Wednesday, September 29, 2010

SEO Is Far From Dead

The search engine optimization industry is quite crazy at times when you take a step back and really take a look at things. If you have been in the industry for quite a while you will know that SEO has changed drastically from what it once was back in the day.

For a very long time the search engines have been significantly trying to eliminate those who spam the search engines only to increase short winded search results that might have worked a few years ago but might not be so potent in today’s business world. Search engine marketing is a very dynamic form of marketing and is always going to be changing which is actually quite a good thing.

It is an industry that is set to evolve and not become stagnant leaving entrepreneurs and innovators coming up with new and exciting ways to spread a message on the web. As quick as the internet is moving forward there are some things that are just never going to change when it comes to building your business online.

1. Being A Marketer: Being a marketer is something that is always going to be necessary when approaching the online space. I have said this before that it will be even more important in the near future to be wearing a marketing hat when trying to spread your message online. This is something I feel very strongly about when it comes to search engine optimization. Software programs and science like approaches are not going to put you into the shoes of your audience. Efforts like conducting keyword research are going to require a person to be able to get inside the head of their audience and anticipate what type of words they might use in order to find you.

2. Communication: I don’t care what business you are in if you cannot communicate with your target audience your business will simply never grow online. You can’t build a business brand online without communicating your message which is why good quality communication will be even more important as time goes on. Shoving your website URL into 1,000 directories is not quality communication, writing 500 articles with the hopes of them making it into search results is not communication either.

Personally I like the direction the SEO industry is taking right now. I can see it slowly cleaning itself up little by little. In the grand scheme of things the search engine marketing industry is unbelievably young compared to other forms of marketing and advertising like newspapers. We are still on the nose end of things and there is plenty of time to really weed out the bad apples. The SEO is dead claim is simply not true; businesses large and small are simply trying to approach it at different angles while incorporating new elements. I think what is happening is that the commerce world has realized that rankings are not the end all be all. At the end of the day they are important to the overall success over your business but they are simply one ingredient to your whole marketing plan. If others want to claim that SEO is dead because some of us are incorporating many new efforts into our marketing plan than call it what you want. The reality is that you, your business and your message have to visible in more areas than just the search results. The reality is that if you are not branching out into many other path ways it will take your business a little longer to spread its message.

Customers and clients want to see you in as many areas as possible trying to reach them tastefully with a variety of sources and efforts. For some of the larger branded keywords search results are just infiltrated with other items that SEO will never be able to really fight. You now have image results, and live social feeds along with stock ticker symbols and a variety of other industry specific information that no matter what you do with search engine optimization you are not going to appear. Take the time and put together a tasteful SEO approach and your business will grow the right way with substance.





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