The responsibilities of SEO practitioners have changed to include far more of the digital ecosystem, yet for so many, much of the SEO process remains the same. Currently there are several segments of SEO strategy seen as optional that are actually absolutely imperative to the success of an SEO campaign, as well as to the synergy of other initiatives within the marketing mix. In other words, SEO must adopt and adapt in order to be taken seriously and command the type of influence required to drive change. As it stands, SEO looks to disrupt the symphony (or cacophony) that is a brand’s marketing mix. Let’s discuss a new process that allows SEO to improve the effectiveness of all digital marketing channels – not just inbound.
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Disclaimer: Kanye West is awesome, but you understand how he is perfect to illustrate these points.
Problems with the Old Process
I’ve heard SEO called a lot of ugly things in the past few years. My favorite one lately was delivered to me by the wonderful Brittan Bright after someone passionately declared to her that SEO is the “Calculus of Marketing.” I love it simply because it fits. Just like Calculus, if you’re not looking at the aggregate value of what you’re working on you may do a lot of work for a result that doesn’t seem big in the grand scheme. Just like Calculus, SEO is quite specific and esoteric to those that haven’t studied it. Just like Calculus, you can be completely successful without it altogether. And finally SEO and Calculus both set a barrier of entry that excludes more than it includes.
With all that said, here is the typical SEO process as it has been defined over the years.
Although we often treat it like one, SEO has never been an initiative that existed within a vacuum. It has always required changes be made across a complete digital ecosystem in which there are numerous stakeholders. However, this existing process always asked for change without justification with regard to the purpose of goals of these touchpoints. For example, if my recommendation is to change a title tag there has been no justification as to how that affects the CTR of a page shared on Facebook. Perhaps the social media team has discovered that the target audience clicks through less when a page title doesn’t feature a brand name. That’s a hypothetical situation but let’s go into a little more detail as to why SEO will not continue to work this way.
No Regard for Market Research
Just as the diagram above suggests, most SEOs jump right into keywords, analytics and competitive analysis of those keywords. Wrong move; search is about fulfilling needs. Before looking at a single keyword there needs to be a deep understanding of business objectives and the market. Standard kickoff questions often look like this:
- What analytics package do you use?
- Are there any other domains or sites that you own?
- What SEO efforts have been done in the past?
- List your top 3 competitors.
- Do you have social media accounts?
- What keywords are you looking to rank for?
The biggest problem with this is we often take these inputs at face value. That is to say, very often the brands that the client believes they are competing with offline are not the sites they are competing with for keyword coverage in the SERPs. Also the keywords a client may think they should rank for are not the keywords that are going to help them meet their actual goals.
To simplify it, many SEO teams send clients kickoff questions to get a sense of the keywords they should target and then hop right into the keyword tool. Pages are optimized. Keywords are allocated to pages. Links are built. Content is pushed into social. Performance is measured to identify subsequent opportunities. Obviously it oftentimes goes far more in-depth for many, but this is basically the widely accepted process.
One of my biggest issues as a consumer of Search that understands SEO is if the results I click appear to be overly optimized I become quite leery of the content. This is simply because in my experience many copywriters (SEO or otherwise) often don’t know what they are talking about. Recalling dusty memories of early in my own SEO career when I wrote copy, in most cases I was just a human article spinner. I definitely read a few wiki articles and the top results for a given keyword and just reworded what other people said. I shared all that to say: Becoming an expert in the niche that you are optimizing for is an extremely underrated step in the SEO process. For this reason, if I were to hire an agency, I would prefer one with extensive prior experience or specialty in my vertical. All my in-house SEOs – make some noise!
Little Regard for the Audience
Truthfully, the real differentiation between clients happens in a latter set of questions. Unfortunately, the following doesn’t get asked enough in the standard SEO kick-off:
- What is the purpose of your site?
- What are you trying to get users to do once they arrive?
- Who is your target audience?
These are typically questions that Conversion Rate Optimization teams focus on rather than SEO teams. For shame SEOs, for shame!
We all want traffic and we all want to rank #1 for juicy head terms, but these things are not goals. By themselves these are not KPIs that make clients successful. Simply put, if you rank highly for keywords but aren’t fulfilling the needs of people searching for them, you just put a ton of effort into exactly the wrong thing. It’s not about the keywords; it’s about the people searching for them.
Consider this offline example of Target using data on customers to identify when they’ve become pregnant to learn when to ramp up efforts to turn mothers-to-be into long-term big spenders at the wholesale department store. You can do this far more effectively with Search if you’re mindful of your audience and their needs. This measurement of intent plus interests plus demographics plus network is the Holy Grail of Marketing. With that in mind it becomes quite clear what Google’s ulterior motives are with Plus and the consolidation of privacy policies.
Recently, I had a short conversation with AJ Kohn via Twitter about personas and how client research can prove useless. I agree somewhat because clients that have done audience research beforehand may have only looked at offline factors. To that point, it is important that we validate or disprove those insights with our own research rather than taking what the client says at face value. Our goal is to optimize, not paint by numbers.
SEO Disrupts Most Digital Strategies
As much as I hate to say it, the reality of SEO is that it disrupts much of digital planning even when it’s included from the onset.
Most other digital capabilities start from the target audience before they do anything. User Experience has user stories, personas and user flows. Strategy teams build personas and need states by examining demographics and psychographics in efforts to really try and understand what does and will influence and fulfill the target audience.
Whichever of these teams develops these audience insights then feeds them to other teams so that efforts are glued together by the target consumer. Paid channels such as Facebook Ads, Display Advertising and Paid Search benefit from this significantly in their ability to target demographically. Media teams examine the available audience by vendor and allocate dollars based on where the delivery will be most effective.
Traditionally, Organic Search ignores this step entirely and declares “HEY! I’M HERE NOW WE’RE DOING THIS MY WAY!” This is partially why SEO gets shunned by brands when they are determining where to distribute their efforts within the marketing mix. SEO is certainly effective, but it has always been a maverick that didn’t want to play by the rules. There is little meritocracy because if channels were chosen only by ROI – Display Advertising would have died 10 years ago. Evidently, they are not chosen this way so for SEO to get buy-in it needs to be team player.
Many Link Building Initiatives Exist in a Vacuum
Regardless of the hundreds of strategies, tactics and tools that are being born for link building daily, every successful link building campaign boils down to making news and/or making friends. As SEOs, we try to strong arm how and where brands will do this. Making news and building relationships are functions of many different groups and initiatives within a business from top to bottom. How is it that we as SEOs believe our best initiatives can exist outside of the things the brand itself contributes to?
Brands launch PR campaigns, social media efforts, events, so on and a variety of other social strategies to facilitate the awareness of the news they create. How is link building any different? The fact of the matter is, it isn’t. Therefore it should be attacked from, and included with, the same standpoint as the rest of a brand’s social strategies for both scale and effectiveness. Simply put, link building is better when the entire muscle of a brand is leveraged.
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To do effective SEO now, at the very least, you have to be a digital strategist, social media marketer, a content strategist, conversion rate optimizer, and a PR specialist. I’m skipping anything coding related because although I believe you should be able to build a website you don’t necessarily have to. SEOs are already inherently each of these things, however in most businesses these are all different capabilities that sit in different groups, or offices or cities. Who are we to upset an entire digital ecosystem and undermine so many people?
Well I work with some awesome digital strategists, content strategists, creatives, etc. and while they tend to have impressive grasps of web trends, audiences and their specific capabilities they typically don’t know how to leverage cross-channel campaigns as specifically as SEOs or Inbound Marketers. It is now the role of Inbound Marketers to drive strategies that looks far more like this (sorry guys, Kanye had to go – busy schedule):
I wish very much that I could be there for your “aha!” moment right now as no doubt you recognize many of these steps and can guess where other tasks will fall. Now let’s break it down completely – forgive me for anything that is obvious.
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Opportunity Discovery – Opportunity Discovery is a cyclical process of understanding brand opportunity with regard to business goals, target audience, industry specifications and past performance. It’s cyclical in that insights from one step often refine insights from another step in the process.
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Business Objectives – Everything must be done within the context of the goals of the brand. This requires a deep understanding of where the brand has been and where it’s going. In many cases businesses large and small may not understand how to translate their goals and therefore it is the job of the Inbound Marketer to do so.
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Market Research – The reason why SEO gets such a bad rap for polluting the web is that so many people simply do not build content that is worthwhile or has utility for the market. At this point, the entire team must take a deep dive into the industry and be able to have more than cursory conversations on the subject matter. For those that believe this to be a largely arduous task I suggest specializing in verticals of interest.
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Audience Research –The Facebook Ads tool is the Adwords Keyword Tool of personas. The Doubleclick Ad Planner is also good for understanding the demographics of existing sites. If available, Facebook Insights gives demographic data on the existing users visiting the site as well. The output of this is a set of user segments and stories or – personas.
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Analytics Mining – As always, you should mine existing analytics data to understand who is visiting. Take deep dives into keyword performance, especially in concert with any internal Search data, to identify opportunities. All in all, this is no different than normal unless the client has already been tracking their audience at which point you can see if who they are trying to attract is actually coming or not.
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Social Listening – Using a core set of keywords, collect data on the conversation around those keywords. Keep track of patterns and identify user segments, demographics and need states of the people partaking in that social conversation. You’ll also want to keep track of how these users are using the keywords as this will allow you to eliminate ambiguity in keyword decisions and help to create messaging that resonates with the audience during the customer decision journey.
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Quantitative Analysis – Services such as ComScore, Quantcast, Forrester Research, etc. track a multitude of data points on users in various verticals by demographic. Leveraging these reports gives you deeper insight into what types of users visit your competitors and exist within the market.
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Keyword Research – Keyword Research must be completed with regard to the audience not just a determination of whether the keyword is viable from a search volume standpoint, but whether the keyword intent matches the business goals. Keywords should then be correlated with target personas and need states to help drive the build of content that is optimized for people first and search engines second.
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Site Audit – Under the New SEO Process the Site Audit becomes decidedly more comprehensive, as it covers UX issues that would normally fall into a CRO Audit. Specifically, the audit talks about things impeding the conversions due to incongruence with the target audience in addition to the standard SEO technical issues that it covers.
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Asset Inventory – A standard practice SEOs are already doing wherein there is an understanding of what a brand controls and is willing to leverage to the benefit of the campaign.
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Content Audit – What content inside our outside of the site can be leveraged?
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Brand Relationships – What other companies, businesses, groups and events are the brand involved with?
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Offline Assets – What tools, venues, prizes, etc. are at the brands disposal?
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Competitive Analysis – As always, competitive analysis is a collection of high-level audits of competitors across the vertical. The difference is that since site audits are completed with regard to the audience, the competitive analysis must also include a determination of how other brands are capturing that audience.
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Measurement Planning –A standard practice amongst analytics teams the Measurement Plan is the Statement of Intent and determination of Key Performance Indicators with regard to the business goals and audience. Avinash Kaushik covers measurement planning in his Digital Marketing and Measurement Model post. (Hat tip: @scotttdodge)
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Content Strategy & Development – Content Strategy and Development are big picture initiatives with a variety of stakeholders, so it often carries with it the most pushback. Creative teams just want to take big swings for big ideas and brand managers just want to advertise. To be effective we have to show how our content ideas will connect with the brand’s target audience and make sure content is designed to our specification.
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Content Ideation –With all this social data we have collected and correlated to keywords we can now come with ideas for content with portions of the target audience built-in. Do so.
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Wireframes – are an early deliverable in the design phase of a website wherein we can annotate considerations for SEO and CRO to ensure that Creative teams design with both in mind. Be very involved in this phase.
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Content Build – Once all your points are baked in, it’s time to let the Creatives do what they do. If they come back with creative is not congruent with what is agreed upon in an earlier phase, then you now have data to back up your position with the client.
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Technical Development –Technical SEO is the price of admission and cannot be ignored, so this where we make sure that the structure of the house is sound.
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Technical Build –At this point, we’ve done all we can do now we just wait to see what the tech teams come back with. We’ve specified everything in wireframes and hopefully have had some say in the build of the CMS, but the tech team is going to do what they know. We’re just going to have to wait to see what they come back with unless they are open to our input during the actual build.
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Implementation Audit – We’ll always have to double-check the work of a technical team and this is the spreadsheet in which we do it. An implementation audit briefly recounts the issues outlined in the site audit and wireframes and says whether or not they were successfully implemented. This is the easiest way to show that the bottlenecks are not so much with the SEO team but the tech team – as they oftentimes are.
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Social Strategy – Typically link building is an initiative that exists by itself, in the new SEO process link building is an initiative that must be completed as part of a broader scope. While it is clear that low quality tactics like blog commenting continue to work, even those are far more effective coupled with a social push across PR and social media. Leveraged strategically, you are launching a piece of content with a cross-channel marketing push and therefore the link velocity will appear more natural to search engines and the return on the social strategy is likely to be higher. While link building has always been about casting the widest net, social strategy is about casting the rightest net the widest. I just made up a word. Kanye approves.
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Link Strategy – Link building for most businesses, particularly small businesses, is not an “if you build it, they will come” situation. Therefore it is not enough to just launch content and hope for the best, we must continue to supplement content launches with smaller complementary content launches, outreach and manual submission link building. This is where this strategy is defined with its own measurement plan. Yes, I’m saying we should report both our prospects and the links we close. If you’re proud of your work that shouldn’t be a problem. Link Building is just like a PR campaign in that there is no guarantee of placements and should be explained as such.
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PR – News is better than advertising, so a key part of social strategy is doing things that make news. Users spend a large part of their day reading, sharing and linking to news so make it a large part of the social strategy to make sure that content is newsworthy and get it to the news outlets that your audience frequents.
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Contests – Contests are an excellent way to get a one-to-many return on incentives. Rather than performing outreach and directly offering them a free sample or (gasp) money request that they enter a contest wherein their entry is a blog post about the brand’s topic that contains a link. Also add a layer of gameplay to the contest by determining the winner through the number of times their post is shared in social media. Unbounce had a similar blogging contest in 2011 but link building wasn’t the goal of the campaign so they had all the posts on their own site.
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Events – Throwing a party, conference or trade show is another one-to-many return for link building. Simply host an event and invite influencers in the brand’s audience where the stipulation for attendance is that people must blog about it and link back to you.
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Social Media – is a two way street. Not only is it a place for discovery but also a place for conversation. Use that conversation to find the influencers in the space with regard to the target audience and business goals. Build social media profiles to be authoritative and engaging to easily get your content shared and also convert sharers into linkers. Regardless of where Google is headed, the social graph will never completely replace the link graph.
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Social Implementation – is the phase when you let it all rip for the best synergy.
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Measurement – is not just about whether or not we hit the goals. It’s the insights into why that makes measurement the most valuable step in Online Marketing. Measuring with regard to the audience helps with understanding the why even further than speaking in concrete abstracts such as bounce rate of a keyword. After all the ability to tangibly measure is why digital marketing is far more effective than traditional.
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Reporting – is tailored specifically to the goals of the client. There’s no one-size-fit-all report. For example, a client business goal may be to get user segment A to watch a video and therefore, the primary metrics reported should be the Time On Site and persona type versus traffic and keyword. Rankings are only important with regard to how they’ve affected traffic. Everything should be focused on who (persona A) and why (because the message is unclear) rather than what (“blue widgets for sale ranked #5”).
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Link Reporting – Under the umbrella of social strategy there is a lot to be said about what has been done to increase visibility. Aggregate rankings should be reported with regard to link building efforts to show the direct correlation between the two. Furthermore, link prospects and closes should also be reported with close rates to show clients what is being done on their behalf. This is obviously a subject of contention within the community, but if the links you build are so suspect that you are afraid to show them to the people you’re building them for – you need a different approach.
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Optimization – I had an art teacher once that always used to say “No work of art is ever finished, we just give up.” The art and science of SEO is never complete and there is always an opportunity to do more.
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Conversion Rate Optimization – While CRO is far more baked into this strategy it still likely to take its own seat at the table. That is to say that while SEOs may also be CROs they may be too close to the project to properly optimize. This is much the same way that the mixing engineer of a song is not supposed to also be the mastering engineer. At this point, a separate CRO Team should run A/B Tests, Usability Tests and so on and report back.
- Continued SEO – Do it all over again!
A Better Web
Not to go all “land of milk and honey” on you guys, but the consumer is the biggest winner here. Naturally businesses benefit immensely as well, but the more we optimize with people in mind the more likely their needs will be fulfilled and consequently, the more likely we are to get those people to convert. Including people throughout the process and making the core goal to encourage them to do something ultimately makes the web a better place because everything we create will have a distinct purpose for the user and never solely for search engines. This is not to say we are circumventing the technical tenets of SEO as they are the price of admission.
Brand Buy-In
SEO has always been an industry that explains itself using empirical data. Starting from the audience, a place that businesses can understand, it is far easier to get buy-in for SEO initiatives. So when we make recommendations and explain the impact of our efforts on a target audience that has been determined as a focus of all initiatives, it’s easier to obtain brand buy-in than when we’re just talking about keywords and traffic.
Compare the following statement:
“We want to build links targeting websites with a PageRank of 3 or higher. We’ll reach out to a variety of prospects and target anchor text for keyword opportunities identified by our extensive keyword research in order to gain rankings for your brand.”
with:
“We’d like to launch a contest targeting Influential Moms with over 5000 followers on Twitter. To enter they’d write blog posts that link back to our properties in order to drive traffic for our target Listener Moms that are using Search to buy more healthy cereal.”
Both ideas would potentially accomplish the same goals however the former will require far more explanation for the client and ultimately more effort on the part of the SEO team. Whereas the latter explains a link building campaign in terms of the brand’s target audience and business goals then further lays out a campaign wherein the brand commits cross-channel resources that the SEO team can leverage. Understanding the business objectives and the audience make it easier to develop and deliver strategies that client can easily get behind.
Scalability
Getting on the same page with the other capabilities allows SEO efforts to be scaled considerably for brands large and small. This is how we regularly achieve those otherwise rare instances of synergy between capabilities when the PR team is facilitating Link Building, the Content Strategy teams and Creative teams are creating link bait and SEO is both driving and supplementing those efforts. That is the perfect storm where we spend far more time chiseling our perfect sculptures rather than polishing poop and our efforts have far more impact with less effort.
Cross-Channel Optimization
Learnings and wins in SEO can influence other channels. Imagine we discover through social listening, keyword research and/or measurement are a large number of the client’s target audience is looking for “red kanye west t-shirts” but the client only sells every color but red. We now have a tight business case as to why that client should start manufacturing the t-shirt in red. Conversely, what if we find out that people love the shirt but bounce from the landing page because they hate the user experience of the site? There is any number of scenarios that when explained purely from the context of search brands are far less likely to make a move. However when you explain these insights through the context of personas and market research you have a tighter case that can affect change across all channels and capabilities.
[not provided]…so what?
Google has positioned itself to take away all of our organic keyword referral data and let’s be honest they ultimately will take it all. Plus, and the consolidation of privacy policies to allow cross-product data access, is Google’s way of positioning itself to attain the Holy Grail of Marketing. However, measuring through our audience essentially allows us a new way to determine the effectiveness of a campaign. We know the keywords we are targeting for a given page and we can see rankings and analytics of a given landing page by channel to determine whether or not Search is driving traffic. The true measure of success was never the rankings, nor the traffic but how well the page a given page converted for our visitors. If we track conversions based on audience that is the only metric that is truly worth optimizing against. The holistic performance of a channel is what brands are concerned with, not necessarily the performance of a given keyword.
The following are a list of posts, pages, tools and presentations to help get a deeper understanding of personas and need states and how to apply them to various Inbound Marketing efforts.
Personas
- 10 Steps to Personas [INFOGRAPHIC]
- Develop Personas
- Personas: Setting the Stage for Building Usable Information Sites
- Using Personas to Boost Online Marketing and SEO [SLIDESHARE]
- Understanding Your Audience Using Social Media [MOZINAR]
Need States
- AIDA: Attention-Interest-Design-Action
- Landing Pages and the Decision Making Process
- McKinsey Customer Decision Journey [VIDEO]
- Customers Go On a Journey, Escaping the Funnel
Useful Social Tools
- SocialMention
- Amplicate
- Topsy
- Trendistic
- MentionMapp
- Twtrland
- FollowerWonk
- Listorious
- KnowEm.com
- Radian6 - PAID
- Lithium - PAID
Quantitative Analysis Providers (PAID)
![10 Steps to Personas [INFOGRAPHIC]](https://www.hceye.org/downloads/Persona-Lene.jpg){kind=link}
During the #seochat I did on the SEO Process there were some questions of whether this applies to small businesses or not, citing that small businesses only care about the #1 spot and they “just want rank.” Yes, understanding what makes an audience tick applies to all businesses. Again, the ability to quantify the interests and intent of your audience and track a brand’s ability to persuade is the advantage of digital marketing of any kind. As I said on Twitter, #1 is not a goal, but a means to an end. #1 gets users to the door; it doesn’t keep them in the house.
Finally, the new SEO process is a call for us to speak the language of other capabilities and deliver strategies that can plug and play with what brands truly understand. The new SEO process is not about chasing the algorithm; it’s about fulfilling the needs of the people the algorithm serves. It’s about creating and discovering the content that resonates with the people that a business is trying to reach and then also covering the technical bases required to get results. It’s about understanding the connections between keywords in the mind of your target audience in order to optimize for them effectively. And most importantly, it’s about having SEO become the driver of the marketing mix rather than the outcast. No doubt SEO will remain the esoteric “Calculus of Marketing” but it’s time to prove that we can actually do the math so to speak.
So fellow marketers—what’s it gonna be? Keep it classy or keep it Kanye?
Ok, now for a bit of disagreement.
"To do effective SEO now, at the very least, you have to be a digital strategist, social media marketer, a content strategist, conversion rate optimizer, and a PR specialist. "
Sorry, but I strongly disagree with this statement. At the heart of this debate is "What is SEO". If we limit ourselves to the true definition, it is nothing more than the promotion of content in the search engines. As SEOs, it is not our responsibility to get conversions for our clients, to improve their reputation, to build successful companies, or make pretty websites. Our goal is simple - increase the volume of qualified visitors from search engines to your site. Nearly all of this can be accomplished without touching a client website at all, just through the acquistion of good links.
However, as an SEO, it is certainly in your best interest to get other ducks in order as well. Being a good social media marketer can make the job of getting links easier. Being a good content strategies can make getting links easier as well. Knowing CRO can increase the income of your client who, in turn, can reinvest in your offerings.
What you are discussing here, Mike, is not specifically "The New SEO Process", but rather a real world process to maximize success through SEO. I think this clarification is absolutely necessary.
I think your arguement is more about semantics and less about the substance of Mike's piece. If we decide that SEO is merely a narrow channel that means nothing but rankings in search engines (and not even earning the click or improving the quality of that traffic, nor all the input that go into the psychology of those visitors), then you're right and Mike's post is about something else entirely - maybe "marketing."
But I don't see how, long term, SEOs doing the purest of pure semantic SEO can justify not worrying about and attempting to "optimize" all these other inputs. Google's certainly trying to make them all a part of the rankings mix, and businesses, as Mike points out so astutely, don't care about rankings (with a few exceptions), they care about customers, revenue, ROI and the appearance/branding that a channel carries (which, as Mike notes again, is one of the reasons SEO has traditionally been under-invested).
Thanks for your response Rand. There is a lot to chew on here, so I will try and break it down piece by piece:
1. "Google's certainly trying to make them all a part of the rankings mix". I agree with this, but Mike openly disregards one of the key components of that mix, code. I am hard pressed to believe that being a "PR specialist" is necessary "to do effective SEO" but knowing code is not. In my opinion, neither of these are necessary. They are valuable, but not necessary. More importantly, each one of those roles (social media marketer, digital strategist, content strategist, etc.) are specialties in and of themselves that, to perform expertly, require as much commitment as it does to become an expert developer or link builder. In my opinion, as an SEO, it is our sole responsibility to know how those roles impact SEO, and how to bring them to the table effectively, not necessarily to be these ourselves. Perhaps in this particular statement, my concern is the belief that "you" have to be these, rather than that these should be a part of a successful SEO campaign.
2. "they (businesses) care about customers, revenue, ROI and the appearance/branding that a channel carries". I agree with this completely, and I am sorry if my previous post was not as specific as it should have been. Our goal as SEO is to bring qualified traffic from the search engines to the site. I think about it this way - I am a pitching coach for a professional baseball team. It is my job to make an incredible pitching staff. Now, it is the owner's goal to win baseball games. It is not my job to win games. I am a part of that process. Now, my pitchers will put up better numbers if there is a good defense and the catcher knows how to make good calls, and my team will do better if we put up more runs, but those are all anciliary to my primary responsibility.
Let me ask you this - Google is certainly looking into user engagement metrics now, which can be dependent upon a large number of variables, including but not limited to product quality, real world marketing (TV, billboards, etc), brick-and-mortar interactions (ie: can I get this information in person or do I have to do it online), etc. Should we lump these in as well as part of an SEO's role? At some point, we become irrelevant because we are attempting to massage the edges of the algorithm rather than perfect the 80% that is still simply links, code and content.
Anyway, I very much enjoy this conversation - a lot to think about :-)
BTW, you going to be at SMX West?
I believe that there are a mix of valid points on all sides here. Like Rand mentioned, I think a disagreement about this 'new SEO process' is more about semantics. When I read this article I also wanted to critique the usage of the phrase 'new SEO process', as if to claim that the 'old' process is ineffective or defunct. I don't believe that would have been Mike's intention, so I didn't have any real issue with the post and 'Liked' it right away. I saw this more as the 'Mature SEO process', but again, this is just about semantics.
To Russ' point, the pure SEO methods can still certainly be effective and bring a positive return to you and your client/employer. Maybe for today the Mature SEO process can be seen as a more beneficial method of doing SEO. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Google keeps changing the rules of the game and we find that our hands our forced to practice this new/mature SEO process, or be out of the job.
Fair points. My particular concern with Mike's statements are that there is a need for SEOs to become experts or specialists in things that aren't SEO. I believe we have 1 goal - get our clients to rank for qualified keywords. We should have our eyes open to every possible tactic and channel that influences that outcome, but that does not mean we need to master those external channels or tactics. Merely, we need to recognize them and be able to integrate them when necessary.
I think it's a gross mischaracterization of both processes to dismiss such differences as merely semantics.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that one model, metaphorically, states that to be a good brain surgeon you need to know and use the skills of the rest of the surgical team.
By comparison, the other model states that, to be a good brain surgeon, you need to also be a nurse, pharmacist, anesthesiologist, and cardiologist.
That to me seems like a lot more than just semantics
I thought about giving you a thumbs down on this Rand. Not because I didn't like the comment, but because you never, ever, get a thumbs down, and I want you to be able to apreciate all those thumbs up.
Just one thought... isn't it all about semantics in "SEO" discussions?
"haha...pardon me, I had to laugh at that" -Jay Z on Kanye West's "Diamonds are Forever (remix)"
Thank you for your comment. I welcome all opposing views.
5000 words later it's pretty obvious that I couldn't disagree more with this line of thinking. If we're going to ride the hyperbole train, as you have, basically you're opening the door to say "SEO is fine the way it is as long as I get the client traffic -- any traffic." To say you're getting qualified traffic without understanding the audience, that must be a magic button in the Adwords Keyword Tool I'm not familiar with.
Surely, you can increase visibility of a web site without doing most of what I've described but the quality of that traffic will largely be hit or miss. Surely, if you get a client a bunch of traffic and nothing happens they will be unhappy. So to say that it's OK to do this is in 2012 is essentially just irresponsible and partially why our industry gets such a bad rap.
To say that it's only our job to get traffic is short-sighted. Unless a client is doing SEO as a branding exercise traffic is not the end goal. The end goal is to convert in some way. So when a client tells us their goals and we just get them traffic but there little to no conversions, we have not done our jobs.
Furthermore as social becomes more of a factor vis a vis Google Plus it will be much more about the creation of content that is shareworthy. Russ can you teach us how to do that at scale without social media and content strategy?
Finally, the true definition of SEO continues to evolve and it sounds to me like you're trying to maintain the status quo. My point is that "get other ducks in order as well" is not only in your best interest at this point -- it's mandatory especially for competitive niches and especially for large brands.
-Mike
Hi Mike,
I in no way intended to say that our goal is to just get traffic. It is to get qualified traffic via the search engines, the type that is capable of converting. If you screw up that conversion, not my fault. I believe the words "our goal is to increase qualified visitors from search engines" spelled that out clearly, but perhaps not.
Google+ is an interesting addition, which is why Virante now has one of the leading Google+ experts (search google plus for google+ tips and you'll see Mark Traphagen right at the top). It is important to point out that no one has correlated Google+ URL activity with organic rankings of non-logged in users (ie: ~90% of Google traffic), but, when that day comes, we will as a company incorporate it into our strategies for the sole purpose of improving rankings. Of course, we do offer Social Media consulting, but we do not pretend to do it under the guise of "SEO". Social Media is a valuable channel unto itself.
PS: I assure you that "get other ducks in order as well" is not mandatory for competitive niches. Ask your friends, my reputation is all over your SERPs.
While I don't completely agree with Russ's definition of what SEO is, I think you are diminishing his point to burnish your own. What Russ is talking about is using search to drive qualified traffic to a client's site, and I think you guys are characterizing it as a cynical rankings or traffic grab that may or may not align with the client's goals.
It's certainly valid and reasonable to suggest that SEOs who try to take on the roles and skillsets in Mike's new model are likely spreading themselves too thin, and not necessarily focusing on what's most important.
You can argue what the definition of SEO is until you're blue in the face, but in the words of the greatest coach in the NFL, it is what it is. And what it isn't is SMO, PR, or CRO. Yes you need some ability in those roles to supplement your SEO efforts, but they aren't as mandatory as Mike suggests, especially for competitive niches and large brands, because there is no way those site owners will let an SEO come close to touching all those parts of their websites.
I like your response, phantom. It is our job as SEOs to know how various activities influence search results, and then see to it those activities take place. We do not need to be the ones who implement them. We certainly do not need to know the whole realm of those activies (ie: PR specialist) to know the characteristics of that activity that impact search.
A taxi driver doesn't need to know how the gas, oil, antifreeze and steering fluid are made. All he needs to know is they are required for him to drive. He doesn't even need to know how to put them in himself.
To pitch-in to this debate;
1) There is the traditional SEO Purist role, the SEO that the world has come to know over the years (some love them, some despise them) whose sole purpose (through on-page & off-page SEO) is to bring-in Relevant Visitors through Natural Search, with Relevant being key.
Many people are happy to go down this very specialist path, it's an important one and this role is still required, it remains challenging and done well, rewarding.
2) Where Evolution is happennng, is with Inbound Marketing. For somebody who has been an SEO Purist for a while and is looking at broadening their career, there is this Inbound Marketing option, which does include Targeted Audience Research, Distribution, Content Creation & Publication, Online PR, Social Engagement & Sharing... and so on. This is a role that has evolved from SEO, it still includes SEO, though so much more at the same time.
So two different roles, one very niche and specialist, one incorporating that specialism with a wider mix of inbound marketing.
Search has evolved, SEO and only SEO is now a risky strategy, it still needs to be done, though the wider mix of Inbound Marketing and Search beyond just SEO is vital for many businesses (not all yet, granted, though it's slowly moving that way).
That's my view anyway, I hope I explained it as I intended to :-)
It's a fine line, but (personally) I lean more towards your view, Russ.
For example - you own a small ecom store selling dog sweaters and you hire me to do your SEO.
Four months later, I have you at #1 for "dog sweaters".
If the visitors from that keyword don't convert - it isn't an SEO problem. Either your design doesn't convey trust (design issue), or your pricing is way too high (overall business/pricing strat issue), or your checkout process is confusing (ux issue) or your site loads super-slow (server isssue if the code is fine) ... one of a million other things.
One thing that's *not* wrong, though, (strictly speaking) is your SEO. You rank #1 in Google for the most base level head term that is closely relevant to your business. You are optimized for search engine placement and visibility in (relatively speaking) high volume, business-relevant area.
Now - that said, it should still be my concern because I want to retain your business. And I (likely) won't do that just on rankings and traffic. You still need to make money.
But - if being your SEO means I'm also your...
Then my rate's going up.
Bottom line - it's all about expectations.
If you're hired to increase revenue - be prepared to be held to a revenue increase. If you're hired explicitly to boost rankings and traffic - feel free to leave your CRO hat on the shelf if you'd like.
Defining your KPIs should be treated like voting - do it early and often.
Exactly. In many ways I feel like these kinds of discussions are demeaning towards SEO. They scoff at the idea that there is something intrinsically, undeniably valuable about ranking #1 for a competitive, highly trafficked, commercial term.
It is not my purpose to demean SEO. It's my purpose to acknowledge its maturation. Here's pretty much where I'm at with it. Beyond that let's just agree to disagree.
-Mike
I don't know that I call it demeaning, more that I think we keep trying to stretch the meaning of SEO into all the different areas where there is overlap. With good intent - we know what the hell we're doing and the more things we can influence, the better things tend to go.
But, I still think it's worth explaining to a client that CRO (as an example) is an entirely seperate discipline and that I can clue you into some of the basic stuff, but to get deep in the weeds you probably want to call a Tim Ash.
In order to get the best results possible, integration with other channels/approaches (like social, CRO, and PR) is key. However - I don't agree with acting like they're not seperate disciplines and that doing SEO = doing social = doing CRO = doing PR. (Not saying that's Mike's intent here - just a general statement.)
It would be like me being a personal trainer. I make you a workout routine and run your ass off in the gym three times a week. But every day, you have Burger King for 2 of your meals. If you gain weight - it doesn't mean my weight training routine was no good. It means you ate like an idiot and undermined my work in putting that gym routine together.
Now - in my example, I should tell you "Hey - stop eating like an idiot". But it's not my job to write out meal plans for you and take you to the grocery store and hold your hand while you food shop and also be your dietitian (unless you hired me to do both).
If I did - you'd be in better shape and I would look like I did a better job, but I'd still be stepping way out of the bounds of my actual responsibilities. At that point I'm more of a Wellness Coach.
What Mike's talking about is just good marketing. I think it's just about the way I would approach any SEO gig in the ideal world. But - I don't go as far as to say that if you're not doing this, then you're not doing SEO (or doing bad SEO, or lesser SEO, or whatever).
I'm still sticking with the expectations idea. Strictly speaking - you can do SEO in a vaccuum. But, that doesn't mean you should.
Ideally it's done in conjunction with all these other things. But doing it in a vaccuum doesn't mean it stops being SEO.
...yay semantics!
Oooh, yeah, Ian. I read the original article until I glazed over, then scrolled for something that resonated.
Your comment is spot-on. It is exactly THAT kind of discussion that defines everything: what are the expectations?
Thumbs up for the observations Russ, but I kind of have to disagree with you a little here...
"If we limit ourselves to the true definition, it is nothing more than the promotion of content in the search engines."
Keyword, "if." The way I see it, we can no longer limit ourselves as SEO's to a the simple definition that defined this industry. It isn't possible. As SEO's we must continue to provide the value our clients or employer expect through evolving the process and workflow of how we optimize websites for their benefit. This includes understanding and having the ability to perform an expanded set of job requirements or duties.
"Our goal is simple - increase the volume of qualified visitors from search engines to your site."
Indeed our goal is simple, but how do you get these "qualified visitors" without understanding what it is they want and why they have landed on your website? Companies relying on traffic to build their brand or revenue need conversions to grow. In order to convert, you must target the appropriate demographic. Once you target the right keywords and demographic you must be able to convert that traffic into sales or leads.
Limiting your ability as an SEO to link building and on-page optmization doesn't provide any sort of value to the client or employer anymore. If you aren't providing value, then what good are you to those that are footing the bills? Nothing really.
Maybe by educating the client in the first place by explaining what is involved and what you have to offer would have eleviated much of this misunderstanding. That misunderstanding being SEO is a simple process of ONLY increasing traffic. Far too long has the simple definition of SEO hindered our industry.
"What you are discussing here, Mike, is not specifically "The New SEO Process", but rather a real world process to maximize success through SEO."
While I completely see your point here, I believe in the end that you're statement comparison is basically saying the same thing. SEO is a process and always has been. With any evolution or revolution, the processes of how we do things changes.
Seach engine optimization is still a young industry that has rapidly developed year to year. It has yet to be exclusively defined by one definition, nor should it be.
Thanks for your well thought out response. Here are some quick observations...
1. You make a quick turn of words that I can't let you get away with :-) You turn from "search engine optimization" to "optimize websites for their benefit". There is a huge difference between these. SEO is about getting qualified traffic to their site via search. Period. Anything beyond that is no longer SEO. It might be CRO, or SMO, or CPC or SEM, but it isn't SEO anymore. It can make an SEO campaign more lucrative, but it is not SEO.
2. Companies relying on traffic to build their brand or revenue need conversions to grow. I agree with this completely. Keyword targeting is definitely an important part. Read the article again where Mike tells you that this is the wrong step to start with. First, you need to make sure they have social media accounts. (cough *bullshit* cough). Determining keywords and getting you ranked - yeah, that is what SEOs do.
3. Limiting your ability as an SEO to link building and on-page optmization doesn't provide any sort of value to the client or employer anymore... While I am not advocating this, I do take issue with it. This is called specialization. It is essential. The best link building specialists will run laps around myself, Mike, Rand, and any poster on this forum. More importantly, what I am advocating here are SEO specialists. People who know what matters and how to pull those items together, which does not require that you know how to be a PR specialist, merely that you know how to modify an otherwise good PR campaign to gain SEO benefits.
4. Search engine optimization is search engine optimization. Sorry if you or the other folks here disagree. As an SEO, I care about 1 thing. What are the factors that influence rankings and in what ways? Everything after that is simple, I merely have to find people who can manipulate those factors. I don't have the be the one doing it.
At the advent of one of our sites in 2006 it was built using an internal content management system using 3 columns, one column was dedicated to product search tool.
The intention of the Marketing Director [one the most smartest guys I have met without knowing much about website design but came from a direct marketing background] was the primary goal of the site to get the visitor to use the 'search function for their item of purchase'.
To this date approx' £100,000 a month is spend per month on adwords with 89% conversion to that goal of using the search tool.
The MD is immensly data driven and tracks and monitors everything.
When an SEO guy was bought in his role is clear:
"Get organic traffic to the site"
The SEO guy went away and just built links back to the site working in conjunction with the site to place great content as blog/article/news, etc that assists in targeting the longer tail but ultimately off site backlinking without the need to touch the site for most of the competitive keywords. The site still maintains 89% for the search tool from organic.
This is a brand that has been in the UK for 40 years+. They do not need an SEO guy like me to tell them how to make their business work if they did I would be the Marketing Director and not the SEO guy.
In conclusion a Spade is a Spade
There are different ways to look at what constitutes being a SEO. If you are an in-house SEO of a small firm, you could literally be doing everything that could be remotely related to SEO. Frankly, I would prefer to call that person an Inbound Specialist but thats just me. In this little company, that "SEO" cannot expect just to do on-page and off-page and assume he/she will be going good for a long period.On the other hand, if you work for a huge company, there could be several SEOs focusing purely on 'SEO', some may be some even having a narrower focus like just link building.Either way, I think Ian nailed it when he said "it's all about expections". While SEO still is in infancy and evolving fast its extremely important to be completely clear on what is expected out of you as an SEO - whether you do consultancy or are in-house.
“We’d like to launch a contest targeting Influential Moms with over 5000 followers on Twitter. To enter they’d write blog posts that link back to our properties in order to drive traffic for our target Listener Moms that are using Search to buy more healthy cereal.”
This example exemplifies much of the article for me - it's focused on real people, not "PR3 targets." It's hard to fail when you reorient your thought process in that manner. Our knowledge of how SEO works should be supplementing our activities, rather than blindly driving them.
I had that 'copied' as soon as I read it. Thanks for doing the 'paste' and saving me some work.
This also allows our efforts to be easily combined with the passion of the business. Asking the right questions upfront will make all the differnce for our bottom line. It will not only weed out the poorly funded "opportunities" from business owners looking for a quick buck but it will also create client rentention numbers that everyone else will be jealous of.
Killer post Mike!
I love the whole perspective on how you have shaped the "new seo process" and the opportunity discovery!
Aside from the "new proccess", IMO the most important point some SEOs need to focus on is "What are you trying to get users to do once they arrive?"
Under the new SEO Process, "What users should be doing when they arrive" is defined by Need-State Analysis... though I agree it's one of the most important tactics in the toolkit.
Each Need-State presents unique opportunities to discover; for example an ideal SEO Strategy for expanding brand awareness would be to perform content marketing and optimization for low tier need-states using relevant informational intent key terms.
The correlating Social Media Strategy would be to seed an infographic and hope to see it catch fire within a relevant influencer network.
Knowing this strategic template would make developing and executing the actual strategy that much easier, as we really only need one noteworthy piece of information to deploy both strategies.
Great read - as usual, insightful stuff. Anticipate folks dealing with smaller clients/businesses may get discouraged when you talk about leveraging "full muscle of a brand." There's always been a perception, as far as i know from talking to folk, that certain tactics and strategies are out of reach or undoable for most smaller businesses and un-established brands. Hope I'm not over-stepping bounds by suggesting the following addendum here:
A "brand" can be created in no time at all: think of a way to deliver unique value that resonates with a lot of people and motivates them to interact with your brand. Interact can mean consuming/spreading your content, buying from you, using your free tools etc.
ESTABLISHING your brand is the stuff SEO and inbound marketing were made to help you achieve. It's the thing that (if done as Mike describes) will hopefully create the user/client/customer base you need to make your brand successful. You don't need to have brand recognition (a different concept) in order to make a good go of an SEO strategy.
Thanks, Minchala - I'm 2 weeks into launching a startup, which has its pros and cons. One pro is that I haven't made any mistakes yet and I can design my website with SEO and other inbound marketing concepts from the beginning. One con is what you have mentioned - I need to ESTABLISH my brand. Thanks to you and Mike for your insight - I'll certainly take advantage of it as I move forward.
As always Dave, great comment. I think if anything this is a nomenclature issue. I use "brand" and "business" interchangeably even though I mostly work with big brands. That said I'd still apply this process to smaller brands as they too should be employing a diversified marketing mix.
-Mike
Moz needs to add a "super-like" button for this post.
"To do effective SEO now, at the very least, you have to be a digital strategist, social media marketer, a content strategist, conversion rate optimizer, and a PR specialist."
Amen. Great post Mike!
Easily the best post I have ever read on SEOMoz, hats off.
Nice post I agree too many SEO's take charge and make decisions for them selves they do not include the clients in the brain storming sessions or even ask questions like "who are your main competitors".I also agree with the point about hiring people who know the niche you work in becuase it can make things soo much easier if you specialize in one specific area ;-) Love the graphics too.
Nice one, Mike. You're spot-on insofar as SEOs are part of the marketing process, not the rulers of it.
My only issue: There's a chicken-and-egg problem. SEOs rarely get the face time, credibility or resources to have any impact on the process. I think some of the Kayne 'tude comes from that. I know it does in my case. I'm a marketer first, SEO second. But companies think in terms of line items, so they hire me as an SEO. Then other folks see that and I'm tuned out from day one.
I'd love it - love it - if companies would look at my firm and say "Hey, this is a great marketing resource" and hire us for that. But that's rare.
Thanks Ian,
It 's a chicken-and-egg situation just as you said but at some point we have to break that cycle.
SEO sits on the Strategy team where I'm at now which is how I fell into all this audience research/personas stuff and we've been able to leverage that position to pitch more effectively. In fact in some SOWs here it says I'm a "Media Planner" or a "Digital Strategist." The common response to the work is "wow you guys do more than SEO!" and lately I get brought in to come up with big ideas on pitches for that very reason. We (SEOs) have a unique understanding in that we at least dabble in a variety of capabilities.
All I'm saying is we need to cultivate that respect for our own capability by meeting the other capabilities halfway so can be seen as that marketing resource. Otherwise we'll keep being in those positions where we can't get shit done.
-Mike
Yep, I totally agree. We do a lot of SOW's where we're coming in as the "Internet marketing strategist."
Usually, the problems start when someone feels a sense of ownership over the digital side, and is afraid we're going to take over.
We've been doing personas for almost a decade now - they help a ton. Keeps everyone on-track and builds a connection between our work and the rest of the company. That's a good point to emphasize.
Totally appreciate the creativity and diversity but the point stands that 'wow you guys do more than SEO" which my interpretation is that one individual is smarter then the average bear and can input in so many areas as a single resource or/and the agency as a whole ultilises multi-skilled people across multi-channels. It is a simple case of putting on different hats, SEO being one of those
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME ARTICLE
Okay I'll admit, the post was a little too long for me (whilst at work, at least) and I had to skim some of it, but I'd like to think I got the general gist.
"Becoming an expert in the niche that you are optimizing for is an extremely underrated step in the SEO process."
This is one of the main reasons I'm returning to an in-house role after a year at an agency. It is often so hard to get the necessary cooperation from clients, whilst yes, agencies themselves are often to blame too. I've always tried to insist that I go to early, introductory meetings with clients as this is where you learn the most about what it is that they do, and what their objectives are. If you don't get this cooperation though, it is too easy to fall into the trap of regurgitating existing content on the web and that's not what good SEOs do.
Problems don't just arise at agencies though. In my previous in-house role I experienced the problem of separation and segregation that you speak of. The marketing team was separate to the SEO team, who were separate to the development team, who were separate from just about everybody. That type of system simply does not work.
Lastly is it weird that Kanye popped on the radio just as I started reading this?
Haha Dan, they call that serendipity!
-Mike
Great Post iPullRank concisely highlighting a true SEO strategy - and as you have pointed out if more people practising SEO worked like this the web would be a better place, for me it was all summed up in this sentence - "the more we optimize with people in mind the more likely their needs will be fulfilled and consequently, the more likely we are to get those people to convert". A win win situation for SEO's and consumers alike, Excellent - I will definitely be sharing this post!
<<<< Standing on my chair, holding a lighter (or my Android) high in the air. Encore ! Bravo! Fantastico! I laughed, I cried, I loved it!
Takeaway?
"The new SEO process is not about chasing the algorithm; it’s about fulfilling the needs of the people the algorithm serves. It’s about creating and discovering the content that resonates with the people that a business is trying to reach and then also covering the technical bases required to get results."
My new default blog comment will now be, "IMMA LET YOU FINISH, BUT I HAVE THE BEST WEBSITE OF ALL TIME !"
lol nice one!
You totally killed it Mike, talk about quality content. Required reading for most of us no doubt.
thanks for a refreshingly real and useful post Mike. I really appreciate the resources provided at the end since I haven't seen some of those before.
Great post, Mike!
One thing I really like about this broader/new perspective on SEO is how much more rewarding it is to do the work, and consequently, how much easier it is to recruit and retain talented employees.
Creating a product and content that makes users happy is so much better than getting some new links for a site, that noone particularly likes.
Thomas
Mike I whole heartedly agree with the approach you outline, but have to disagree with you a bit on how you are positioning it as... "It is now the role of Inbound Marketers to drive strategies that looks far more like this."
You are further propagating the maverick attitude & belief that an SEO specialist should be in the driver's seat, when by your own admission, they may have little experience with content marketing & creative development.
I have practiced Digital Strategy this way for the past 5 years, granted I might be in the minority. The digital strategist should be in the driver's seat and work with the integrated team to develop tactical initiatives that translate the BIG idea and support content marketing initiatives.
Like Social Media, SEO is an amplifier that extends the distribution reach of content & messaging in the search channel during campaign and non-campaign periods. The impact and ripple effect is even greater when aligned with paid media.
Now, team alignment should account for a % of activity and the rest of an SEO's activity should implore the process you described above to propose strategic initiatives or extensions that would help achieve some SEO more traditional goals & objectives.
It is an important distinction to make because when the SEO strategist starts thinking that SEO should be in the driver seat of the overall digital strategy, the same way the majority of digital strategists think they should be in charge of SEO marching orders outside of their area of expertise - you start rubbing folks the wrong way. If an SEO strategist starts filling up his/her toolbox with multi-channel tools than he/she graduates to a 360 Digital Strategist.
The problem though is there are still too few Digital Strategists with enough multi-channel experience to connect all of the dots - and I'm ok with that. ;)
Hats off to a thoughtful and insightful post that should get a lot of people's brain juices flowing.
- Jeremy
Thanks for the great reply Jeremy.
The problem is exactly as you said, digital strategists typically don't have enough multi-channel experience to connect all of the dots.
To that point I believe SEOs have more experience as we have had to play in the different capabilities far more often. The road to being an SEO is far more complicated than it is to become a digital strategist. Many of has fall into it from having worked on various sites in various capacities.
Take me for example, I've built sites since 1995, before that I wrote software, now I've worked with a variety of different marketers whose roles I understand very well who typically say to me "you know I still don't know what you do." Yet those same people shoot down SEO campaigns.
That said I believe SEOs are better to drive the overall marketing mix and digital strategists are better at steering it to match with brand initiatives. I'm also not calling for people to continue to be mavericks. I'm calling for us to know more in order to be included into the fabric of campaigns.
-Mike
Mike, you have a ton of experience that I would classify above and beyond a traditional SEO skill set. The problem is that the definition of what an SEO does, what they can do and what they are able to do varies more so than other roles in the marketing mix.
I would argue that in order to drive the online marketing mix, you need the experience and skill set of a digital strategist. In my experience they are the ones orchestrating the big online picture. Now if you have a digital strategist with a traditional marketing background, even better.
By definition SEO is Search Engine Optimization and the definition alone would put you in a box of tasks that improve visibility of websites and content in Search engines. Search has evolved and most of the large content platforms are driven by search engines and have social media extensions.
That said, if an SEO has that skillset and experience, then they should evolve how they classify themselves and call themselves digital strategists because the term allows for umbrella classification and doesn't put you in an SEO box.
This is true for my experience as I went to school for Communication/PR, was a brand ambassador, did traditional marketing (everything except braodcast TV), digital project manager, AAE, AE, AS, Client Partner, Analyst and digital strategist. I coded my own wordpress site (modified a template) and can install custom analytics set-ups, but that's where I draw the line. Having actually performed these roles at a high level, I understand these roles from first-hand experience, not just working with people who do these things.
Now, I have utilized "softer" SEO techniques since '99 and evolved that into social & content marketing in '06. But, when I propose campaigns I don't classify them as SEO campaigns, but propose initiatives focused on a,b,c - baking in tactics & strategies that achieve SEO success on-site, in-search, for-content, and on-platforms - while also delivering and contributing against over-arching KPI's.
If people get caught up in the semantics of what SEO is, tell them that what you are doing will achieve X, Y, Z and benefit the campaign and long-term brand positioning & visibility... yada, yada, yada Then show them the results.
SEO is the backbone of the marketing mix, but integrated creative, brand & product strategy should be in the driver seat from my POV.
Solid debate and plenty of insightful conversation. You have proven that you can create content, make it visible, drive engagement and extend that engagement off-site.
So... I would say you have the makings of a solid digital strategist. ;)
Jeremy
Haha fair enough. I'm all argued out for the day. My old boss who was the SVP of Strategy and my new boss the Chief Strategy Officer both would agree with you. They've both tried to convince me to go the strategist route. I'm gonna wave the SEO flag until the it falls off though.
-Mike
All I'm saying is that you are already going down the holistic digital strategist path, just not admitting it.
No arguing here, the more integration there is between disciplines the stronger the result potential.
But as long as different people, departments, agencies, etc. are all competing for the same slice of pie - you can usually carve out a larger slice with a more accepted, all-encompassing "practice" instead of a single, specialty vertical.
Now with that said, there will be people who end up in the driver's seat from different verticals, each approaching the role with a unique blend of experience and focus who can stay true to their roots.
The true test is delivering a proper value exchange at a very high level, but that's a whole different debate.
Keep on waving that flag, continue doing what you are doing and I'm sure you will be fine.
Best.
Wow! It took me a while and two mugs of coffee to get through the sheer volume of information. This is one outstanding and very insightful post, Mike.
I guess the value of the Facebook Ads tool gets overlooked (guilty!) so thanks for the reminder. And also tank you for the great New SEO Process pie chart. All ipmortant information in one image equals: Clients and bosses will like it.
Hillarious. I notice 1 thumbs down. I didn't even know kanye was on seomoz! :D
we do now!
Thankyou. Now if only brands would listen too many times they think it's just link building and keywords not the way I do it. I follow a lot of this, but ultimately brands who have ego in them running things will stop you especially on the input in tech. I was working for an agency where none of the sites could be optimized even the robots.txt was off. I gave them all the tech changes and offered some changes that would also help the UX and I swear 6 months later they said no to everything because either tech couldn't do it or they were unwilling to ruin the asthetic. Sorry, but when you can't even upload your own photos in your CMS and instead have to use a host URL for the image that's a problem and also how that ruins the asthetic I'm not sure. Heck, I even sent them to SEOmoz multiple times to prove what I was saying and yet nothing they didn't listen. Now I hear they are trying to find an SEO and can't find one I'm guessing they just want someone for keywords and for an SEO that's not the whole job so I'm guessing it will be hard for them to find someone either that or they will have to pay them a ton of money for very little work ultimately. Anyway thank's for the article I like having my methods re-affirmed by people who know what they are doing.
It's already been said but I'll say it again: great article.
It's about time we started focusing on make the web better and not clogging SERPs with worthless content. As you mentioned, I also attach less value to a search result I know is optimized or not actually written by an expert.
Cheers
Mike, this post is amazing! Definitely adding to my Must Read list and sending to my team.
When you spend the whole day looking at data, it's easy to forget the people that are generating that data. I loved this sentence, "It's not about the keywords; it's about the people searching for them." This is an idea that's important for not only SEOs, but clients as well. For a client that doesn't understand much about inbound marketing, it is easy for them to grasp on to the most basic stats - keywords rankings. The people behind that stats are what really matter and this idea needs to be drilled into everyone.
For this post I'd give you my name, last name, phone number, apartment keys.... awsome info, thank you
Hi Michael,
Great post and I agree wholeheartedly with the new process.
While reading it reminded me of a story I heard from a sports psychologist at a conference paid for by a large bank I once worked for and they were trying to motivate us, but I think resonates not only with the overriding point you make but I also think parallels the direction in which Google is leading us.
The story goes something like this (short version). In Australia, in the lead up to the 2000 Olympics there were two well known athletes known to Australian's, Kathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe. Both were expected to win gold medals and did.
However, the goals of each athlete were very different. Kathy Freeman wanted to win the gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in her home country and in front of her home crowd. By winning the gold she achieved her goal and dream.
Ian Thorpe however, had a very different goal. His goal was never to win the gold and it was never to win medals or break records etc. His goal was only to be the best swimmer he can be.
After the Sydney Olympics Kathy ended up quitting running and has moved on to do other things. Ian Thorpe however, continued on for another Olympics and won more gold medals and broke more world records and continued to swim until he felt he could do no more. Interestingly in the last year he has been training for a comeback to try and get into the London Olympics team.
I think the moral of the story that I translated between this story and yours is that we are better off trying to simply write great content that is useful to our customers and readers and if we do write this great content we will as a net result end up with lots of quality traffic meeting our targeted customer. Focusing on getting the content right, the target market right and the quality awesome is the key.
This is I must admit an issue close to my heart as we recently got rid of our SEO firm because we felt the content they were creating was not to what we believed was something our customers wanted to read nor even something we wanted to even publish on our website. We now source our own content because we have not been able to find a good seo company that really understands this and wants to work with us to develop good content. It all seems to be about just get as many articles written (no matter what the quality or the value to the actual reader) and just spam the internet.
Thanks for a great article and we live in hope of seeing some great content that we all really want to read – while also having a positive outcome from a seo perspective. The key being to get the content right first and NOT the seo benefits.
@Mike thanks for sharing this post! Can you answer this question: What's the difference between "The New SEO Process" explained above and Inbound Marketing?
Don't get me wrong, I love SEO. However, it seems these terms can be confusing to people and often disputed when they shouldn't be. However, doesn't SEO stand for Search Engine Optimization? Is it not a tactic? According to Lee Odden at Top Rank Marketing; SEO by definition is the most effective online marketing tactic for generating conversions. I would have to agree with him.
In my opinion "The New SEO Process" explained above is most of an outline to a holistic "Inbound Marketing Solution" except you missed "Lead Nurturing".
Inbound Marketing is channel agnostic, just like Outbound Marketing. I agree that SEO can be in both inbound and outbound channels.
Web Development, PR, Branding, SEO, Social Media, Content, Mobile, PPC, CTAs, Landing Pages, Lead Nurturing, Lead Conversion Analytics, and Multi-Variable Testing, are all part a holistic Inbound Marketing Solution for business.
I wrote this post a few weeks ago that explains this identity crisis in the marketing industry. Read "Inbound Marketing The Future of Now" I hope this helps. I know @Rand has adapted and recognized this change as well. In my opinon we are all have to become marketing professionals that provide holistic solutions to our clients.
Thoughts?
"In my opinon we are all have to become marketing professionals that provide holistic solutions to our clients."
Or we could specialize in one channel and be a part of teams that accomplish the same. I'd rather be the world's best at 1 thing.
@russvirante Thanks for sharing your thoughts. There is nothing wrong with specializing in one channel. ("Inbound" or "Outbound") However, tactics alone are not solutions. Consumers want to work with marketing agencies that offer integrated solutions that deliver leads and sales to their business. For example, just generating targeted website traffic to a clients website is useless unless you can convert the traffic into leads, and nurture leads into qualified sales.
There is a huge transformation in the marketing industry right now because consumers are tired of paying for marketing efforts that can't be justified with measurable results. SEO, PR, Brand, Content, and Social Media agencies are all faced with this transformation. Agencies need to be able to do all of these things to effectively to provide a holistic integrated solution no matter which channel it is. "Inbound" or "Outbound"
Inbound marketing dominated organizations are experiencing a cost per lead 62% lower than outbound-marketing organizations. (The State of Inbound Marketing 2011 by HubSpot)
HubSpot will be hosting a live webinar on Thursday March 1, 2012 to release "The State of Inbound Marketing 2012. You can click on the 2011 link above to register for the upcoming webinar and see the full 2011 report.
Hey Keith,
No problem and the more of Russ's responses I read the more I think there is a misunderstanding here. This new (or mature) SEO process is about leveraging PR, Content Strategy, CRO, Social, etc to do more effective SEO. It's not about completely overtaking those initiatives but having a deep understanding of them to achieve synergy across the marketing mix. In some cases...especially small businesses you may have to take on all of those roles but in bigger enterprise campaigns you are coming in armed with data to influence the decisions of those other capabilities. This new process allows you to become the center of the campaign rather than an outlier.
Now how does it differ from inbound marketing? That's another situation where I think there may have been some confusion. Inbound Marketing is about leveraging all these different channels as a means to just drive traffic. I'm talking about just using some of these channels to improve and scale SEO. Specifically we're talking about social as a means to understand your audience and seed content to influencers. Social Media is far more than that as it involves community management as well. I'm not saying we take that over. Nor am I saying that all of the sudden we have to be PR agencies on the phone with magazines. I'm saying that we need to understand these capabilities in order to speak their language and leverage them to scale.
Further I don't think of Lead Nurturing as a channel or capability but a goal of a given channel or capability. You can do lead generation through social, search, email, and so on. Therefore it's inherently part of anything we're doing if that's the goal of the given campaign.
I understand how to many there is a debate as to what we are doing -- Inbound Marketing or SEO. If all you're doing is keyword research, optimizing title tags, implementing 301 redirects, and building links then yes you are doing a viable form of SEO. If you are doing audience research, content strategy, social strategy, and so on as I have outlined you are doing a more effective or more mature version of SEO that will allow you to get a grownup seat at the table when you are talking about implementing recommendations. If you and your team are completely controlling all free traffic initiatives, you are doing Inbound Marketing.
-Mike
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the responding and answering my questions. In your response you said "Inbound Marketing is about leveraging all these different channels to just drive traffic".
I would like to clarify that Inbound Marketing is a channel that pulls targeted traffic (prospects), leads, and customers to businesses. Outbound Marketing is a channel that pushes a message out to the masses in hopes that someone will catch it.
The Inbound Marketing Methodology is broken into three sectors:
(I know this is pretty broad. Please read my post in the link above for more information)
Practicing the inbound marketing methodology is way more than just generating traffic. I would say that "SEO" and "Social Media" through "Content" are the main traffic generators.)
Brand, PR, Content, SEO, Social can be in both channels ("Inbound" and "Outbound")
In my opinion what you have outlined follows the Inbound Marketing Methodology. I would say that you're practicing Inbound Marketing not just SEO. Which is great!
I think SEOs are hesitant to realize that the rules have changed and now consumer demand holistic marketing solutions not tactics. It cool though, what you are teaching is the Inbound Marketing Methodology.
As I mentioned in my response to Russ; there is a transformation in the marketing industry. This transformation is being caused by the inbound marketing disruptor. It's about solutions not tactics!
As Inbound Marketers we should know Website Development, Brand, PR, SEO, SEM, Social Media, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing, Multi-Variable Testing, Proxies, Metrics, and Analytics and Sales.
Thank you, Mike.
I really like and appreciate this post. It's great to see bold SEOs analyze the state of SEO and offer insight and perspicacious suggestions on improvements to keep it relevant in this era of digital advertising.
Well this is the first time I've seen Kanye on SEOMoz. Nice work - now time to read it all!
Congrats, Mike, great post! You've laid out a full fledged ecosytem for modern web marketing.
Mike, you know I love your work and even though you skip every tweet I ever send you, I remain loyal to your opinions and really enjoy the code that you put together. So, I'm leaving this comment as a discussion point and not a negative thing, I'd rather inspire (maybe) a discussion than point fingers because as a community putting someone down or taking a shot is definitely not the way to go about this.
So I've been doing SEO for many years, I am a programmer and am fairly decent at writing, I'd call myself someone who understands SEO (and areas around it) and has a good track record behind my name. When I read this post I was pulled left and pushed right, there's so much I agree with and so much that I don't - I guess that's how it goes in an industry that claims to be able to measure everything, but at the end of the day, if you're not lunching with Matt Cutts daily, you actually don't know many precise details as to how Google (specifically) is shaping their results, I feel that 2012 alone has already thrown many an SEO out the window with the major changes. One day we're working closely on context is king with Facebook and Twitter, the next day those are out the window and so many of us are scrambling to come up with creative ideas (Loved the SEOmoz discussion board btw) on Google+ to built that content/context. I remember some great posts that Rand wrote on measuring Twitter/Facebook peneration on ranking results quickly, in fact, that wasn't that long ago, but BOY does it feel like OLD tactics - I hope that gets that point across.
Right, so with that said, I feel that "The new SEO process" is a really clever CTR-increasing title and not too accurate, I don't think anyone has the ability to jump up and define what the new process actually is because none of us really know the secret formula to ranking number 1 or perfectly penetrating social areas for ROI. Sure, SEO has changed, in fact, I do (shamelessly) buy into the whole idea of "Inbound Marketing" being a much better buzz phrase to use than SEO, but for the sake of this I'll stick to SEO. SEO has (mostly) been about optimizing a website in terms of on-site and has always required fresh content. Links play a big role, no point denying that, I think Will Reynolds schooled us all in his nothing short of brilliant Link Love presentation of link building blunders (Will, you rock), but as things have changed, as social networks have come into play and involved, it was a natural progression for us to all move in that direction, perhaps not 100%, but definitely 10-20% intially and now even more so - If you're someone who does SEO (the process of improving the visibiility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results) you'll know that the strict definition as outlined in brackets doesn't really apply anymore, but that is not to say that SEO is dead or just a small part, I believe that the definition should be slightly tweaked, but at the end of the day, as an SEO we're about improving the visibility of a website or web page, through what ever means it might be, social media is still organic, so the definition still applies.
The point I am trying to get across is that SEO was never something on its own, it was always inbound marketing, someone just hadn't come up with the buzz word. To get conversions there was always an element of engagement, humans have always wanted to ask questions, the web has just made it easier to do so now, but the questions were always there and anyone who was working as an SEO will have tried at some point to do more engagement, be it via a blog (blogging is old) or a live support type interactive section.
I don't believe that there is a new SEO process, I just believe that people have finally decided to vocalize it and string buzz words along with it. I don't believe there is a new SEO process, I just believe that people are, now only, admitting that SEO is only part of something bigger.
It's just my opinion, mad respect to iPullRank for writing what I do feel is a fantastic post.
I can see your point but perhaps it is how we define the "new" part. You are so right about the particulars, tactics, methodology; whatever we call it, as how we go about it is the same (i.e. blogger outreach, post, online pr, doing all we can to be visible online. BUT the "new" is in the integration, sequence and most important in the larger, more comprehensive approach. It reminds me a lot of the field of psychology or genetics...same tests for the past 100 years, but hugely different perspective, interpretation and solutions. It is new and so much better, like this new SEO. I like your points about technology and the aspects of SEO that have been stable. Thanks.
@Loudlaunch - Thrilled to hear that someone else agrees with me about parts of what I said. I wrote the comment, read it and wrote it again so as to ensure that I got my point across because it's a difficult one to communicate. I love your comparison to psychology, I will remember that, it's better than Kanye ;)
What I want to know is why did Kayne take so long to sing a song any of us would recongize at the Affiliate Ball at ASW12?!
I love the detailed explanation of social strategy and opportunity discovery.
Wow. Now I have to get everyone I know to read this. Awesome job!
I think that every website/business needs to think about your three bullet points:
· What is the purpose of your site?
· What are you trying to get users to do once they arrive?
· Who is your target audience?
Just by working through those three questions we would see a better internet.
In the end it's about the customer. I've seen marketing agencies chase the latest fad- hoping it would just work. The customers have to come first. This involves taking the holistic approach. It also means that not every tool can be automated. Yes, there must be thought involved with the process. Thank you for this post. Absolutely needed.
Great breakdown of the process. When ever I start a new project, these are also the first questions I ask, and ask my clients to ask themselves.
What is the purpose of your site? What are you trying to get users to do once they arrive? Who is your target audience?
The answers will be the roadmap for the project. Nice article!
Hey Mike just to make it public : I Like this Process and I'm still working on my New Inbound marketing proposal...I bet my clients will be rapt with wonder :)
great post. The old process as described is tactically focused while the new process that is described is more strategically focused. Strategy is essential and strategy must be executed via tactical means.
Wonderful post Mike!
You have hit the bull's eye! "The new SEO process is not about chasing the algorithm; it’s about fulfilling the needs of the people the algorithm serves." Ding! Ding! Ding! Write for your audience and not the search engines.
Thank you for the great examples and for the resources at the end.
awesome post and absolutely true! We currently sell Social Media and PR as add ons but have been meeting about including it in our SEO package because of the necessity of it.
Finally I had the time to read quietly all the post (this morning while attending SES it was more a fast reading).
If you know me, you now that I agree with the Mike way of thinking about SEO as a part of the marketing mix. And I think that SEO should change and stop acting like being "an island" also in order to obtain better results in the search engines... and this is something Russ above agrees with.
As a marketer first and SEO after (as you, Ian), I always tried to find a common denominator between the purposes of the two souls of search (&) marketing (traffic and conversions) and I think that is measure and metrics and the data driven methodology, which should be the SEO's natural way of working.
This morning at SES Avinash Kaushik was saying a giant but always forgotten truth: a conversion is not just when someone realize a direct monetary transaction in a web, but can be every kind of action an users realize in your site and which can converted into a monetary value (i.e.: the download of a catalog, which means the saving of printing and sending via mail a real one). The SEO is surely the one who can optimize the site in order to address the right traffic in order to obtain all those kind of micro-conversions to.
And SEO, with its analytical behaviour, can surely contribute to the overall marketing mix, as well it is true the opposite, and - for instance - social media can help SEO with the personae detection.
Hey Gianluca,
I agree with everything you've just but I just want to also wholeheartedly agree that a conversion isn't necessarily a sale it can be any goal that the client has defined. In fact I encourage the use of these things as a way to get more demo data more often.
Thanks for adding on as always Gianluca!
-Mike
You are diversify and defining a role according to an ideal expectation. Which is greatly welcomed and will do wonders for the individual in their 'knowledge growth' learning and actioning.
However LOL I do not why I am compelled to differ on the point of what the defined role of SEO and why what you suggest is not an evolution of SEO but an evolution of creative input.
An expert in direct marketing and conversion with an exceptional track record in the sites performance outside of the framework of Search Engine Ranking could learn SEO in a short time and see the additional value of gaining more traffic from search.
There are sites that worked exceptionally well i.e. built purely around a Facebook audience and then decided to leverage SEO however analytic, CRO, PR, Social Media etc were already in play before SEO.
Mike,
Thank you for investing the time to discuss your experience and take on the direction of SEO. Incredibly insightful stuff here.
There is no doubt, an SEO has to continue to evolve as the SEO process evolves. Those SEOs who possess multiple skills in the digital marketing space (OR those SEOs who can collaborate with other marketers to work towards the client's goals) with thrive.
In agreement, it all boils down to:
Keyword intent matching the business goals and optimizing "with people in mind" - No matter how you do it, as long as it's white hat and ethical.
Your clients goals should = your goals. GREAT freakin' Brand Buy-In Quote!
We’d like to launch a contest targeting Influential Moms with over 5000 followers on Twitter. To enter they’d write blog posts that link back to our properties in order to drive traffic for our target Listener Moms that are using Search to buy more healthy cereal.”
This definitely shows your client you speak their language and are working towards achieving their goals and not just throwing them irrelivant traffic!
Don't let me get in my zone (There's Kanye again)!
Dali
Amen brother.
This is, pretty much, exactly what we've been talking about in the agency I work at. We've been trying to develop a more in-depth SEO process that does a better job of focusing on what really matters for the success of the client instead of the more obvious things that point to the success of the SEO program (hopefully we can get clients to agree that these are the same thing, but we can't even convince them that rankings aren't the most important metric in the world, so....).
This covers a lot of ground, though in more depth, that i've already gone over in my head and on little scraps of paper, but you allowed me to really flesh out the things I want to start doing. I think CRO and UX are the forgotten members of the website family by SEO people and I want to help clients close the circle on user interaction.
thanks for the ideas, and the validation that i'm heading in the right direction.
Wow. This is something that I am going to add to my Trello board and re-read a few times. It's so true that SEO needs to involve ore then just keywords research and link building.
If you have 400 people going to your site but only sell 4 products a day, what good is getting more traffic going to do? You will make your client more money by focusing on the conversion rate of their site, because you can increase their traffic by 200% by that is still only going to get them 1% conversion rate. If you increase their conversion rate to a decent number (10% for example) then you will make a much larger impact.
Good job iPullRank!
Thank you for the insight Mike. I have updated my kickoff strategy. I have updated my half time analysis. End game - chalk up a win for Mike!
awesome post... no word for that.. but its very useful for using new seo process and easy to uderstand.... :)
Totally awesome post, Mike. The problem with many SEOs (myself included) as we are often somewhat techy and it is easy t oget caught up 'fixing things' and forgetting you're operating at the wrong level. I try to remind myself of this always, and this post really hammers it home.
Thank you! :)
Awesome Mike, you've set the benchmark here!
This is what all those in our industry should be reading right now and taking note of, great job :-)
Hilarious and informative. Thanks for a great read.
Mike - you hit the nail on the head with this one, and more. Time to grow up and stop worrying about just keywords and Title Tags - If you're not at least reading up on UX, CRO, Content Strategy, etc. then you're behind the curve.
Hats off for the best article ever on Seomoz!
This is hands down the best post I've read in months. I've read it twice onscreen and printed it for reference. You've pushed me in the right direction. Thing is, I knew that your end goal was what I wanted and that's how I started working, but a mixture of clients obssessed with keywords took my eye off the ball. Using this I can remind myself of what really makes a return on a client's investment and what is just vanity.
Thanks Mike.
This is a great post Mike, a thorough, holistic approach to SEO - very refreshing.
Before really knowing anything about SEO, I dealt with a couple of agencies who seemed to use the exact 'old' process you outlined. In both instances the campaign began with a standard form questionnaire that asked questions such as 'what are your target keywords?' and 'who are your competitors?'. At this point in time I was not qualified to answer these questions. Moreover, if the agency had spent more time figuring this stuff out themselves they would have had a better appreciation of how the business interacts with it's customers.
Great post, love how you integrated the rapsta!
Hi Mike,
Excellant post my friend, i loved the two infographics that you provided! Makes it a lot easier to understand.
Great post Mike.
You did a great job writing down and explaining clearly The Process web marketers should follow.
I consider that, even though at first it may seems scaring and painful and harder than the classic SEO process, this greater perspective process is actually easier once it is really understood and accepted by all the components building the online presence of a site (which is the hardest job).
I mean easier because it is much easier to build and obtain bigger results if SEO, Social and Content work in sinthony.
One thing you wrote I really liked: market specialization. I think that is key, especially for indipendent consultant. It's honest, realistic and simply better to have as objective to become the expert in one vertical (i.e.: tourism), than just one of the many doing everything.
I totally agree.... Specialising in one vertical can really increase your net worth if you are a business owner what are you looking for? Someone who has several years experience helping businesses in your niche or a Jack of all trades.
Most of my key clients in the past couple of years are from the Home & Garden sector, we have a few small local businesses but 80% of our work is with businesses working in Home & Garden retail.
Props for this!
Amazing post, this really is the ultimate seo article, it covers everything. And I love how you tied it in with Kanye. Your comparison to calculus really hit the nail on the head. From someone who struggled with math this really had an impact "SEO and Calculus both set a barrier of entry that excludes more than it includes."
Awesome, there is a numbers of seo tips, tricks, information avaliable on this online globe, but this post is extra ordinary and reaserch information.
keep it up...
Thanks
Thanks once again Mike for an epic piece. It's great to see the many seemingly disparate elements many of us have been talking about in isolation pulled together.
One question: Where do you see the semantic and markup work sitting in the process? In Technical or CRO, or both? Seems as though we will be spending a lot of time getting it right in 2012 so I'd be keen to get your thoughts on this one...
Thanks!
Thanks Simon.
I'd say semantic markup such as Schema.org and other microformats coming at the the technical implementation phase as a result of Opportunity Discovery.
-Mike
Hi Mike,
Great post, with lots of insight we can all benifit from.
Thanks
K
Good points. I like how you structured it. It helps when I am explaining seo process.
Excellent post. Thanks for the tools list
This is the best article yet I've ever read on SEOMoz blog. I'm more impressed by how artculate you are in describing the process of SEO without going overboard 'causes the level of details you have demonstrated in your article sounds almost equivalent to what I've been barely managing to brainstorm for over a year on writing a master thesis to complete my master's degree in Internet Marketing, except you explained it well beyond any SEO books (e.g. Aaron) that I've ever read before. If every new client don't mind reading through a half of what you wrote before a meeting, my job would be much easier. A nice job, Michael!
Thanks for the breakdown of old and new SEO. I really like the resources list at the end and all the helpful links along the way.
Great Post Mike! I have been impressed with the information coming out concerning the convergence of social, PR, content-marketing and SEO, and am happy to see people like you and Rand challenging our ideas of what SEO should be. I personally believe that ROI is the ultimate determining factor of success for the vast majority of clients, ranking is awesome and makes everyone feel warm and fuzy, but if the client sees no real business improvement it's an elaborate shell game with great visual results.
(thats not to say that there isn't real value from visibility, but it should be evaluated differently)
If we don't push for SEO to become more relevant and integrated into clients' existing marketing initiatives and specific business goals, we will forever remain technicians on a fringe that is already diminished because of lack of understanding.
It's time to bring SEO out of the source code and into the light with content that offers real solutions to real people. Content and solutions that our clients can not only understand, but contribute to and leverage in relevant ways across their business.
Great Discussion!
Mostly he has covered all points...and he has given details information.. this will really help to those who are serious about website promotion..
Thanks Great post - it really nails the point of the current SEO situation and new scenarios opened by the increasing influence of social strategy on SEO - and its relation to branding. Thanks for writing it!
Excellent post, one to read again. Mut have taken you hours to write
This post gives us a different point of view from traditional observers. However, it would be nice to focus on what can a single user do for improving really their SEO, where to get all this information or, in that case, recommend it just for professionals. I think this article is quite good for agencies, but almost a desire for little users.
Props for this epic post. I'll admit that while I'm somewhat reserved in real life, I do act like Kanye when I do SEO. I should probably take it down a notch. Cheers for an awesome post, Wil.
Mike King is actually the author of this post.
Embrace the comma!
the same wine in new bottle. anyhow, the article is thought provoking and serves as a guideline for seo experts. such articles will really help to guide us in innumberable ways.
Hello Everyone
Great post!!
thanks for sharing this useful information...
Bravo, great SEO Article. Very refreshing read It made me realize sometimes I do behave like Kanye West when doing optimization, I think we all probably do. Not anymore though!
Thanks for posting this!
Keep aside everything else, I loved the two basic graphics that you 've had in the post. Hats off man!
https://cdn.seomoz.org/img/upload/seo-process.jpg
and
https://cdn.seomoz.org/img/upload/new-seo-process.png
Great Post, found it very enlightening. The Process to the New SEO looks very time consuming.
I am sure in the end it will be time well spent especially if you are getting the results you set out to get.
When I started of my career it was all about the on page optimization(title tags) and inbound links. Social sharing has certainly put a spin on things, it has changed the digital marketing landscape and is demanding much more from online marketer.
Excellent post Mike! Quite inspirational! After a while of doing SEO, one tends to get lost in old processes that are not effective or relevant any more. This new process would indeed be quite a great new start!
Fantastic post, and well hit on how SEO get's shunned in the big process. It's the instant gratification mentality that kills business and hurts consumers in the long run.
Love the transition into the new SEO and the reference to a bad attitude. I'm sort of new to SEO and was wondering on your opinion and others opinions of online marketing tools, such as My Viral Web ? Have you heard of them? or any similar tools?
Thank you for the article. All I can say is WOW!
I loved you at SMX West. I love you even more now. You're singin' my song loud and clear. SEO is not a technical exercise or character manipulation. It is and always has been marketing, though many did not see or practice it that way.
Perhaps now the world of SEOs will begin to chase customers, not just rank, and the internet will be better for it.
This was an awesome post! Thanks Mike!
Super article! and what great social media tool suggestions!!
Thanks for taking the time to offer your expertise :-)
Andy :-)
Great post- I think i'm going to actually print this out so i can refer to it regularly!
It's easy to forget there's real people behind every visitor to your website. Thanks.
Excellent post, definitely one to re-read again over a strong coffee and to keep for reference. Must've taken you hours to write and it's always great to get a new perspective and opinion.
I will be reminding myself of the principles here regularly. Thank you.
Re your controversial statement "I’m skipping anything coding related because although I believe you should be able to build a website you don’t necessarily have to."
Couldn't agree more.
Thank you, Mr. KING!
One of the most profound SEO articles I have seen in a while - and very much like we do SEO over here.It's more about...
.
I believe that this really comes in line with many things said, over time, that have resonated with me, incluyding things like "make something that people want to link to, then repeat that over time," -- more universal rules for the endgame.
Mike, Another great post.
This goes into so much detail and good to hear how you see things. EPIC
There's probably more bullet points here than I've ever seen in any post ever - but WOW, this is solid and insightful. I particularly like you making the call for actual content strategy and development. I'm totally guilty of not developing a content strategy for our company blog, newsletter, FB, Twitter, etc. It has to change though. Tons of win here, thanks Mike.
Kanye ain't doin' no market research!
Awesome post Mike!
Although... launching a contest for moms and requiring a link back for entry is a surefire way to get a penalty.
Unbelievable how social media has had such a high impact on seo over the last year.
Just a heads up to the "powers that be" - I signed up to make a comment and I was sent a verification email but it ended up in my gmail spam folder. After asking for a second link I finally realized this. Just something to address for new users who may be a little slow to this process like me! :)
Epic post. Interesting and actionable. Love it.
Fantastic post. Really well laid-out and contemporary. :)
Ha! I haven't had a chance to read this yet (got it on my to do), but I love your idea to bring in some pop culture to SEO. Creative ;-)
That was well worth the 20 minutes that it took me to read! Fantastic stuff.
Great post. I especially love this line -
It’s not about the keywords; it’s about the people searching for them
I believe that is so true. Without doing research in places such as Google Analytics regarding keywords, you can be spending time on ranking a keyword that will not help you.
Thanks for the post!
great post , just need to read it three times now, thanks Mike
This is a fantastic post, appreciate you sharing! Some Great Tips that we'll be able to take to the bank!
Well, there goes my afternoon. Now I have to reread this about 10 times. Awesome stuff Mike!
Superb!
Words are really not enough to give you thanks for sharing it!!!
Very helpful Post for all level of SEOs!!
Wow, fantastic post, it's almost a whitepaper or ebook. Love all the resource links at the end too.
Awesome, very use full and informative post, thanks for it, keep it up
Thank you very much by www.webdigitalmarketing.com
Epic Post..... I am sure will be one of the Top Blog Posts of 2012.... Congrats...
Wow!!! Awesome pots!!!
Congrats and Thanks a lot for your great work.
I heart this post so hard (that sounds like something Kanye would say, right?). I completely agree with everything you have said and forcing everyone I know to read it - even people that aren't SEOs to help them understand what we do.
I completely agree with your idea that SEOs are swiftly becoming awesome at so much more than strict SEO and also that we need to approach everything from the audience point of view.
Is this a natural evolution of the SEO role or is this due to different changes in our industry that have made us better SEOs in the long run? I think it's probably a bit of both? This is one of the reasons why I love the SEO industry - it's still relatively young and seemingly changes every couple of months. I'm not quite sure if there will ever be a pinnacle SEO strategy or process. I think that we will always continue to adapt and evolve as the industry, tools and platforms we use evolve and change as well.
Thanks for an epic post!
Hey Colin,
It's definitely a mixture of both to account for changes G continues to make and to account for the standing of SEO as an industry amongst another initiatives in the marketing mix.
Glad you enjoyed the post!
-Mike
Awesome post !!!
Thanks for sharing such kind of post...
Did anyone read today's techcrunch article about this company - Bloomreach - https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/22/bloomreach/..
The technique sounds much like theirs where you focus on analyzing the demand in the industry first and then create content to fulfill that demand..
This was our favorite Moz post of 2012. Pure awesome. We'll keep it classy sir.
I read this post a few days ago and it is still swirling around in my mind, triggering bouts of questions, curiosity, smiles and new ideas; so much so that I needed time, and still do, to process it all: easy to read and understand but, man oh man, the possibilities are endless.
Thank you for this truly inspiring post.
This post is excellent in so many ways: beyond the wit and intelligence the perspective of the user/searcher that is highlighted and integrated at every step is priceless. I have been testing out strategies that approach link building from a language/communication perspective, but your post shows us how to take it so much further, and really win!
Your new SEO is based in synchronized actions within the website and all around with those who use it... cool and brilliant AND this process opens up a ton of opportunities to connect with users...really love it. I vote for classy.
In fact, we could use a whole book from you, not just a post:) Hmmm... I know what I will do with all this thinking you have spured with this post: an infographic; yep I can see it now :)
Hey Michael,
This is agreat post and I wish I would have read it sooner because your topics and points of emphasis are very similar to a post that I just wrote on Why Most Websites Fail and What To Do About It.
https://www.biquitous.com/why-most-websites-fail-what-to-do-about-it
The systems and step by step process that you advocate is also within our DNA at Biquitous, and when we speak with most clients, they are utterly shocked at how far behind the curve they are.
Thanks again for taking the time, I know this post took weeks to put together!
Chris
I am new to this blog. I have to take more time to read this once more..........Its very nice topic and each topic is related to seo. I must have to read all these...........
Great Post, it's time for a new Seo process! I completely agree with your vision.
After such a long time I found the precise way of analyzing the SEO campaign. I am with more than 10 years of software development experience and never found this way of explanation even from so called experts. Great efforts!!
Keep it up
Amazing article!
"It's not about the keywords; it's about the people searching for them!" You're so right!
Excellent work product. Definitely worth a Pin on Pinterst. A Share on G+ and a "internal" READ THIS NOW note to my partners and 5x VA's
WOW, an eye opner for many... i believe
Thanks great efforts meanoingful information
special thanks by www.torontocitycab.ca