There have been dozens of articles in recent years giving advice on why you should never call yourself an expert or a guru, etc. Jeff Haden, for example, wrote a great post on this back in 2013.

In one sense, I agree that these are descriptive terms that people use to describe you when they have determined you've earned it.

How many times have you cringed at LinkedIn profiles with people self-proclaiming themselves as a “serial entrepreneur” or a guru, authority or influencer? By definition, you can’t be a guru or an expert unless other people view you as one.

In other words, it’s really cool when other people call you an expert. But when you call yourself one, not so much.

So in this sense, I am a shameless hypocrite. I even setup my own Kansas City SEO expert website for Pete’s sake. Then again, I am also obsessed with search engine optimization and constantly look for opportunities to increase organic search visibility for my clients as well as my own business.

There is only one reason why I target descriptive terms like expert and guru, because those are what people are searching for…I mean, just look at these numbers!

When people are looking for an SEO guru, especially for a search engine optimization expert in Kansas City, I want a chance to get search engine visibility for those searches. And there are a lot of them, just like there are for social media experts, marketing experts, Facebook experts, WordPress Experts, LinkedIn experts…you get the point, the list goes on and on.

Yet, even though you want to capture searches for those seeking experts in your niche, you still want to avoid looking like a tool. Here are a few tip how you can increase your chances of getting found by people looking for experts like you, without making them sick by what they find (yeah, its a delicate balance):

Try to refrain from using ‘expert’ or the like in your position title or any way in which you are self-proclaiming as such in your bio or resume. Try to get reviews, recommendations and endorsements where other people are calling you a guru, expert, leader, authority, etc. This is a really important point because it’s a great way to naturally work in keywords that not only helps for SEO, but helps to solidify your status as an expert in your niche. Try to find ways to work in the terms your ideal clients are searching for, but in a way that mitigates the “ick factor”. There are ways you can include searchable terms in your blog posts and web copy that will enable you to work in targeted keyword terms. Actually start doing some activities that boost your authority. Offer guest blog posts on high authority sites. I do a lot of these – here is an example on Web Designer Depot. Consider writing a book or an eBook. I just co-wrote an Amazon best-selling local lead generation book and it wasn’t all that hard to do. In fact, I am writing a new search engine optimization book now.

In summary, you can and should establish yourself as an expert in your niche, because if you work in a niche, there will ALWAYS be people searching for experts in it. Just try to do so in a way where potential clients won’t roll their eyes and your peers won’t want to slap the stuffing out of you.