I’ve been reading several articles recently which wonder if search engine optimisation (SEO) is dead. Really this time – it apparently might be according to one typical example on Smart Insights. For most of us, nothing’s changing that much. However, perhaps the most well-known company in the world for providing support tools to search marketing consultants recently changed its name from SEOmoz to just Moz.com. Something is happening, and – gratifyingly – I think it’s backing up what I’ve been writing about here for a long time.
The thing is, search engine marketing is at least as important as ever. Quite simply, you should be able to get more sales enquiries from Google than you can from a stand at WidgetEx or coverage in What’s new in Widgets magazine. However, what’s changed is that the market (that’s you, dear reader) is realising that the free ride in Google is over. And the people who sold you a cheap ticket to jump the queue can’t do it any more. If there is still a VIP entrance to get to the front, it comes with such a high price tag that it’s only affordable to those who can really make the most of it.
There’ll always be people who’ll convince you they have a secret formula to success. But Google is such a mature product now, run by such clever people, that any shortcuts will turn out to be very short-lived. For the rest of us, our best bet is to learn the rules and just be smarter than the opposition. Create content on your website that’s interesting enough for people to want to read it, and the results will follow.