What has happened to SEO?

Mon, Jan 2, 2012

SEO is not what it used to be. And what is now often sold as SEO would be much better served if had a very different name. The reason being that in order to successfully drive traffic to a webpage much more is needed than a rudimentary knowledge of how search engines index pages.

The term and the industry of SEO came into vogue at a time when the internet and search engines were very different. 10-15 years ago, a webpage’s place in search engine rankings could be easily swayed by adding and organizing specific types of content in a webpage. Pandering to and taking advantage of search engine quirks is basically what SEO was all about. These techniques were unsustainable.

Fortunately, search engines got a lot smarter. It’s well known that when it first came out, the Google search algorithm was innovative. What’s not well known is the net effect of that innovation: Simply put, Google killed SEO. And there seems to be no SEO-resurrection in sight.

The great disconnect

So this leaves, web professionals in a rather awkward position. Consumers demand SEO. However, they fail to realize that there is a huge disconnect between what they’re asking for and what they really want. Consumers ask for SEO. They want traffic. So various companies choose to go different directions with this. Here are three among several options:

  1. Snake oil. Most commonly, companies that sell SEO use antiquated methods and either don’t know or don’t care that their customers are wasting money.
  2. Ignore SEO. Out of a sense of professional integrity, many web developers simply choose to not advertise SEO. They meet customer demands but don’t encourage wasteful spending.
  3. Educate the consumer. This group sells a highly specialized service. They don’t make empty promises, and the results they produce are tangible and valuable.

At Solvent Web we attempt to employ strategy number 3. You might have guessed as much.

Changing SEO (Semantically)

In order for you (the consumer) to distinguish between our services and those of SEO hucksters, we’ve tried to make our points of differentiation clear from the outset. First off, we don’t really like the term SEO. Not to get too picky with semantics here, but truthfully “SEO” is a bit misleading. It somehow implies that simply by optimizing a website’s content traffic will flow in from the various search engines. As we’ve already stated much more is required.

We prefer to take an integrated approach to the subject of website traffic. Our services incorporate the following techniques with the goal of increasing the right kind of traffic on your websites.

  • Link building
  • Content optimization
  • Traffic analysis
  • Advertising
  • E-mail marketing
  • Social media optimization
  • And yes even traditional search engine optimization (although that’s a small part)

In addition, no marketing strategy exists in a vacuum. For that reason, when we employ the aforementioned techniques we do so in accord with the specific circumstances and needs of our individual clients. If you’d like to learn more about how we can tailor our services to increase traffic for you website, feel free to contact us or examine our list of services.

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