Most everyone wants to be great, right? Why not. But in your pursuit of greatness, sometimes it is helpful to take a step back. Before we set out to conquer the world of search, let's first look at three simple things that will help you, as a search marketer, to not flat-out suck. That's reasonable, right?

Be Honest.

Look, it would feel great if you were an expert in every single component of online marketing. Not only would you be incredibly awesome, but you'd have the power to grant everlasting SEO and SEM success to your company or client.

The truth is, you probably aren't an expert in all aspects of online marketing. You may have designed and executed beautifully successful link building campaigns for many years - but what if you're approached by a client that operates in an insanely regulated industry where even the simplest link outreach tactics can land the client in hot water with a regulatory body? What to do now? Sure, you can probably figure it out and eventually deliver some measurable success, but it isn't going to be as easy as it was before.

Be confident and assertive about your skills as a search marketer. After all, this skillset is in high demand and is generally well regarded. Just be honest. It will win you more business in the long run.

Build the Data. Use the Data.

We all know that the folk's here at SEOmoz are big proponents of creating a data-driven culture, so this point is hopefully already well covered by the search marketers here. Still, it bears mentioning as the data that you are able to collect and analyze is the most trustworthy source of insight that you'll ever have as a marketer.

Which is why it drives me crazy whenever I hear someone lamenting a lack of actionable data, whether it be for SEO, paid search or - even worse - conversion metrics across any discipline. If you find yourself missing a key dataset, get to work on filling that void. Imagine that you take on a new in-house role or a new client and someone says to you "yeah, we have an internal database for marketing, but we don't really tie lifetime value back to the lead source".

Are you going to walk away, shrug your shoulders and think "oh well"? Or, as a data-driven search marketer who doesn't suck, are you going to roll up the proverbial sleeves and start mapping out an attribution model that will give you, and everyone in the company, a better understanding of the value being derived from your marketing efforts?

Yeah, that's what I thought. But, what good is all of that data if you don't...

Manage to Impactful Goals.

I'm sure we've all had a senior level executive ask why whats-their-name is outranking us for <insert ego keyword here>, right? Or, posed a different way in the paid search world: how come our ads aren't showing up for <insert ego keyword here> when I search for it...

over and over and over again. Obsessively.

From the same computer.

While logged in to Google.

On the same IP address.

Without clicking on the company ad. Ever.

You could do a couple of things at this point.

1. Calmly place your earbuds back in your ear, push play on your iPhone/iPod while suppressing the memory to the darkest regions of your mind. But, you know it is just going to happen again.
2. Attempt to explain how personalized search works. But, you know it will do little to ease their anxiety. And...you know it will just happen again.
3. Or, you could confidently refocus the conversation on those business-critical goals that you developed alongside said executive. Calm their SERP fears by pointing out the double-digit percentage growth in revenue directly attributed to organic and/or paid search traffic.

If you chose path #3, you can now put those earbuds back in and jam out while basking in your own awesome. Just don't do it to Party Rock Anthem, yeah?

The point here is to always tie search marketing to the company goals. That often means embracing the responsibility of conversion rate optimization for your landing pages. In fact, I believe conversion optimization should be included in your on-page SEO strategy. A great deal of time can be spent building a great link profile or refining negative keyword lists. Those, along with countless other tactics, are absolute necessities for any search marketer. But, what good is all of that targeted traffic if your website does a terrible job selling your value proposition?

Aligning search marketing success with the metrics of the business is important. Actively working to improve those metrics, through tactics such as conversion optimization, is critical.

So, what are some other fundamental things that search marketers can do to 'not suck'?