SEO Is Dead… Or Is It?

Let’s get something straight right now. Rumors of SEO’s death are greatly exaggerated.

You may have heard people saying it is dead. And if not, you certainly will.

Drastic changes by Google over the past two years and new changes on the horizon in January 2014 have created this controversy. The problem is it’s just not true. Don’t believe the hype.

In fact, quality SEO strategy is needed now more than ever. It is becoming increasingly more difficult and time consuming for businesses to do it without professional help.

SEO Has Morphed And Evolved

While SEO is not dead, it has definitely evolved. More like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, SEO has transformed as well.

This is actually not old news. SEO has been evolving slowly over the past few years. It really truly transformed just about 18 months ago.

Sadly, many SEO agencies are only now starting to catch up to the recent changes and the ones coming just next month. And those just waking up to this are panicking. So it’s been big news.

The Troubling News

Worse than agencies just learning this now, there are many so called SEO experts/consultants out there who are still using outdated strategies. They don’t even know what has changed and how to operate in 2014. They are doing a lot of harm to their clients who are completely unaware.

They are using practices that have been banned from Google for years. These practices will result in a website being penalized by Google. So working with a company like this will not only not help you, it will hurt you.

Adam Connell from BloggingWizard.com had these insights to offer:

“There’s a lot of companies, seemingly more than ever before just operating churn and burn type SEO services. People that don’t know about SEO are leaving quality agencies and purchasing these dodgy services, then getting a penalty and going back to their old agency. Others just completely lose faith in SEO agencies and some even lose faith in SEO altogether.

There are some worrying comments flying around on SEO blogs that talk about how SEO is a waste of time. It’s only a waste if you’re doing it wrong.

I’ve even seen supposed ‘experts’ claim that if you don’t experiment with older ‘questionable tactics’ then you know nothing about SEO.

This type of mindset just goes to show how serious the problem is and the fact that Most SEO’s (note, I use the term ‘SEO’s’ very loosely) don’t respect their clients enough to even care about what happens to their website.”

The New World Of SEO

The truth is, SEO is just a part of an overall strategy. It is part of a bigger picture that I like to refer to it as Digital Engine Optimization.

A company that only focuses on the search engines, (and by company I mean either an agency or a business implementing their own in-house strategy), is putting themselves at tremendous disadvantage. Today an agency or business must focus on the entire digital universe with an integrated approach.

Google is still tremendously important as are the other search engines. However, being successful with online marketing is not just about search and search is not just on a computer any longer. And the things that Google uses to determine your authority online involve more than what old fashioned SEO offers.

Your digital marketing plan must contain all these elements to work the right way. It must be:

• Dynamic

• Online

• Offline

• Search

• Mobile

• Social

• Marketing

• Media

It must be flexible enough to change as technology and methods change. It cannot just be online. There are connections that must be made from offline to online.

Search, as mentioned already, is and will always be important. The need for good SEO is never going to go away. It will only increase in complexity. Oh yeah, did you know that Google is a social media platform too? So there’s that.

The world has gone mobile. And not just smart phones. Look for more wearable mobile technology like Google Glass to continue moving more and more people off their old PCs and laptops.

Social media is just the automation of what has been around since the dawn of time. It is nothing new. But now the reach is global. It has matured and is here to stay. It has changed the way businesses market and will continue to be integral to success.

Without actual marketing, nothing is sold. Just optimizing for search and social is great but without a careful marketing plan woven in, nothing will happen.

And finally, everyone online is a publisher. Media must be incorporated into your plan. Try any of this without creating content and you’re on the fast track to wasting time and money.

What Is A Business To Do?

So how do you know if you’re doing the right thing or if your agency is doing the right thing for you? You have to educate yourself. But you also have to stay ahead of the curve as things change at the speed of light. Now more than ever, you need to take Digital Marketing very seriously.

My recommendation is to find someone you can trust to either do it for you or show you how to do it for yourself. A trusted advisor can save you a ton of time and money.

Want to really stay ahead of the curve? Here is Dan Cristo, founder of Triberr, sharing how he stays one step ahead of trends in social media.

And finally, you have to measure success. And unfortunately, believe it or not, Googling yourself is NOT a metric for success or failure. I will be going into great detail on how you can measure SEO success in 2014 in the follow up to this post.

Photo by Masukomi

via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/seo/seo-dead-0731781?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=seo-dead