SEO is Dead
Yesterday I moderated a panel on SEO and Social Media Marketing at the Thin Air Summit in Denver. Panel went great, the folks on the panel were fantastic. Jeremiah Oywang has a great run down of the panel and the advice given, so I wont rehash it here.
A hour or so after the panel was over, and we were all at a post-conference mixer, I sent out this tweet:
“If you do SEO for a living, you will be out of business or irrelevant in 3 years.” – @micah
Which got a lot more response that I figured, and I was asked to expand on that thought.
Almost as soon as the graphical browser was introduced, people have been trying to make money online. Over the years, online marketing has evolved, with some tactics continuing to have value, and many others falling by the wayside.
Banners – Still work, but the average click through rate on a banner is 0.4%, and there is research to indicate that its possible that 6% of internet users account for 50% of banner clicks. Banners have morphed a bit into rich media advertising, but really are only effective for brand plays (to get marketing touches).
Email – Noise/Signal ratio has destroyed what was once a great communication medium. Does email still work? Sure. Do people spend large parts of their marketing budgets on email? nope. Like banners, email has become relatively ineffective for lead generation or customer acquisition without an extremely targeted (read expensive) list, or a massive (read spam) list.
Which brings us to SEO. To be clear, I am not speaking about Pay-Per-Click marketing, which will probably be an effective medium for marketing for a long time. Its easy, specific, and makes sense. The market sets the price, so as people are priced out of the market, it should self-correct, and settle on pricing that works.
But the act of SEO – adjusting the code and content of a website with the primary purpose to be ranked highly in search results, is on its way out.
There was a time when SEO was seen as magic that only a few knew, but everyone wanted. SEO consultants could charge wild high rates and provide quick and obvious value. As all online marketers became wise to the tactic, more and more designers and developers were being charged with ensuring the SEO efficacy of the sites they were developing. Writers were expected to write for search engines.
Suddenly, everyone was an SEO expert.
Then social media blasted on the scene a couple of years back. People took their SEO tactics, and laid them on top of social media, completely missing the point of social media.
The content generated by users of social media began to rank highly in search engines, because it was RELEVANT. Because it had VALUE. Because it was TIMELY. Because it was REAL.
Suddenly, all the SEO experts also became Social Media Experts, as social media marketing became the hot new thing.
And, being resistent to change, as most industries are, SEOs just removed the word “search engine” from their tactics, and replaced it with “social media.”
With the net result being social networks and user generated content that is full of useless, noisy, crap.
Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers.
Not only is SEO on its way out, (as platforms such as WordPress and other CMS’ integrate SEO principles into their frameworks), we see the glut of SEO consultants now gloaming onto Social Media Marketing in an attempt to not drown.
Here are the truths of todays marketing marketplace:
If you are a company who employs an agency to provide Social Media expertise, fire them. Hire an internal evangelist. Several companies are doing this. Zappos and Ford are two examples that come immediately to mind.
If you are a company who employs an agency to provide Search Engine Marketing expertise, fire them. First, take the principles of search engine optimization (write focused content and use clean code) and have them distributed among the important personnel (development, marketing, sales, etc.). Make SEO organic, integral and integrated into your organization. Dont “do” SEO. Dont make it a separate function. Make tracking it part of your marketing effort.
Second, select a CMS framework (I recommend WordPress–it works great for even non-blogs!), that supports solid SEO principles. With WordPress, install two plugins: All-In-One SEO and XML sitemaps. Thats it for SEO.
If you are a company that thinks that SEO and SMM will be the holy grail to success, please send whatever you are smoking to me. There is only one thing that breeds success, and that is passion. Hire people that are passionate about your product; that can talk about your product with passion. Remember, its not your call as to whether you are passionate or not. Its the people listening.
If you are an SEO or SMM consultant, you have three years. Three years to adapt or be out of work. Learn how to be passionate and breed passion or find another line of work (I hear that Personal Branding is the hot thing).
After all, like Rob Blatt at the Thin Air Summit tweeted “The issue I always have with SEO is that I ALWAYS feel like I’m being told how to lie, cheat and steal my way to optimization.” – @robblatt
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I'm a little bit confused by these statements:
1) Then social media blasted on the scene a couple of years back. People took their SEO tactics, and laid them on top of social media, completely missing the point of social media.
2) The content generated by users of social media began to rank highly in search engines, because it was RELEVANT. Because it had VALUE. Because it was TIMELY. Because it was REAL.
3) Suddenly, all the SEO experts also became Social Media Experts, as social media marketing became the hot new thing. And, being resistent to change, as most industries are, SEOs just removed the word “search engine†from their tactics, and replaced it with “social media.â€
4) With the net result being social networks and user generated content that is full of useless, noisy, crap.
Is 2 the “point of social media” mentioned in 1 that the SEO folks missed? As for 4, how did these newly-rebranded Social Media Experts influence the user-generated content? An SEO/SME can tell you to make pretty, RESTful URLs, and how to structure your content, but how can they cause your users to generate crap content?
Next is this statement: “Second, select a CMS framework (I recommend WordPress), that supports solid SEO principles. With WordPress, install two plugins: All-In-One SEO and XML sitemaps. Thats it for SEO.”
That's probably very sound advice for the folks that are running sites that could be powered by WordPress or another CMS. But what about all of the web applications out there that cannot?
Thanks, Micah
I'm a little bit confused by these statements:
1) Then social media blasted on the scene a couple of years back. People took their SEO tactics, and laid them on top of social media, completely missing the point of social media.
2) The content generated by users of social media began to rank highly in search engines, because it was RELEVANT. Because it had VALUE. Because it was TIMELY. Because it was REAL.
3) Suddenly, all the SEO experts also became Social Media Experts, as social media marketing became the hot new thing. And, being resistent to change, as most industries are, SEOs just removed the word “search engine” from their tactics, and replaced it with “social media.”
4) With the net result being social networks and user generated content that is full of useless, noisy, crap.
Is 2 the “point of social media” mentioned in 1 that the SEO folks missed? As for 4, how did these newly-rebranded Social Media Experts influence the user-generated content? An SEO/SME can tell you to make pretty, RESTful URLs, and how to structure your content, but how can they cause your users to generate crap content?
Next is this statement: “Second, select a CMS framework (I recommend WordPress), that supports solid SEO principles. With WordPress, install two plugins: All-In-One SEO and XML sitemaps. Thats it for SEO.”
That's probably very sound advice for the folks that are running sites that could be powered by WordPress or another CMS. But what about all of the web applications out there that cannot?
Thanks, Micah
Great article.. I am not sure I understand exactly the difference as even with SEO if you have content that is not decent it won't be of much value. And without being able to be seen good content can lay barren… Or am I missing something.
I just wrote an article and maybe you can email how this as an example would fit with your post? It is on using keywords to get the ad I wanted while writing about making a decent cup of coffeee?
http://www.ehow.com/how_4591063_fun-ads-writing...
Great article.. I am not sure I understand exactly the difference as even with SEO if you have content that is not decent it won't be of much value. And without being able to be seen good content can lay barren… Or am I missing something.
I just wrote an article and maybe you can email how this as an example would fit with your post? It is on using keywords to get the ad I wanted while writing about making a decent cup of coffeee?
http://www.ehow.com/how_4591063_fun-ads-writing...
Sorry I missed you at the summit. I appreciate what you wrote here and would agree that the best approach to generating other people's interest in your site is to foster genuine, “real”, content. I'd also agree that WordPress moves you a long way towards best practices right out of the box. We've been implementing WordPress with most of our project this year.
Sorry I missed you at the summit. I appreciate what you wrote here and would agree that the best approach to generating other people's interest in your site is to foster genuine, “real”, content. I'd also agree that WordPress moves you a long way towards best practices right out of the box. We've been implementing WordPress with most of our project this year.
First: here's the tweet you were looking for, via @robblatt.
Which actually is a good illustration of the point I'm about to make: “search” is not the challenge anymore. it's easy to get thousands of search results. The challenge is “filter”.. finding relevant, quality results.
Optimizing a website for search engines isn't a bad thing, but it's certainly not the be-all, end-all. When the Internet reached a certain point, people were excited to be able to gather information from multiple sources. Now, however, there has been a return to a need for recommendation. Trust is huge, and hence the power of social media. We want to find quality results, and often recommendations and ratings can help us in our filtering: we don't need to wade through all the sources to find what we need.
That being said, there are many benefits to optimizing for search and ensuring your content can be found via search engines. I actually come from an accessibility background, and many of the tactics are similar: use clear language, don't hide your content in graphics or multi-media. As you stated in the session, don't be solely focused on algorithms, but at the same time I don't believe it should be excluded. Passion breeds great content, yes, but if it can't be forwarded, it can't be indexed or remixed or shared, it is only going to reach so many..
First: here's the tweet you were looking for, via @robblatt.
Which actually is a good illustration of the point I'm about to make: “search” is not the challenge anymore. it's easy to get thousands of search results. The challenge is “filter”.. finding relevant, quality results.
Optimizing a website for search engines isn't a bad thing, but it's certainly not the be-all, end-all. When the Internet reached a certain point, people were excited to be able to gather information from multiple sources. Now, however, there has been a return to a need for recommendation. Trust is huge, and hence the power of social media. We want to find quality results, and often recommendations and ratings can help us in our filtering: we don't need to wade through all the sources to find what we need.
That being said, there are many benefits to optimizing for search and ensuring your content can be found via search engines. I actually come from an accessibility background, and many of the tactics are similar: use clear language, don't hide your content in graphics or multi-media. As you stated in the session, don't be solely focused on algorithms, but at the same time I don't believe it should be excluded. Passion breeds great content, yes, but if it can't be forwarded, it can't be indexed or remixed or shared, it is only going to reach so many..
Great post Micah. I have been thinking this for a while now, getting confused when an organization is looking for an SEO guru. The days of something for not much in the realm of SEO are over. on to the next thing.
The thing about being an evangelist is that you can't fake it. This feels much more authentic to me and is what has me looking to employ my marketing skills and experience in projects that are in integrity for me.
People trust it more, word spreads faster, business grows bigger, no one is taken advantage of, the best products rise to the top. Darwinian capitalism at its finest.
Great post Micah. I have been thinking this for a while now, getting confused when an organization is looking for an SEO guru. The days of something for not much in the realm of SEO are over. on to the next thing.
The thing about being an evangelist is that you can't fake it. This feels much more authentic to me and is what has me looking to employ my marketing skills and experience in projects that are in integrity for me.
People trust it more, word spreads faster, business grows bigger, no one is taken advantage of, the best products rise to the top. Darwinian capitalism at its finest.
Hey Bill:
1) If you listen to most SEO professionals that have begun to advocate social media they do it in this manner: “social media is great for links” / “social media is great for fresh content” basically laying SEO principles on social media, rather than treating as a new or different medium.
2) Social media marketers begin to add to the noise that is generated. Posts on products, tweets about products, etc. It doesnt add to the conversation, rather it detracts from generating passionate users.
3) RE: wordpress CMS – I agree, many web apps cant be built on WP. My point is more that when looking to build a site that is “seo friendly” (which tends to be more of a content driven site, rather than an application driven site), a CMS tool, like WordPress is a great tool.
Hey Bill:
1) If you listen to most SEO professionals that have begun to advocate social media they do it in this manner: “social media is great for links” / “social media is great for fresh content” basically laying SEO principles on social media, rather than treating as a new or different medium.
2) Social media marketers begin to add to the noise that is generated. Posts on products, tweets about products, etc. It doesnt add to the conversation, rather it detracts from generating passionate users.
3) RE: wordpress CMS – I agree, many web apps cant be built on WP. My point is more that when looking to build a site that is “seo friendly” (which tends to be more of a content driven site, rather than an application driven site), a CMS tool, like WordPress is a great tool.
Didnt realize you were there Kevin. Ah well, but the great thing about boulder, is a cup of coffee is just a walk away. We should connect soon!
Didnt realize you were there Kevin. Ah well, but the great thing about boulder, is a cup of coffee is just a walk away. We should connect soon!
Andrea, Thanks. I corrected it in the post.
I agree that filtering is a big issue, but thats the job of the search engine itself, rather than the business.
SEO as a separate profession is dying. SEO should be integrated into an organization and become part of the ethos of the organization. I have also updated the post to match that.
Andrea, Thanks. I corrected it in the post.
I agree that filtering is a big issue, but thats the job of the search engine itself, rather than the business.
SEO as a separate profession is dying. SEO should be integrated into an organization and become part of the ethos of the organization. I have also updated the post to match that.
I don't know if search engines should be responsible for filtering.. I think that's where the human aspects of recommendation come into play. If I trust your opinions, I can use that information to weigh in on my own decision making.
I know there are ways to personalize content, and that can be automated to some extent, but it's not an easy task: which is why the amazon.com recommendation engine sometimes frustrates people.
I apologize, I really skipped over your “bring the work in-house” point. The perils of commenting while in a conference session.. I'll go back and review..
I don't know if search engines should be responsible for filtering.. I think that's where the human aspects of recommendation come into play. If I trust your opinions, I can use that information to weigh in on my own decision making.
I know there are ways to personalize content, and that can be automated to some extent, but it's not an easy task: which is why the amazon.com recommendation engine sometimes frustrates people.
I apologize, I really skipped over your “bring the work in-house” point. The perils of commenting while in a conference session.. I'll go back and review..
If you think SEO is dead, you're doing it wrong.
There will always be certain factors that influence search rankings and there will always be certain sites or people who understand those factors better than the competition. Before Google invented Page Rank, SEO was mostly about on-page factors (title / meta tags, keyword stuffing, etc). With Page Rank, search began to value off-page factors like inbound links. The tactics and techniques change, but there will always be ways to outmaneuver your competitors and increase your relative rankings. For example, if every site in the world was on WordPress, someone would invent some sort of plugin or tactic that gave them a leg up. It's the nature of competition and innovation. The only SEO's who will die are those who don't evolve with these changes.
If you think SEO is dead, you're doing it wrong.
There will always be certain factors that influence search rankings and there will always be certain sites or people who understand those factors better than the competition. Before Google invented Page Rank, SEO was mostly about on-page factors (title / meta tags, keyword stuffing, etc). With Page Rank, search began to value off-page factors like inbound links. The tactics and techniques change, but there will always be ways to outmaneuver your competitors and increase your relative rankings. For example, if every site in the world was on WordPress, someone would invent some sort of plugin or tactic that gave them a leg up. It's the nature of competition and innovation. The only SEO's who will die are those who don't evolve with these changes.
Ahh, okay, I get it now. Thanks for the clarification.
Ahh, okay, I get it now. Thanks for the clarification.
I'm not sure I agree with the statement “Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers.” I know plenty of people who still use these tools all the time for communicating with friends and colleagues.
Maybe what you should have written instead was something like “Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed as a marketing vehicle by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers. Friends and colleagues, though, still get plenty of use out of them for genuine communication.”
I'm not sure I agree with the statement “Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers.” I know plenty of people who still use these tools all the time for communicating with friends and colleagues.
Maybe what you should have written instead was something like “Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed as a marketing vehicle by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers. Friends and colleagues, though, still get plenty of use out of them for genuine communication.”
I'm a little bit confused by these statements:
1) Then social media blasted on the scene a couple of years back. People took their SEO tactics, and laid them on top of social media, completely missing the point of social media.
2) The content generated by users of social media began to rank highly in search engines, because it was RELEVANT. Because it had VALUE. Because it was TIMELY. Because it was REAL.
3) Suddenly, all the SEO experts also became Social Media Experts, as social media marketing became the hot new thing. And, being resistent to change, as most industries are, SEOs just removed the word “search engine†from their tactics, and replaced it with “social media.â€
4) With the net result being social networks and user generated content that is full of useless, noisy, crap.
Is 2 the “point of social media” mentioned in 1 that the SEO folks missed? As for 4, how did these newly-rebranded Social Media Experts influence the user-generated content? An SEO/SME can tell you to make pretty, RESTful URLs, and how to structure your content, but how can they cause your users to generate crap content?
Next is this statement: “Second, select a CMS framework (I recommend WordPress), that supports solid SEO principles. With WordPress, install two plugins: All-In-One SEO and XML sitemaps. Thats it for SEO.”
That's probably very sound advice for the folks that are running sites that could be powered by WordPress or another CMS. But what about all of the web applications out there that cannot?
Thanks, Micah
Great article.. I am not sure I understand exactly the difference as even with SEO if you have content that is not decent it won't be of much value. And without being able to be seen good content can lay barren… Or am I missing something.
I just wrote an article and maybe you can email how this as an example would fit with your post? It is on using keywords to get the ad I wanted while writing about making a decent cup of coffeee?
http://www.ehow.com/how_4591063_fun-ads-writing...
Sorry I missed you at the summit. I appreciate what you wrote here and would agree that the best approach to generating other people's interest in your site is to foster genuine, “real”, content. I'd also agree that WordPress moves you a long way towards best practices right out of the box. We've been implementing WordPress with most of our project this year.
First: here's the tweet you were looking for, via @robblatt.
Which actually is a good illustration of the point I'm about to make: “search” is not the challenge anymore. it's easy to get thousands of search results. The challenge is “filter”.. finding relevant, quality results.
Optimizing a website for search engines isn't a bad thing, but it's certainly not the be-all, end-all. When the Internet reached a certain point, people were excited to be able to gather information from multiple sources. Now, however, there has been a return to a need for recommendation. Trust is huge, and hence the power of social media. We want to find quality results, and often recommendations and ratings can help us in our filtering: we don't need to wade through all the sources to find what we need.
That being said, there are many benefits to optimizing for search and ensuring your content can be found via search engines. I actually come from an accessibility background, and many of the tactics are similar: use clear language, don't hide your content in graphics or multi-media. As you stated in the session, don't be solely focused on algorithms, but at the same time I don't believe it should be excluded. Passion breeds great content, yes, but if it can't be forwarded, it can't be indexed or remixed or shared, it is only going to reach so many..
Great post Micah. I have been thinking this for a while now, getting confused when an organization is looking for an SEO guru. The days of something for not much in the realm of SEO are over. on to the next thing.
The thing about being an evangelist is that you can't fake it. This feels much more authentic to me and is what has me looking to employ my marketing skills and experience in projects that are in integrity for me.
People trust it more, word spreads faster, business grows bigger, no one is taken advantage of, the best products rise to the top. Darwinian capitalism at its finest.
Hey Bill:
1) If you listen to most SEO professionals that have begun to advocate social media they do it in this manner: “social media is great for links” / “social media is great for fresh content” basically laying SEO principles on social media, rather than treating as a new or different medium.
2) Social media marketers begin to add to the noise that is generated. Posts on products, tweets about products, etc. It doesnt add to the conversation, rather it detracts from generating passionate users.
3) RE: wordpress CMS – I agree, many web apps cant be built on WP. My point is more that when looking to build a site that is “seo friendly” (which tends to be more of a content driven site, rather than an application driven site), a CMS tool, like WordPress is a great tool.
Didnt realize you were there Kevin. Ah well, but the great thing about boulder, is a cup of coffee is just a walk away. We should connect soon!
Andrea, Thanks. I corrected it in the post.
I agree that filtering is a big issue, but thats the job of the search engine itself, rather than the business.
SEO as a separate profession is dying. SEO should be integrated into an organization and become part of the ethos of the organization. I have also updated the post to match that.
I don't know if search engines should be responsible for filtering.. I think that's where the human aspects of recommendation come into play. If I trust your opinions, I can use that information to weigh in on my own decision making.
I know there are ways to personalize content, and that can be automated to some extent, but it's not an easy task: which is why the amazon.com recommendation engine sometimes frustrates people.
I apologize, I really skipped over your “bring the work in-house” point. The perils of commenting while in a conference session.. I'll go back and review..
If you think SEO is dead, you're doing it wrong.
There will always be certain factors that influence search rankings and there will always be certain sites or people who understand those factors better than the competition. Before Google invented Page Rank, SEO was mostly about on-page factors (title / meta tags, keyword stuffing, etc). With Page Rank, search began to value off-page factors like inbound links. The tactics and techniques change, but there will always be ways to outmaneuver your competitors and increase your relative rankings. For example, if every site in the world was on WordPress, someone would invent some sort of plugin or tactic that gave them a leg up. It's the nature of competition and innovation. The only SEO's who will die are those who don't evolve with these changes.
Ahh, okay, I get it now. Thanks for the clarification.
I'm not sure I agree with the statement “Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers.” I know plenty of people who still use these tools all the time for communicating with friends and colleagues.
Maybe what you should have written instead was something like “Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed as a marketing vehicle by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers. Friends and colleagues, though, still get plenty of use out of them for genuine communication.”
Joe, thanks for the thoughts. While the title of the post is a bit sensational, the point is that SEO as a profession, as a separate from an organization exists only because people can make more money doing SEO freelance, than if they are part of an organization. When I started doing SEO back in 2003 full time, I made 10x of my salary at ServiceMagic – in 6 months.
But savvy companies are understanding the importance of SEO and bringing it in house and integrating it into the organization. Because of the influx of “experts,” and the move to integrate SEO into the orgnazation, the profession as we know it will end.
Joe, thanks for the thoughts. While the title of the post is a bit sensational, the point is that SEO as a profession, as a separate from an organization exists only because people can make more money doing SEO freelance, than if they are part of an organization. When I started doing SEO back in 2003 full time, I made 10x of my salary at ServiceMagic – in 6 months.
But savvy companies are understanding the importance of SEO and bringing it in house and integrating it into the organization. Because of the influx of “experts,” and the move to integrate SEO into the orgnazation, the profession as we know it will end.
Hey Micah, I agree that internal product managers and engineers are quickly
getting up to speed on SEO, but I still think there will be demand for
expert SEO consultants. If search is a key traffic source for your company
- say you're a commerce site that receives 50% or more of your traffic from
search – it still makes sense to pay one or even several consultants to give
you an edge against the competition. I know of several companies that have
internal employees with great SEO experience (some even worked for search
engines before), yet they still bring in outsiders to brainstorm on creative
SEO strategies, consult on new product development initiatives, and to
diagnose SEO problems. I don't see that changing, though I do agree that
many standard, obvious SEO tactics and knowledge will move internal.
Hey Micah, I agree that internal product managers and engineers are quickly
getting up to speed on SEO, but I still think there will be demand for
expert SEO consultants. If search is a key traffic source for your company
- say you're a commerce site that receives 50% or more of your traffic from
search – it still makes sense to pay one or even several consultants to give
you an edge against the competition. I know of several companies that have
internal employees with great SEO experience (some even worked for search
engines before), yet they still bring in outsiders to brainstorm on creative
SEO strategies, consult on new product development initiatives, and to
diagnose SEO problems. I don't see that changing, though I do agree that
many standard, obvious SEO tactics and knowledge will move internal.
I dont disagree.
My feeling is that companies that “get” it will integrate SEO in this
manner:
- basic coding SEO practices (robots.txt, friendly urls, xml sitemaps,
no session ids) will be handled by the developers
- basic design SEO practices (less flash, no nested tables, more CSS,
etc.) will be handled by the designers
- basic SEO writing (keyword selection, density, etc.) will be handled
by the marketing/pr groups
- basic SEO benchmarking (ROI, reporting, etc.) will be handled by
marketing.
Two questions grow from that:
1) Does one person “own” the SEO process? I think when done properly,
everyone owns it, but a person in marketing owns the ROI.
2) If you are a small organization, what do you do? Again, ensure that
the right people know the right things.
If you do designate a single person to manage SEO, his role should be
primarily one of internal education and external information
consumption.
To leave it up to a firm, leaves a company way too open to a lack of
success.
I dont disagree.
My feeling is that companies that “get” it will integrate SEO in this
manner:
- basic coding SEO practices (robots.txt, friendly urls, xml sitemaps,
no session ids) will be handled by the developers
- basic design SEO practices (less flash, no nested tables, more CSS,
etc.) will be handled by the designers
- basic SEO writing (keyword selection, density, etc.) will be handled
by the marketing/pr groups
- basic SEO benchmarking (ROI, reporting, etc.) will be handled by
marketing.
Two questions grow from that:
1) Does one person “own” the SEO process? I think when done properly,
everyone owns it, but a person in marketing owns the ROI.
2) If you are a small organization, what do you do? Again, ensure that
the right people know the right things.
If you do designate a single person to manage SEO, his role should be
primarily one of internal education and external information
consumption.
To leave it up to a firm, leaves a company way too open to a lack of
success.
Joe, thanks for the thoughts. While the title of the post is a bit sensational, the point is that SEO as a profession, as a separate from an organization exists only because people can make more money doing SEO freelance, than if they are part of an organization. When I started doing SEO back in 2003 full time, I made 10x of my salary at ServiceMagic – in 6 months.
But savvy companies are understanding the importance of SEO and bringing it in house and integrating it into the organization. Because of the influx of “experts,” and the move to integrate SEO into the orgnazation, the profession as we know it will end.
Hey Micah, I agree that internal product managers and engineers are quickly
getting up to speed on SEO, but I still think there will be demand for
expert SEO consultants. If search is a key traffic source for your company
- say you're a commerce site that receives 50% or more of your traffic from
search – it still makes sense to pay one or even several consultants to give
you an edge against the competition. I know of several companies that have
internal employees with great SEO experience (some even worked for search
engines before), yet they still bring in outsiders to brainstorm on creative
SEO strategies, consult on new product development initiatives, and to
diagnose SEO problems. I don't see that changing, though I do agree that
many standard, obvious SEO tactics and knowledge will move internal.
I dont disagree.
My feeling is that companies that “get” it will integrate SEO in this
manner:
- basic coding SEO practices (robots.txt, friendly urls, xml sitemaps,
no session ids) will be handled by the developers
- basic design SEO practices (less flash, no nested tables, more CSS,
etc.) will be handled by the designers
- basic SEO writing (keyword selection, density, etc.) will be handled
by the marketing/pr groups
- basic SEO benchmarking (ROI, reporting, etc.) will be handled by
marketing.
Two questions grow from that:
1) Does one person “own” the SEO process? I think when done properly,
everyone owns it, but a person in marketing owns the ROI.
2) If you are a small organization, what do you do? Again, ensure that
the right people know the right things.
If you do designate a single person to manage SEO, his role should be
primarily one of internal education and external information
consumption.
To leave it up to a firm, leaves a company way too open to a lack of
success.
I don't think it's just to “foster genuine, 'real', content”. I think it's that and fostering genuine real relationships. It's getting out into the world and meeting your community. It's the meeting some at a conference. It's the meeting someone for coffee. Those relationships build community and the kind of relationship with a brand that someone wants to tell their friends about.
I don't think it's just to “foster genuine, 'real', content”. I think it's that and fostering genuine real relationships. It's getting out into the world and meeting your community. It's the meeting some at a conference. It's the meeting someone for coffee. Those relationships build community and the kind of relationship with a brand that someone wants to tell their friends about.
Couldn't agree more. In a few years, saying you're an expert in SEO will be the same as saying you're an expert HTML coder. The distinctive advantage will be gone.
Couldn't agree more. In a few years, saying you're an expert in SEO will be the same as saying you're an expert HTML coder. The distinctive advantage will be gone.
WordPress is way over rated. What if you need to build a job board, or an aptitude test, or an social network, or anything that is even slightly different? Your going to need real applications, and to make those applications SEO friendly you're going to need an SEO.
Don't think SEO is dead just because cooker cutter applications like WordMess have created a million worthless “me too” web sites. Good luck upgrading your WP after you hack the crap out of it to do anything remotely unique.
Anything truly unique and valuable will need a talented SEO to extract maximum value from it.
I think WordPress will be dead in 3 years.
WordPress is way over rated. What if you need to build a job board, or an aptitude test, or an social network, or anything that is even slightly different? Your going to need real applications, and to make those applications SEO friendly you're going to need an SEO.
Don't think SEO is dead just because cooker cutter applications like WordMess have created a million worthless “me too” web sites. Good luck upgrading your WP after you hack the crap out of it to do anything remotely unique.
Anything truly unique and valuable will need a talented SEO to extract maximum value from it.
I think WordPress will be dead in 3 years.
Oh yeah. and make sure you read Dave Pasternack's post from 05' about how SEO is dead. It's a great read. Really accurate too. Just like this one's going to be.
Yes, I know. I've been trolled.
Oh yeah. and make sure you read Dave Pasternack's post from 05' about how SEO is dead. It's a great read. Really accurate too. Just like this one's going to be.
Yes, I know. I've been trolled.
I don't think it's just to “foster genuine, 'real', content”. I think it's that and fostering genuine real relationships. It's getting out into the world and meeting your community. It's the meeting some at a conference. It's the meeting someone for coffee. Those relationships build community and the kind of relationship with a brand that someone wants to tell their friends about.
Couldn't agree more. In a few years, saying you're an expert in SEO will be the same as saying you're an expert HTML coder. The distinctive advantage will be gone.
WordPress is way over rated. What if you need to build a job board, or an aptitude test, or an social network, or anything that is even slightly different? Your going to need real applications, and to make those applications SEO friendly you're going to need an SEO.
Don't think SEO is dead just because cooker cutter applications like WordMess have created a million worthless “me too” web sites. Good luck upgrading your WP after you hack the crap out of it to do anything remotely unique.
Anything truly unique and valuable will need a talented SEO to extract maximum value from it.
I think WordPress will be dead in 3 years.
Oh yeah. and make sure you read Dave Pasternack's post from 05' about how SEO is dead. It's a great read. Really accurate too. Just like this one's going to be.
Yes, I know. I've been trolled.
There are so many University students who sailed through Uni learning nothing and now provide SEO for a living its a joke. Theres one guy I noticed today on Guru.Com who has a Masters Degree and is a SEO expert! Wonder why eh.
If you support SEO Services do you know know where to begin on creating an Administration area for their clients to edit their own META data or you have actually done it before? If your reading this and thinking, how and why or no then wake up to the fact your rubbish at web development and your job is about to come to an end!
All this “If SEO is dead who is going to edit the keywords” lol Pathetic. I write thousands of lines of complicated code for a living you SEO Experts bash on with your keywords that my own clients do themselves its so simple.
Rant over…
I agree SEO is dead and all my clients get admin pages to edit their own META data editor no matter how small or big the site is. I'm also taking part in campaigns to rid the internet of SEO Services and replace them with SEO Site Upgrades, all about improving sites long term/permanent. Something a lot of SEO people can't do they just can't cope, I know loads of them from University.
I can't disagree with this blog post more…and many of the comments afterword. It reminds my of the guy who retired from the US Patent Office in 1894 because he was convinced that everything of meaning that could be invented, had been invented by then.
I doubt I'll change anybody's mind here.
That said, it will be interesting to see what everyone is saying 3 years up the road. Here are my reasons why SEO will be hear 3, 5 and even 10 years from now.
1) Good SEO works. I agree with the sentiment that MOST SEO techs don't know true SEO. However, don't lump all SEO firms into the same pile. There are many good/ethical onsite and offsite optimization techniques that can move a website up to the top. We do it every day in our company.
2) There will always be a need for SERVICE. Of the 24 million small businesses out there, the vast majority of them can not or will do it for themselves; and they shouldn't. Business owners should always focus on their core competencies…deviating divides their energy, their focus and costs big money. I was taught by a very successful man “don't do anything in your business you can pay someone else to do, only do the things you can't pay someone else to do”. Most business management can no more design a good website, create outstanding content and do all the things to get them to the top of the search engines for relevant terms than they can to Network their own computers, design their ASP database, build a web application, do their own accounting or be their own electrician. The smart ones will focus on their core skills and hire a professional for the rest.
Effective SEO for competitive terms is certainly not as easy as some of the comments suggest. But even If they could do it themselves..who wants to. I can cut my own lawn or fertalize my own yard…but I'm not going to. Why should I when my lawn guy does it for $100 per month and Chemlawn sprays for $39 three times per year.
Now I'm not naive, and certainly understand the industry will mature…I do believe things will be different down the road 3yrs, 5yrs and 10yrs from now. But there will be a methodology behind a Search Engine Algorithm and business websites will need to conform their websites to it.
What i know about SEO is just how we optimize keywords and inbound links. as long as we do it correctly, we'll move to the top spots of the rankings. Considering the statement whether SEO is dead or not, i have no comment :D
I quess I'll have to start looking for a new day job.. lmao
Micah – I agree with some of your points and disagree with others. For example, I agree with your suggestion that companies consider taking SEO activities in-house and integrate it within marketing, development, etc. as that will most likely be benefical in the long term. While I don't believe that SEO is some form of black magic voodoo, I do believe that it takes some experience to master. Merely utilizing Google's best practices, along with some title optimization, won't be enough in a highly competitive market. In those markets, you'll need to be very good at several specific SEO based responsibilities to even moderately compete. Giving your IT guy or girl a book on SEO and cutting them loose, won't do it.
I do agree that SEO will change and evolve over the next few years, but it's been doing that since it's inception.
SEO dies when Google dies. There's an old ancient proverb: “TO SEO, IS TO OPTIMIZE FOR ONE'S SEARCH”
SEO IS A THRIVING MARKET.
You don't realize it, because we're not using old traditional methods, but rather, were our here on MySpace, Digg, and CitySearch making it happen and we're better than ever. When you search, you find what we want you to find. Cut and dry.
I totally disagree with you on this article to say that SEO will be gone in 3 years. I currently have my own SEO consulting company and I can tell you it is going stronger than ever. First of all just because you have a work force of all these players helping you SEO does not mean it will be effective. Working smarter and not harder is the key to being a good SEO person. I will give you an example as a test site I did. I had 2 website created one using Whitehat Practices that typically companies will use and Blackhat Practices that I use. The Whitehat Practice website never got up on the first page and my other site did. And second website search engines are always changing to improve search engine results if you know how to manipulate them to beat the big competitors you will always have work. I have gotten first page ranking on very competitive keywords vs companies that are doing in house marketing. The reason is because the people at there 9-5 jobs do not care about what they do normally. They are there to get a pay check and be finished. It is my passion to be beat the big competitors on there own keywords. To say that SEO will die in 3 years is a foolish comment and you are not very wise at all. Why not give examples of keywords you have ranked very high on and let me try to out rank you!!! YOU ARE FULL OF CRAP! You either dont know anything about this business or you are angry because bad SEO guys are getting the work you want to get. Either way you are uninformed and your article is a complete waste of time and space on the internet!
Also social media sites are fad. They come and go. Twitter announed this week that 40% of the users using this service never come back! So being ahead of the competition is the key to being a good SEO guy. Also the guy who said that HTML coder is the same as a SEO guy is also the stupid comment I have ever heard. Think about it idiot! HTML is a set standard doesn't change. SEO always is changing and adapting to the market. So how can you compare HTML coder to a SEO guy. WOW everyone is an SEO expert these days but the comments I heard are so full of crap. Most of you on here commmenting I guarantee make crap money and because you are not successful doesn't mean others are in the same shoe as you. I guess the saying when your on top everyone wants to bring you down is a fair comment.
So Josh, You are basically bragging about how the Black Hat site you created beat out the White Hat site?? Well of course it did, but that that's not a good long-range tactic. Good luck with that “principle” guiding your business.
I've recently realized that I'm doing more keyword searches in Twitter to find recommendations to websites than I am finding in the search engines. For example, keyword search “SEO” and you'll get more reliable hits in Twitter. Maybe Twitter is going to replace Google some day soon?
I've recently started using Twitter to keyword search topics like “SEO” so I can find good sites that are recommended by people, rather than marketers. I wonder if Twitter will some day replace google?
great conversation for knowledge
I have to say, I don't 100% agree.
What's stopping seo's to use social media or video sites to promote their business?
This will only make things a lot like the beginning of seo: only the good ones will survive.
I've spent the past hour reading this blog, and following links on the blog. What a fascinating topic. Seriously, I don't think I have anything to add as I am just eager to read more! I see this topic is months old but will keep garnering replies and opinions for years to come I imagine!
I agree with you Micah…………..
I agree with you Micah…………..
I agree with you Micah…………..
I agree with you Micah…………..
I personally prefer other sources of traffic besides seo but the truth is that #1 spot is worth money even if you just flip the site in it's prime.
I personally prefer other sources of traffic besides seo but the truth is that #1 spot is worth money even if you just flip the site in it's prime.
SEO is dead, long live SEO! i agree with you however not 100% because some people will be always better, some must be number one, two etc. Not anyone can rank on first page. Cheers.
SEO is dead, long live SEO! i agree with you however not 100% because some people will be always better, some must be number one, two etc. Not anyone can rank on first page. Cheers.
SEO gives good results, however; if you are dependent on SEO alone for sales or online inquiries then think again. It can however promise good number of visitors.
As far as its death is concerned after 3 years or so, I would like to mention that same thing was said 3 years back or even later but it actually didnt happen.
It will of course change its course and various new developments will take place, but quoting it death would be a little too much.
rest of the elements mentioned in the article truly work and a lot of marketers use them widely.
SEO gives good results, however; if you are dependent on SEO alone for sales or online inquiries then think again. It can however promise good number of visitors.
As far as its death is concerned after 3 years or so, I would like to mention that same thing was said 3 years back or even later but it actually didnt happen.
It will of course change its course and various new developments will take place, but quoting it death would be a little too much.
rest of the elements mentioned in the article truly work and a lot of marketers use them widely.
Andrea Hill reflects on the bold statement that SEO is dead and social media is the new idea means of online promotion.
Andrea Hill reflects on the bold statement that SEO is dead and social media is the new idea means of online promotion.
i really happy looking this site and there are more tips!
I'm happy to have found and read this article. When I first began online publishing in 1996, the website I ran implemented some very basic SEO tactics (as befits that era), but very soon, the old adage, “Content is King” proved itself. The more relevant, valuable content we generated, the more “hits” and attention we got. Even today, the content we published back then remains high on Google's search results. I realized that you don't need to prioritize SEO efforts at all – in the obsessive way many companies still do – so long as your content was good. And that's still my philosophy today. It remains very difficult to get some SEO people to understand the paradigm of social media marketing from the content rather than SEO point of view.
I'm happy to have found and read this article. When I first began online publishing in 1996, the website I ran implemented some very basic SEO tactics (as befits that era), but very soon, the old adage, “Content is King” proved itself. The more relevant, valuable content we generated, the more “hits” and attention we got. Even today, the content we published back then remains high on Google's search results. I realized that you don't need to prioritize SEO efforts at all – in the obsessive way many companies still do – so long as your content was good. And that's still my philosophy today. It remains very difficult to get some SEO people to understand the paradigm of social media marketing from the content rather than SEO point of view.
Mind if I put a link to my website here? I think it will help my SEO and my personal brand. TIA!
There is only one thing that breeds success, and that is passion. Hire people that are passionate about your product; that can talk about your product with passion. Remember, its not your call as to whether you are passionate or not. Its the people listening.
There is only one thing that breeds success, and that is passion. Hire people that are passionate about your product; that can talk about your product with passion. Remember, its not your call as to whether you are passionate or not. Its the people listening.
I also don't agree with this 100%. I admit that social media have truly dominated online promotion these days, but I see this as part of the dynamism of SEO. It changes all the time and this is how it have changed so far. But maybe, after a few more years, even months, trends will change and SEO will once again prosper.
Obviously never worked with a good SEO firm. SEO won't be dead, it's growing. Twitter, Facebook destroyed…foolishness, they are growing because of the marketing. And last, telling people to fire their SEO team and go it alone is pure, bad advice for the majority of businesses; they don't know what to do, don't want to do it and don't have the time to promote their web presence. I can go to the hardware store and buy a back of fertilizer for $10 and do it myself…instead, I pay TruGreen $35 per month. Why, I don't want to do it myself!
I've never seen a company that focuses solely on SEO drive real conversions — and I've worked as an optimizer for several different agencies. Google with their continued focus, and tweaking of relevancy and personalization are eliminating the need for these companies — and that's not even taking into account the changes that HTML 5 will bring.
Just look at Google's recent facelift — you're seeing the start of a focus on personalization. What this eventually will lead to is Google studying your search habits. For instance: Imagine I'm searching for contractors and hardware in order to build a deck. Lets say in the past my preference was only companies that offered a full service (hardware and labor) my page 1 will be full of only services that offer the full spectrum (hardware and labor). Now lets say my friend is searching the same thing — they may prefer to shop around a bit more. Their results might be categorized by customer reviews (an important new trend to follow), price, etc…
Also, keep in mind that all of these results will be put through a filter which will eliminate all results outside of a 50 mile radius. If you're saying to yourself that their is still SEO in this future — you're right, but a simple website with useful content will beat out a fancy site that is outside a persons 50 mile radius and search preferences.
That's a brief view into the personalization aspect of search engines futures, so what about relevancy? I'm sure most of you have noticed that Google has changed a bit over the last few months. Google has reserved real-estate on their page-1 to display real-time relevancy. What that means is that they're able to determine (and differentiate) what's relevant to you, and what's relevant in overall society. So — I'm done making my deck, now I'm hungry for a hamburger. I type in hamburgers… I don't get results from a major city across the country — I will get a page 1 full of local burger joints that are being talked about, and reviewed “locally”(via, WHERE, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, YELP, etc.). Lets say a local burger joint has a huge following on facebook (meaning they have a lot of fans and posts on their wall from different users, and more importantly — different IPs) that site, with their site, has a much higher chance of being displayed as number one than an “optimized site” that has terrible reviews and is located in the next town. SEO can't fix these problems.
Combined with focused indexing of service sites like angies list, YELP and WHERE — the days of SEO companies acting as marketing 2.0 witch-doctors is over.
I do disagree with one aspect of this blog — SEO will never completely die; however, if your company only does SEO — you will either be fired or tank within the next 3-5 years. SEO is a tiny little piece in a companies marketing puzzle. One piece — that's it. If your company is unable to function as a full service marketing agency (design, analytics, consulting, etc.) you will fail sooner than later.
If you're taking offense to this — it's time to do some research. Sign up for the official google blog, learn the tech-speak and read programmer blogs — do what it takes to educate, and prepare yourself for the future. The days of SEO-magic are over. If you want to stay in business — I suggest you follow the path of the magician. They all had their hay-day with their same tricks and illusions — eventually they had to evolve and come up with new tricks…
I work at SEO firm and I think this is one of the best articles I've ever read!
Thanks!
don't think that would be soon, it's rather like a hundred years later or maybe never
well, unless people will stop searching for something, which is not possible
and even so search engine would stop referring to link builds of a site, still those back links could bring you traffic as long as it is done correctly so SEO is definitely NOT dead
AMEN! So sayeth all of us who knew that SEO was a pig-in-a-poke in the first place. Simple logic always transcended the winds of passion around the issue. Now, can we get back to the business of marketing (read: building relationships) with our customers and clients?
This is depressing news. I will keep in mind that this blog is over a year old and cross my fingers that “it ain’t true!”
This is depressing news. I will keep in mind that this blog is over a year old and cross my fingers that “it ain’t true!”