Last updated on February 28th, 2019
When I first told my friends and family that I was hired by an SEO company, all I got were blank stares and “Huh?’s.”
Sure, the industry has come a long way in a few years and increasingly people are starting to at least recognize the term, but it still remains a relatively strange concept to a lot of folks. Looking back, I’m not even sure that I knew exactly what SEO fully entailed when I got started working at SEO Advantage (not sure that I do now either…).
Part of the difficulty with explaining SEO to people is that it is constantly evolving. Search Engine Land recently talked about how this very issue is playing out these days in an article brutally detailing how SEO is “getting ripped-apart limb from limb, organ-by-organ, and transplanted as living tissue into various branches of marketing, development and IT departments.”
In other words, SEO is still alive and well, but is it even recognizable compared to the olden days when its obscure existence seemed more like a dark art in the then adolescent online marketing business? And what will SEO look in another 10 years? Interesting questions no doubt, and sure to generate interesting discussions as we continue to move forward.
Here are some more of this week’s headlines from around the web that demonstrate the SEO industry’s insatiable appetite for change:
Analytics
- Google just released an easy, one-click filter that excludes bots and spiders from Analytics. Lunametrics takes a look at it in-depth, and talks about the good, the bad, and the ugly in selecting this new feature.
Content Marketing:
- In this fresh report, the vast majority of B2B marketers rated their inbound programs as a success, primarily thanks to…cue the drum roll…content creation.
- You’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king.” Well, as this informative piece shows, merging content and SEO is becoming more technical than ever due to smartphones and tablets, and content managers must now also consider how users are accessing content. Kind of sounds more like an oligarchy than a monarchy…
- Before you keep scrolling at the sight of yet another content article on adding value, take a few moments to check out this insightful post by Positionly blogger Joel Klettke that cuts past all the clichés and right to the heart of what makes content valuable.
- Sprout helps SEO managers weigh the ROI of paying for quality content in this revealing article.
- Last week, Google Webmasters dominated the newsfeed; but this week around, it’s all Adwords. This article discusses why Google is finally putting an end their exact keyword match-type once and for all and what it means for you.
- Then, once you know if and how the change will affect you, check out these actionable tips on what to do about it.
- Also, while we’re in Google news mode, word on the Web is that Google is testing paid local search ads.
Search Engines (the little guys):
- Apparently Yahoo is trying to get taken a bit more seriously with the announcement of their new e-commerce platform aimed at helping businesses start making online profit faster. Watch your back, Google…
- Not to be seen as lazy, Bing search is getting conversational with their latest development. Of course, for Google, who unveiled their conversation search feature last May, this update “is so 3 months ago…”
Social Media
- Check out these cool examples to see how digital marketers are building their corporate brand via Twitter the right way. Here’s a hint: it involves an aircraft ground controller dressed in a shark suit…
User Engagement
- Turning your app into a game is the easiest way to improve user engagement, but…how about let’s not and say that we did. Fortunately, Taige Zhang over at Kissmetrics offers several better tips on how to establish an engagement loop strategy in your content.
