware of what powerful SEO brings to the table. Companies and corporate executives often seek industry experts to gain social proof and organic ranking to bolster their reputation and online positioning, hoping to reach the top positions of Google search and the Instagram explore page. Video sharing platforms are no different. Youtube SEO - ranking on the search page for a specific keyword and being recommended on the front page - is valuable because of potentially reaching untapped audiences.

With so much competition boxing for the same traffic and rankings, an entire industry has been born, a highly-lucrative field called search engine optimization (SEO) and algorithm optimization, with several experts building enough credibility to be classified as gurus.

The Rise of a Personality

A man who witnessed both the birth and growth of social media and Google is Khaled Mazeedi, a once-unknown Kuwait-born entrepreneur. He grew up in Kuwait to a liberal and upper-class family. He earned his initial success in the digital business with Cryptocurrency. In 2014, Mazeedi invested in over 1000 bitcoin, and today that investment is worth a large sum, almost 100x. His newfound wealth opened opportunities for new ventures that involved social media and Google, and it was here that he became well aware of the importance of organic search. Aiming to drive traffic to his social profiles and rank on Google, he dedicated years of research to understand the engines that drive these platforms.

He quickly realized that being found on search was great for driving traffic to websites and how people were trying to rank at the top of google search, at any cost. He also realized that social media was a different machine and needed a methodological formula.

Mazeedi began lurking and researching in the online forums, asking questions he needed to be answered and getting answers he never expected. After quite some time, not only did he build the knowledge and skill to become proficient in SEO, but he became a go-to analyst and an authority in the field. He had built up such an arsenal of material and analytical data that he could no longer turn to the forums and chat groups. He needed to bring all this information together so he would be able to share and apply his secrets with those who knew its power.

With this knowledge, Mazeedi began to develop strategies, various methods and techniques to increase reach within social media and google search, in parallel with using software that he developed in-house.

Optimizing these techniques on his profiles, businesses and organic searchability, Mazeedi began sharing his life on social media and grew to over three million followers on Youtube and his Instagram profile, @ten, to over two million followers. He is also the most searched person in a number of countries.

Proving his success on his merit by ranking on Google and social media, people began to approach him, aware of his expertise, mainly to initiate and execute strategies for their businesses to rank on Google search.

Khaled Mazeedi's Critical SEO Advice

As someone who has achieved monumental success in social media, Google and the SEO business, we asked Mazeedi what his top three SEO tips would be. Acknowledging the fact that organic search traffic is considered the holy grail of online marketing, here is a bit of what he had to say:

First and foremost - Mazeedi says to refrain from jumping blindly into SEO until investing time and research with how it works. Link up with as many SEO professionals as possible and learn from them.

Here is a simple example. You might have heard that the more links your domain has, the better you will rank on Google, leading you to buy as many backlinks as you possibly can. Mazeedi says that Google penalizes sites that sell links, especially if they are low quality (tier 3 and less). He advises people to focus on high-quality backlinks.

When asked about the potential traps for people looking to hire a professional to improve their searchability, he says that in SEO almost everything sounds too good to be true. If it does look that way (low-quality links, instant rankings, fast traffic ), it most likely is.

SEO professionals should be clear on how they can improve your rankings. The complete process should be structured, there are secret techniques and methods that some professionals have formulated to yield good results, but they should explain them.

Another piece of advice that Mazeedi shares is to never host on a free subdomain or web-host. Register a legitimate domain and hosting, and start building high-quality links for that domain.

What Does The Future Hold For Mazeedi?

Mazeedi humbly plays down his success. Focused on delivering projects to his clients and ensuring his staff are well equipped, he says the most important thing to remember is to continue adding value to the world and your clients. As SEO continues to be the holy grail of internet traffic, the multi-billion dollar industry of optimizing search engine results and triggering algorithms will continue to be a critical objective for most businesses. People like Khaled Mazeedi are valuable assets to them.