I started focusing on SEO about 12 years ago, mostly because it worked. Back then it was some keyword research and a few tweaks to a website and there you had it. Client would get traffic. Traffic would buy something. ROI already established. It has morphed a lot in a reasonably short space of time and has been interesting keeping up with the changes. So I think it was 2004/2005 when I was chatting with someone in the industry who suggested that SEO was dead, most likely inspired by Dave Pasternack’s rant on SEO. This past year I’ve had many clients really seeing great impact from SEO (as well as PPC but at a much higher expense) so I’m yet to see this death and still have trouble seeing it in the next couple of years. It’s getting tougher, that’s true. More competition. More complex rankings. Personalized search. All of these are contributors to making things harder and ultimately more expensive.
So I’m amused when i hear once more that SEO is dead (seems to be a part of everyone’s predictions for ’09). For me, this is good news. Fewer competitors out there vying for the same keyword phrases. Fewer companies providing the service. That would be a nice way to start ’09.
I think the greatest advice I can offer is certainly not to ignore SEO (it should be an integral part of your marketing) but to take advantage of some of the new forms of Internet Marketing. Ultimately though, use search as the foundation for your campaign. As long as everyone still uses the likes of Google, Yahoo et al, SEO will continue to be a force. And please, if you’re looking to upgrade your website, make sure the developers really understand search, otherwise we’ll have to go in there and change things around and it’ll cost more. Here’s to a fine ’09.
Paul Fleming is co-founder and VP of Interactive Services for Dinkum Interactive. A trained teacher, Paul has worked in a variety of forms of Internet Marketing but with a focus on SEO. Originally from Australia, he now resides in Philadelphia with his wife and 2 ankle-biters.
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May 16, 2012. Posted under: Blog.
I collected my god-daughter from dance class the other day and we grabbed a “treat” on the way home. Charli is 10, super bright and delightful. As we ate liquid chocolate, she told me about her school assignment where they had to devise a restaurant for kids. Her big idea was that while kids were waiting for their meal, they
SEO can definitely not be ignored. The only thing that will change would be the ‘methods’ that will work. I remember back in 1999 keyword spamming (mostly count) and invisible text was very popular with sites (and it worked) :)
Today noone will think about it because it will be detected easily and the site will be removed from SE index.
Same goes for some methods of link building. Domain name and URL is important right now but they might go away just like meta keywords and description have lost their value.
As long as content matters so will search & SEO just complemented by social media marketing that channels traffic inbound to site. Search engines still have to make determination of what site is all about once they find it and that’s content that’s been search optimized. Finally, I understand that even meta tags have been, at least partially, rehabilitated.
Well SEO is still not dead. Content writing is now days a part of SEO. If your content is good then people will come to your website. People pay to optimize current content and website according to web 2.0.
So SEO is still there and will remain there but the methods change!
If SEO’s dead, how can people search websites or images in the internet effectively? It would be like no good people assist me when I am lost somewhere.