Recently I was shown this chart of a client, and I couldn’t help but post about it. The chart is simple, it’s tracking 3 pretty decent keywords for the client. I think it speaks volumes, and does a much better job of showing how alive (kicking and screaming even) SEO is!
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Less than 3 months.
We took on this project just before January of THIS year, (you know, the year SEO is dead … yet again) and as you can see in less than 3 months, 2 of 3 keywords have jumped to the first page. The two on the first page are in the top 3. Even better, (and more important than the rankings) sales/conversions/leads are up, and never been better (according to client). I guess SEOs and Zombies have more in common than most people realize, and answers the question to the title of this post! I have case study after case study, and chart after chart that can show this for large numbers of keywords, but I wanted a simple approach to proving my point and I think this chart does it well. I also wanted to show results for a campaign that had no social or social signals, no viral pushing, no press, no PPC … nada. SEO only…. on page & link building – simple. SEO basics & a short amount of time … SEO 101 .. ok ok you get it.
A focus on “rankings” Matt?
I usually do my best to not focus on rankings, and focus more on the conversion side (ie sales, leads etc)., but with all the talk lately about SEO, and it being declared dead yet again, I can’t resist but to post when I see stuff like this. All we did was simple SEO. We made sure the content on the page was unique, optimized and better than the competition. We used the right keywords. We made sure we had correct title tags, good meta data, used our header tags, alt tags etc. (all the normal on page SEO) and we built some links by producing good content for the site.
It’s not rocket science, its good basic SEO.
We got these results by doing what every goo0d SEO ALREADY knows they need to be doing (what they have ALWAYS been doing – head down & working) and ignore the idiots. * hat tip to Debra Mastaler for the title of this post.
Nice one, Matt. It’s too bad my profession and the undead have so much in common though. It’s not even lunchtime and I already want brains.
@AJ Wilcox haha, thanks. also stinks that our industry is talked about in the same breath as used car salesmen and lawyers …. Like I said in the post, those of us that know what we are doing just have to keep our head down and working, doing what we know works and brings results. Thanks for stopping by.
I really like this short and simple post Matt.
With all due respect to the social media bandwagon, claiming SEO is dead is just silly. While it has become a smaller piece of the puzzle during a major on-line marketing campaign, the basic/simple on-site tactics (Which by the way are suggested by Google) and developing site authority are still the foundation for everything.
@Duane McLennan Thanks for the comment, for sure social media has its place it’s another piece of the puzzle as I like to put it. But this is awesome because it shows that good old-fashioned hard-core straight up SEO can still get it done… thanks for dropping by and commenting
I don’t personally think the SEO is dead. There are still some good and truly working rules of on- and off-page seo methods that are able to enhance your website for both search engines and users.
Great case study. Definitely not dead, but changing all the time. Today, SEO includes so much more than it used to, but simply doing the basics will often see results like these. Well done.
@Jane
Yea, as long as there is a search engine … there will be SEO.
@Kevin Caldwell
Yes, but still cool to see the basics being followed and sites being rewarded for doing so.
Seo is not dead though it has changed a bit. Good case study Matt. We always need to follow the basic seo but applying advanced seo always has benefits.
Killer Post! Yes in the wake of social media marketing a lot of people think that traditional SEO is dead. I think Social media is great but you still have to stick to the basics.
I just read a similar post on another website and I agree with you that SEO is NOT dead. There are just new ways of doing it now with different software and online tools, all you have to do is work hard and put a lot of effort into your content and the results will speak for themselves. Weather it be sales or rankings.
Sometimes the simplest fix is the best. In terms of SEO, we all know that content is king. People tend to forget this.
I like the way you put it. SEO is not rocket size, but there’s hard work involved in terms of strategy, planning, preparation work, and building the content bricks. Great satisfaction when you see it rank eventually.
In my opinion, SEO is not dead, it is just a bit more difficult. Social networks are hard to manage and master but there are still a lot of ranking factors to play with.
To say SEO is dead, you would have to say Search Engines are dead…. There are various ways to optimize something for a search engine, and I think social is just a small part of that.
Great title and great case study. Indeed SEO is alive and screaming and with the results that you’ve got, everyone who thinks otherwise can keep their mouths shut. Keeping in with Google is the best way to keep one’s SEO campaign alive. However people are giving greater emphasis to Social Media nowadays and it is delivering great results.
I really don’t understand why people are sayin SEO is dead? Nothing comes close. However, I would like to see how much social media affects SEO. From some of the graphs I’ve seen it really isn’t worthwhile. I somehow believe it has more of an affect than what the graphs are saying. After all what would be the point?
It Just goes to show that the basic techniques are still able to produce powerful results. But i am not surprised by statements like SEO is dead. As people are bombarded by so much misinformation and opinion when it comes to SEO.
I dont think that SEO is dead.SEO is like a growing technology and knowledge that always change depends on the other technology.For example it will change with the change of the Google system.So that SEO knowledge need always to be research to get succesful result.