With nearly 90% the population finding a website through the search engines, 21 billion web pages through which to search, and with an estimated 80% of Search Engine traffic coming through the Natural Listings, SEO has never been more important.
But if you are standing still, you are going backwards.
Long gone are the days when you could throw in a few meta tags, submit your site to search engines and watch as it moves up the rankings with the merest of tweaks here and there. As the Internet has evolved and so to has Search Engine Optimisation, into a fine, and in some well documented cases, dark, art.
There are many popular myths that surround SEO, “PageRank is all important”, many ‘flavour of the month’ practices, “I only need to focus on links” and many companies who, despite the impossibility of the statement, will “guarantee you number one position”. I tend to find these are the same companies who have “a special relationship with Google”. This always makes me laugh, how did they come about this “special relationship” could they be in possession of a series of incriminating photographs taken when Google was just an aspiring young search engine, trying to make it big? If the Chinese government struggles to influence the listings unnaturally, what chance Shady Dave Digital?
What a lot of companies need to realise is that there are no magic SEO beans that will take us to the top, the Search Engine giants make the rules and we, like it or not, have to follow these rules (with maybe a slight manipulation here and there to keep us ahead of the game).
However, SEO is a long term strategy, with positions gained through a balanced, ethical approach, which in turn creates an effective process that will deliver results. If you start off with the right tools heading in the right direction, you will create something that will not only last, but will continue to develop independently.
Ken McGaffin is often quoted along these lines when he states “create good content, link to great content and great content will link to you”. However, may I be the first the first to quote Jimi Hendrix when he remarked “and so castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually.”
*in my next update I will be explaining how Hendrix’s 1968 hit “Cross Town Traffic” is in fact a reference to Google Adwords Geo-Targeting.
2 Comments
Alex, it’s an education working with you – not just SEO but Jimi Hendrix! Looking forward to the next installment!
The quote from Mr McGaffin seems sound. A lot of the rest of the article does what many marketing their services do – establishes a need, proposes a solution – but does not detail what the solution could be.
For me, those details aren’t the family jewels – they are your best credentials: I haven’t the time to do as you do – but I can hire you (I have) if what you say makes sense.
This just worried me (as much about SEO does) that it is all “Emperor’s new clothes”.