Industry Experts Charged After False Reports of SEO’s Death

We all hear the false reports of SEO being dead — perhaps we should all listen, follow suit, pack our bags, and go home. Or, maybe we could continue our jobs, hoping that our clients won’t realize that the money they spend on SEO is a complete waste. Nevertheless, the ones who report SEO’s death are still pursuing the work; they’re doing exactly what they deem as “dead.”

I suggest looking beyond the subject of SEO as being something that evolves over time. Professionals in the space need to understand that SEO is changing for the better, with more attention being focused on how your site looks, how you’re producing content, and how you’re getting links.

SEO Does Not Die

Across the landscape of SEO, we are seeing tremendous adaptations take place in the form of how professionals are marketing websites, as well as the evolution of how search engines are delivering information to users. These changes have been spun to devalue SEO as a digital marketing tactic, and journalists on nearly every publication site have found a way to confuse things even more.

A Forbes’ article by Ken Krogue titled “The Death of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, and Real Content” claimed that SEO will be dead in two years. There was an enormous amount of social shares, comments, and follow-up articles from this claim, and that’s just one example of how the media is spinning the story.

Many marketers and journalists are saying “SEO is dead” because it’s much harder to use the tricks that worked in the past. You can no longer just build links from low quality sites while writing keyword-laden website content in hopes of ranking higher. You have to spend considerable time doing these things because of recent updates to Google’s algorithm, specifically Panda and Penguin.

Panda and Penguin Encourage False Claims

The Panda and Penguin updates were the two biggest things to happen to the digital marketing industry in recent history. The Panda update has been aimed at low quality content and user experience while Penguin is more targeted at catching low quality links. Since implemented, there have been ripples sent throughout the SEO industry, as the changed ranking algorithm is punishing sites for using low quality SEO tactics to obtain higher rankings. 

It seems that these changes have made some SEOs bitter about the situation. For example, an SEO that used black hat techniques (buying links, etc.) to boost rankings is now scrambling to get their sites un-penalized, or worse, back into Google’s index. Also, these changes have made the SEO game more challenging and time consuming. It’s almost as if these SEOs are complaining because they can’t be lazy anymore; they actually have to work to get higher rankings.

Approaching SEO in a More Authentic Way

Most reputable SEO companies avoid content writing mills and link schemes, so they aren’t affected as much as the budget companies. The job of doing SEO is becoming much harder for companies who don’t produce authentic, valuable content for clients’ customer base. Instead, they have to be involved in producing content really helps a lot of people while building relationships with the media.

Here are some ways to approach SEO in a more authentic way:

Infographics. These colorful and creative pieces can be a great way to drive lots of links (from social and online media) to your website. This is especially true for companies trying to deliver complex subject matter to audiences who learn in a more visual way.

How-to Guides. Manuals, white papers, and instructional pieces are great for a long-term link building and lead generation plans. While you’re creating a step-by-step helping hand that brings a lot of value to your audience, you’re also creating something that has the power of generating a lot of leads. For example, you could publish your guide and make it available as a free download when visitors fill out a lead form.

Videos. Educational videos are another great way to bring people into your site and extend your reach into the world’s second most popular search engine (YouTube). You don’t have to produce video content on a Hollywood level; you just need to produce valuable content for your audience.

Google is taking another look at content and inbound links because these approaches are harder for the average person to produce and solicit. Old world SEO gave anyone with word processing and FTP software a way to gather links, but it takes some skill to perform the examples above. Then, add Google’s new social and authorship metrics and you’ll start to get a clear vision for where they’re headed.

Tips for New SEO

You can start implementing authentic SEO into your digital marketing strategy, but it’s important not to be a weekend warrior. Don’t start producing low-quality infographics, guides, and videos. Instead, take your time and crank out something that will really help your audience. The quality of your pieces is worth more (to Google and your audience) than if you’re just pushing stuff out at a rapid pace.

Speaking of pushing stuff out, your company should be on social sites — we’re talking about blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube. They all play a role in how your company ranks in search results.

Lastly, stay away from “SEO companies” that work behind the scenes to “get you links, fast.” My advice is to stick with the ones who are focused on producing great content for your audience. Another words, practice due diligence and research how your SEO company is approaching the SEO process.

A Look Into the Future

The days of black hat SEO are slowly but surely disappearing. My guess is that these companies will try to make SEO less about rankings and more about something less measurable, like brand awareness. We encourage you to take a long, hard look at your SEO company and decide whether or not they’re worth the money. We’d bet that you could create more authentic content than they can, so why not give it a shot?

The future of SEO is a bright one — it’s more authentic, real, and ethical. If you’re approaching SEO in a more authentic way, then you will see your search engine referral traffic become for qualified. Ask yourself: what is the goal of a search engine? It’s all about giving the user the most relevant, authoritative content for their query. That question should give you a clear idea on what to do, and it should also silence all of those “SEO is dead” experts.