SEO, my how its evolved

Someday we'll be telling our grandchildren not just the stories of walking to school for 7 miles in the snow without shoes, because times were tough and they don't know how easy they have it. But also of the days when submitting to directories did the job.

An SEO wears a lot of hats, from technical to editorial, and sometimes a bit of a designer cap too. These days its all about the link baiting or whatever you want to call it, but we're sure to all agree that good content is key. The beast that is Google expects it of us, and we willingly comply, in hopes of appeasing the Google gods to grant us some link love, and for those that still follow, a little PR.

But I wanted to talk about a different kind of PR (see what I did there?) that is known as public relations. Being where your target audience goes well beyond ranking for search terms, and social media and public relations are the new tools in an SEO's bag o' tricks. While newer to some than others, this strategy expands reach and potential of finding those customers/readers.

Getting in front of them is only half the battle, but getting them to take the ball and run with it is a real success story. Having your visitors become your advocate, sharing your idea, and spreading the buzz, now that's the real challenge.

Probably my favorite example as of late has to be the story of the boy that borrowed his father's credit card and went on spending spree with friends which included a Texas motel with a couple of hookers that they played xBox with. story here The media was duped and it resulted in thousands of links. But it isn't about duping the media. That's going to bite ya later. It's more about crafting content that others want. Pieces like this take days, or even a couple weeks to compose. They're carefully crafted and rarely develop out of thin air.

It almost seems that SEO is evolving into a team effort, because with all that you can do, or should do, there just isn't enough hours in the day.