SEO has been GOOD to me. SEO has been GOOD to my clients. I have been doing this since the late 90s, and still no complaints…from anyone, not one.
Don’t compare us to lawyers, don’t try to tell us we are selling snake oil, and especially – I mean especially, don’t try to tell us our industry is dead (have you heard of Google?). We have heard it all before, and to be quite honest, we are getting bored of it. Seriously figure out something else to talk about in 2010. Please? Go link bait your agenda in some other industry.
The number one thing I learned in 2009 is that SEO IS NOT DEAD despite the claims. What a great year to be an Internet business owner. Am I right? When i looked all around my town this year, and saw small businesses closing up (supposedly because of the recession) I never feared about any of my stuff online not continuing to grow and prosper. SEO has been good to me, so when I hear about (or when I wasted my time reading) some ass hats link bait of why it’s dead it makes me wanna scream.
WAY TO BUSY TO CARE
I often wish I had more time to blog in response to these idiots. Even more so, I wish I was a better blogger, but I am not – so guess what? I will just stick with taking care of my clients and growing my company (Its worked so far, pretty well too). Wow how do some of you bloggers do it? My hat is off to you! I barley get time to post every once in a great while, but I wanted to make sure I took this opportunity to THANK, NOT BASH SEO, and what it has done for me.
I implement an SEO strategy for every single one of my clients this year, in one of its forms. Call it what you want, blended search, mixed media, online marketing – again, who cares? If you are a good Internet marketer you already are aware of whats going on, and doing right for your clients. (I am pretty sure it was) Danny Sullivan said it best “As long as there are search engines, there will be SEO” (although I can’t remember exactly where) So now, you try to tell me that because of social media, the rules about SEO have changed. The point of SM is relationship building and sharing of information is it not? Through that, you build links, get sites to rank for your name (example: if you are on Twitter and are active go Google your business name and tell me where Twitter is) and drive traffic. Hmm, sounds a lot like SEO to me. Getting YOU, Your Brand, or YOUR CONTENT to come up in the SERPs. But of course, none of this matters because SEO is dead . right?
Looking forward to SEO in 2010
I am very excited to know what I know, and very excited to continue to use SEO in 2010. I look forward to continuing to help my clients businesses grow with SEO too. They have all thanked me this year, and are looking forward to another year just as good. A side note FYI, I helped a lot of my clients grow their businesses this year with out even an ounce of social media, or other forms of marketing. That’s right, just 100% SEO – good ole onsite and offsite SEO, link building etc.. Please, don’t get me wrong, if all the decisions were up to me, I would use every form of marketing available, but lets be honest with each other, some clients are just not ready to embrace it yet.
How to tell if SEO will not die in 2010?
- Are you always going to need a properly coded site? (technical SEO)
- Are you always going to need good content?
- Do you want people to find your content?
- Do you want people to find your images and videos?
- Are you always going to need people linking to you?
- Do you want people talking about your business?
- Do you think you might use Google, Yahoo or Bing in 2010?
If you answered YES to all of these questions (which I dare any of you to tell me no) then YES, you will be using SEO in 2010. There are so many posts that answer this better then I do with the bullet points above, so read them, but this post is to THANK SEO, I don’t need to defend it. I know what its done for me.
This SEO IS DEAD debate is like a bad car wreck, everyone feels like they need to slow down and look at it, but they don’t really need to … do they? Move along, there is nothing more to see here (remember this can date back to 1997 – LOL). Let’s hope 2010 brings more intelligent posts and conversation about SEO and Internet marketing, especially from people who should know better.
“Call it what you want, blended search, mixed media, online marketing…”
You got it, Mat! SEO is not dead!
It’s about search and users. We will have search in forms that we never imagined before, and we will have users. Thus we will have SEO, or whatever we want to call it!
Well said!
.-= Dana Lookadoo´s last blog ..Communication & Planning: A Dental Client =-.
@Dana Lookadoo
Glad you enjoyed it Dana. Chris Sandberg (on Facebook made a great point, and left the comment on my post there)
“I say the more SEO doubters and haters out there the better. It just means less competition of which true SEOs will be the biggest beneficiaries. Their ignorance is their own loss and our gain.”
AHHHHMEN
Double Amen!
At one point, I purposely didn’t use the SEO label and moved into the marketing space more. SEO is in my blood, and now I tune out the stuff that makes my blood boil! 🙂
Overall, however, your post brings up the point that there is a need to education and understanding. Nice take, Mat!
.-= Dana Lookadoo´s last blog ..Communication & Planning: A Dental Client =-.
Matt – great post. I too wonder how some of the bloggers have sooo much time to blog, when there is so much work to do 🙂
We are growing month after month and have always increased traffic and business for our clients — 90% through SEO. The other 10% – probably social media. 80% of our clients would be considered SMBs. Some have been with us for 3+ years. I don’t believe THEY think SEO is dead.
I have to totally agree with Danny Sullivan (or whoever said it) As long as there are search engines, there will be SEO
.-= Arnie K´s last blog ..Using the Long Tail of Search to Attract Leads =-.
@Arnie K
Very cool numbers that prove the point perfectly! Glad you enjoyed the post. I just wanted to THANK SEO because its been good to me and my clients!
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I’m interested, what are the driving factors behind people saying it’s dead? Is the internet fading out, is google fading out, are internet business closing up? 🙂
Silly yes, but I’m still interested, why people say it’s dead like it was a fad.
.-= Kevin McKillop´s last blog ..Hosting Videos With Amazon S3 & EZS3 =-.
@Kevin McKillop
They are attention whores that can’t think of anything original. I didn’t even want to respond, but felt it was high time to say THANKS to SEO.
I totally agree with you!
I think those telling “SEO is dead” are those exspecting results in no time! To be successful with seo you have to work, find good keywords, building links and so on and it takes time until your work shows results.
Real nice Blog! – SEO will Stay –
.-= Benjamin Huebner´s last blog ..Some Tips to get approved at CPA networks! =-.
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Yeah SEO is definitely not dead, I hope for more improvement in the field of it.
@Benjamin Huebner
Yea, I will continue to enjoy the benefits of SEO in 2010 and beyond!
@Link Dropper
Next time, do a better job at leaving a real comment, and I just might let you get away with your link dropping.
Hey Matt – nice post. I wholeheartedly agree – and I’m the guy whose video interview was used to try and support his post.
@George Revutsky
He’s a tool, and we need to just start 100% ignoring him. Thx for dropping by here.
Hell I don’t know. Maybe its Obamish of me, but what if 2-3 of us gave him a free 1-day SEO training/deprogramming instead?
The problem is one of semantics and evolution. The words “SEO” seem to be limited in many people’s minds to “gaming the system” or “black hat cloaking techniques” or “eating people’s children”.
Meanwhile SEO has evolved, and most top SEOs have evolved into some combination of marketing consultant, copywriter, business coach, conversion optimization consultant, anaytics expert, and even business strategist.
(As an aside, to date not a single person who I’ve spoken with who equates seo to cloaking actually knew what it meant.)
So if folks are educated on what an SEO actually does, and the many different flavors of SEO, then things might be different. Might.
SEO is not dead. As soon as google and other search engines are showing the results as per their preferences so how can it be dead.
Hey Matt,
Great post! I couldn’t agree more. I posted an article about how to explain that SEO is more relevant than ever. I’d love for you to check it out http://www.searchmarketingspin.com/2009/12/how-to-explain-that-seo-is-still-relevant/. I passed your article around to my team here and they all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Best,
Adam
.-= Adam Dince´s last blog ..How To Explain That SEO Is More Relevant Than Ever =-.
@Adam Dince
Thanks for sharing the post. I think George said it best above – we need to do a better job of educating people what SEO is, and then MAYBE THEN will they stop the ignorant posts.
George…. This is exactly where the debate is. People don’t know the difference. I wrote an article, and people got all up in arms…. but your point was my point…
http://www.communitymarketing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/12/6-things-seo-experts-wont-tell-you-but-i-will.html
@Sam Diener
Thanks for sharing Sam. I don’t think the readership here will be the kind to get all up in arms!!!!
Maybe I was just trying to steal a link 😉 Actually wrote the article for a contest… My message was to the general population, and many SEO experts got upset. But as I said, George makes an excellent point.
By the way, I have to say blogging for me did come about in my unemployment. However, it really did lead me to learning the SEO/Marketing/SEM market. And I like it now in the way that George puts it. That is where I want to make my career…. until I make a billion with something else..
.-= Sam Diener´s last blog ..The Body Language Secret: Fix These Eight Issues NOW! =-.
@Sam Diener
When you leave a USEFUL comment, its glady given (the link) haha …. oh wait, but isn’t that a part of SEO too? Link Building by creating useful content? hmmm
Let every body who is thinking about getting into SEO believe SEO is dying. 🙂
@Matt Sitala — WHAT the @!##@%@#% is link building!? (sarcasm)
@Russ — Yes. Touche.
.-= Sam Diener´s last blog ..The Body Language Secret: Fix These Eight Issues NOW! =-.
@Mat Siltala Mat – can you drop me a quick email sam at samdiener dot com
.-= Sam Diener´s last blog ..The Body Language Secret: Fix These Eight Issues NOW! =-.
@Russ
AMEN!
Hi Mat,
SEO is not dead but for some reason a lot of people wish it was dead because it takes some work. Or it could be because there are other things people want to be selling.
I’m finding that a good percentage of bloggers pays very little attention to SEO. Especially the new bloggers but some of the old timers too.
I found your post on Sphinn and came over to your blog.
Vance
.-= Vance Sova´s last blog ..Blogging SEO Strategy, Help Fellow Blogger Increase Blog Traffic =-.
Thanks Vance!
The naysayers have been predicting the implosion of SEO forever…but it has not come and won’t – the rules change and some of the methods are tweaked but it is, was and always will be based on the same core principles as you mentioned above.
I wrote a post about this topic back in July http://www.torontoseofirm.com/seo-is-almost-deadjust-barely-survivingthe-googleplex-is-falling/
The people most vocal about SEO failing are the marketing folks that never moved forward out of the 90’s but are stuck preaching ancient principals to an altered reality.
.-= SEO in Toronto Canada´s last blog ..Top Viewed Author Award! =-.
SEO will always stand alone, despite of the criticisms and doubts that SEO will be dead on 2010.
nothing more gives convenient to the client than the use of SEO.
I lost all respect for Robert Scoble after his SEO is dead type link bait post. I am 110% with you. Getting so tired of these SEO is dead link bait posts.
.-= Gerald Weber´s last blog ..The Geography of Social Media Pretension =-.
Matt I really enjoyed this post. Know what I think? Those people who keep saying SEO is dead are just wishing aloud. If we all went away then they could go on selling their crackpot theories to site owners desperate to do anything to get better search ranking.
.-= Patricia Skinner´s last blog ..101 Linkbait Resource: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Building Links =-.
@Gerald Weber
Could not agree more!
@Patricia Skinner
Thanks, and well said!!!
SEO is about as dead as graphic design. I’ve heard it over and over, for both industries, and it’s garbage. As long as people have eyes, and as long as people have content and/or products that needs to be seen by large numbers of people, these industries will continue to thrive. When these industries are dead, then people will stop hating. As long as they’re trying to hate though, the industry will remain strong. If it wasn’t strong, they wouldn’t have anything to bash.
In addition to statements like ‘SEO is dead’, or generalized comparisons to ‘snake oil salesmen’, one of the worst is ‘SEO is killing the Internet’.
I saw the tweet this morning and wrote a post on it immediately: http://bit.ly/5le9Mx
Tell me the pcmag.com article isn’t linkbait – has to be, that columnist says way too many ridiculous things.
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I dont think that SEO will going dead. As long as internet is here, SEO will always be alive.