future 5 Important Messages For SEOs

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Links are still the strongest signal we have to Google about the importance of our content and site. SEO is an industry that frequently changes. To be an effective SEO, adaptation is a must. This is partially why SEO isn’t taught as a trade within an educational institution. The trade’s best practices change at a rapid pace thanks to the evolution of technologies and the adjustments made to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This constantly evolving profession, best practices, and guidelines can lead, at times, to confusion within the SEO industry. Right now is one of those times of confusion. Attending conferences and reading search engine trade journals highlights that content marketing has become the new industry buzzword. Not only that, but there is more talk of social media signals than ever before. With the proper resources, content marketing and social media marketing can be incredibly effective. But within pure SEO, link acquisition must be a primary concern.

Obviously there are other fundamental concerns such as indexation, crawlability, duplicate content, site architecture, etc. etc., but link acquisition needs to be an active consideration. Again, for increased search visibility, links need to be a primary consideration. There is a very real confusion with Google’s tightening guidelines on spammy and manipulative links. SEOs aren’t sure where to turn, especially with the rise of content marketing. There are five key messages that need to be addressed within SEO.

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Links are still the core of Google’s search algorithm.

2

Link building and content marketing are fundamentally different.

3

Content marketing is difficult to do well. SEOs often don’t have the required skill-set for high-level content creation.

4

Link building can supercharge your content marketing efforts.

5

You can still build links even if you don’t have great content.

Let’s take a look at each one.

Links are still the core of Google’s search algorithm

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The most powerful evidence of the value of a link - and link building - came in an interview with Matt Cutts at the most recent SMX conference in Seattle. Cutts specifically said, “Link building is not dead, there’s still a lot of mileage left in links.” In a recent webmaster video, Cutts also said that Google tested an algorithm that does not heavily weigh backlinks as a ranking factor. The experiment proved to Google that backlinks were still “...a really big win in terms of quality search results.”

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But Google has been cracking down on link building activities recently. The guest blogging service, MyBlogGuest, was recently penalized for supposedly engaging in spammy link tactics. Even if MyBlogGuest didn’t really deserve the penalty, a penalty is still a penalty.

Link are still the strongest signal of authority and quality. This is confirmed by:

SEO’s themselves Matt Cutts - Google’s head of webspam Amit Singhal - Google’s head of search

SEOs represent real, legitimate companies and need to make sure they’re using safe, effective, long term strategies. This has led SEOs to search for new ways to ensure safe and powerful links are created. One of the best ways to secure links is to build one or more linkable assets. Content isn’t absolutely necessary in order to build links - more on that later but content can certainly help. This has led many SEOs to content marketing, with their primary concern being links.

It turns out backlinks, even though there’s some noise and certainly a lot of spam, for the most part, are a really big win in terms of quality search results - Matt Cutts, Google’s head of webspam

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feb. 2014

Link building and content marketing are fundamentally different

SEOs are beginning to turn to phrases such as “link earning” and “link acquisition” to avoid using the traditional phrase “link building.” This is done especially by SEOs moving over to content marketing as a method of building links, which adds to the current confusion in the SEO industry. But content marketing is not link building. Nor is it even SEO - there’s no guarantee that content will be visible in search, nor is creating more content guaranteed to make sites more visible in search. And content certainly won’t get all the links it deserves without work. Content marketing is wholly different than link building or SEO. Content is not necessary to build links; content marketing doesn’t require links. On the flip side of that, content marketing doesn’t require building a link. If an inbound link is built along with a piece of content, that’s an added perk, not the end goal. SEO is about increasing search visibility. Content marketing is about creating valuable content worth sharing. Approaching content marketing from a purely SEO perspective doesn’t give content creation the care necessary to create

compelling content. How often do SEOs complain about yet another garbage blog post, infographic, roundup, whatever the current content flavor is? Content fatigue (and content shock) is a very real problem. The SEO industry sees it more than most. The primary concern when building content should be providing value, furthering brand message/values, and engaging with the target audience.

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You shouldn’t be approaching content marketing from a link building/seo perspective it’ll lead to terrible content, I guarantee it JON Ball, CEO PAGE ONE POWER

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Google trends graph THE NUMBERS OF THE GRAPH

THE BARS NEXT TO THE GRAPH

The numbers on the graph reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches on Google over time. They don’t represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100. Each point on the graph is divided by the highest point, or 100. When we don’t have enough data, 0 is shown.

When comparing two or more items, bars appear next to the chart. The bar height represents the average of all points on the graph for that search term. THE DOWNWARD SLOPING LINES A downward trending line means that a search term’s popularity is decreasing. It doesn’t mean that the absolute, or total, number of searches for that term is decreasing.

content marketing is difficult to do well

SEOs often don’t have the required skill-set for high-level content creation. Content marketing requires the support of a host of people with diverse skills, including creative, technical, graphics, industry experts, etc. Without significant investment to ensure the content remains unique, valuable and engaging, content is simply wasted time, money, and resources. Thinking a single SEO can do all this work is daft. Thinking that SEOs naturally have these skills is just as bad. Will some be able to make the transition? Sure. Will all? Definitely not, nor should they. SEOs don’t have to become content marketers.

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This industry has seen such shifts before, several times over in fact: a long line of SEOs start fearing the practice is over and decide it’s time for a new venture. This is one of those moments.

Content creation should involve:

industry experts writers editors designers technical (coders, web dev, app dev, etc.)

SEO ISN’T DYING, NEITHER IS LINK BUILDING. If anything, link building is more important than it was before. Not only does it still possess powerful SEO value, link building can supercharge content marketing efforts through increased visibility and add to marketing flywheels. Content marketing shouldn’t replace link building. The fact is, the two complement each other extraordinarily well.

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without significant investment to ensure the content remains unique, valuable and engaging, content is simply wasted time, money, and resources

Link building can supercharge your content marketing efforts

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Creating amazing content isn’t enough; that content still needs to be marketed. What makes one piece of content more visible than another piece isn’t necessarily the quality, but the promotion. SEOs can help increase the visibility of content, especially if they have a strong link building background.

If you’re going to invest in content, you need to invest in visibility. Having an if-you-build-it-theywill-come attitude in today’s content era is ridiculous, considering the amount of content produced and the very real content shock happening online. Without intelligent marketing valuable opportunities get left on the table.

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SEO Skillset Find similar content and: >>Find people and websites who have shared, mentioned or linked previously.

>>Find people and websites who would be interested in sharing, mentioning or linking.

>>Outreach persuasively to generate links, shares and mentions. >>Help determine future content ideas that have a high chance of success.

Ensure best practices for search are used on-page and on-site, within the content. Leverage previous relationships and industry understanding (assuming they’ve worked in the niche before). Advise paid options as well most SEOs are capable when it comes to both social media and PPC options.

You can still build links even if you don’t have great content

Content marketing and link building are definitely compatible, and can create a marketing flywheel. However, that doesn’t mean content marketing, or even content, is necessary to build links. Due to their size, target audience, culture, resources, or products, content marketing for many sites simply doesn’t make sense. There is no one-size-fitsall online marketing solution. But there are other ways to build good links that make sense. Focus on the human value build links that make sense even if Google didn’t exist. Build links that are for the betterment of mankind, and the web. Build links that clients wouldn’t hesitate to show a friend, colleague, or even competitor.

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Real link building has always been a creative endeavor, requiring added value. And content certainly isn’t the only way to add value to the web.

Without content, building links is possible through:

local links HARO Broken Link building Relevant niche or local directories contests reviews community engagement Link reclamation online mentions Images

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Focus on the human value - build links that you would want even if Google didn’t exist.

Conclusion seo is still critical in online marketing, and seo still requires links

C

Google alone still accounts for nearly 40% of the internet’s traffic. If online visibility is a serious consideration, search traffic should be critical. And that means SEO. But SEO is a quickly evolving profession, constantly updating best practices, tactics, and strategies. Not only are the technologies constantly changing, but Google’s very own Webmaster Guidelines are as well. As SEO gains more and more legitimacy within the marketing realm, and becomes more widely-accepted, it’s only natural that what is and is not SEO, and what should and shouldn’t be an SEOs responsibility, becomes more confusing. The confusion and change within the industry is palpable right now, especially attending industry events and reading industry publications. Content marketing, social media, email marketing - all of these are valid channels for improving online visibility. But they have only an indirect impact on SEO. They should definitely be a consideration, but for SEO, links will always come first.

There are 5 important messages SEOs need to know about the future of links and link building:

1

Links are still the core of Google’s search algorithm

2

Link building and content marketing are fundamentally different

3

Content marketing is difficult to do well. seo’s often don’t have the required skillset for high-level content creation.

4

Link building can supercharge your content marketing efforts

5

Link building doesn’t require content