The New SEO

In the last post it was mentioned SEO has seen big changes recently.

For many, it's not even SEO any more, it's Inbound Marketing. There's been a perception of it as voodoo, that later turned to thoughts of spamming, thanks to some that probably don't truly understand link value.

SEO isn't dead, there will always be a need for skills in site optimization, keyword research, competitive research, conversion optimization, analytics, and similar. Most of all, people that understand how it comes together, and create real strategy.

For many, the shift is to a new strategy that revolves around content marketing strategies. Call it magnetic content or link bait, the goal is the same, because if there's one thing that hasn't changed its links. .

It's amazing how many "do SEO", when what they have is a grasp on the concept at best. And how it's proven itself repeatedly as the most valuable traffic, but companies look at paid search and social first.

Search - Adapt With The Times

SEO is an ever evolving field that you have to stay on top of, and the popularity of social media has changed some of the rules (again) on how well you do.

An interesting post at Mashable discusses how you should consider social in your SEO mix and what kind of differences it can make.

SEO Infographics

Infographics are a great way to view things from a different perspective to articles, blog posts, or text based communications.

The following SEO infographics provide some of the best examples to be found. Click images for a larger view.


SEO professionals:



SEO pagerank:






SEO and PPC compared:





SEO ranking factors:






SEO faq:




The SEO Process:



The SEO flowchart:



SEO explained:



SEO tactics:



The freakonomics of linkbuilding:



A look at search engine history:

SEO and Social Media

Search engine optimization (SEO) has changed significantly in recent years, with the growth of social media.

But it has its advantages for an SEO, since it provides the ability to focus on the core purpose of SEO (link building) and provides numerous opportunities to create new means for getting sites to rank.

You might say that its probably the biggest shift in SEO in recent years, and presents new challenges at the same time. The issues lie in the fact that the signals provided through social media make it more challenging to identify true authority.

The web is in a constant state of flux when it comes to SEO, and social media has its pros and cons. The biggest issue being that it also gives the less scrupulous practitioners new opportunities, but that's not likely to change.

SEO post roundup

If you've gotten busy and missed on some good SEO reading, here's a few articles and posts to catch up with...

A review of spy tools by SEObook

The 301 - redirects don't pass full value

5 keys to staying at the top

71 tips for backlink analysis

Massive passive inbound links

101 common seo mistakes

ORM strategies

SEO is a great way to manage your brand and build your online visibility, but there's another side to it also worth considering. Online reputation management, or ORM for short, is sort of like a reverse SEO process. Instead of trying to rank for a particular phrase, your goal is to maintain the top 10 results for a phrase to keep things in a positive light.

When you already have a negative search result in the top 10 for a phrase, you can either;

- strengthen the positive

- push something from page 2

- create new pages on authority sites

- create new sites

Depending on the situation, any of these are viable options for online reputation management strategies and are all worth including in your overall ORM strategy.

What's Most Important for SEO?

Want traffic? What SEO doesn't?

What is more important - traffic or rank?

Rank is a measure of sorts, but ultimately, isn't traffic more important?
Rank can bring you traffic, but there are other means without relying solely on the search engines.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) are now recognized as essential tools to the SEO process. Some even might say that they are a process all on their own.

Sounds like the same argument as whether branding is part of marketing or its own individual process. Either way, it's essential to be familiar with both - in both cases.

The thing about SMM/SMO is that it can also help your overall SERPs in many cases. But when you have true succcess with the Social networks and bookmarking sites, you can see almost instant results.

So much so, this is what has been labeled as the "Digg Effect". If your webhost isn't ready, a surge of 20,000 in one hour can take its toll on a server, often bringing a web host to its knees. This crippling affect can be avoided, which I'll comment on in another post some other time.

Anyone disagree that rank is more important than traffic?

Rank can equal traffic, with the right phrase optimization and conditions, but at the end of the day, traffic can convert while rank may or may not provide customers.

Some favorite pranks this April 1st

A few of my favorite pranks pulled this April 1st;

This one was nothing short of genius - the ultimate Firefox extension means the wait is over for many.

Then there was Gmail's "Paper", which for one small nanosecond seemed possible. In cases like this it would be better to pull something like this on any day other than April 1. Special mention to Google's TiSP as well.

Michael Arrington's announcement of a Techcrunch merger with FuckedCompany.com was another favorite. And it seems a lot of people bought into this one.


The new Googlewriter is a tool that helps you write blog posts. Sweet.

And of course, there let's not forget Matt Cutts site got hacked.

SEO Conferences coming up

Dave Naylor, Greg Boser, and Jennifer Slegg announced the launch of SEODays. These will be 2 day conferences available in UK, Europe, USA and Canada.

Also coming up is SES NY, which I hear is possibly the best one of all.

One that seems to have a lot of people talking is the Elite Retreat. I know a lot of people I respect in SEO have had good things to say about it.