SEO Is Not Dead: Why SEO Must Remain Core to Your Digital Marketing Strategy

No, I can’t get the Newsboys’ song out of my head. Thankfully, they helped influence the title to this article so I guess all is forgiven. The debate rages on with SEO, and I for one am taking sides. My stance? It is NOT dead and still must be part of your digital marketing strategy.

Search engine optimization methods are always changing. For some reason, webmasters and marketers think that it’s time to abandon SEO every time there is a major shift in its practice. Not sure if they are scared of change or simply too lazy, but there are some who are always trying to find a reason to get out of SEO.

Some have recently argued that SEO is dead and that you no longer need to implement it with your marketing strategy. They talk about how SEO is changing, but I have yet to find anything compelling to convince me of their argument.

Others side with me, agreeing that we need SEO since it is the only way search engines know how to find us.

“I’ve been hearing SEO is dead since the moment it began,” says Stoney deGeyter, CEO of Pole Position Marketing. “The bottom line for SEO is as long as there are search engines, there will always be a need to optimize websites.”

For my contention, I actually have history on my side. SEO is thriving at the moment. Until someone can show me hard-line facts that SEO dead, there really isn’t anything I need to prove. However, I will give my opinion, for what it is worth, that SEO is most certainly alive and well.

Yes, Google said so. Like it or not, Google is responsible for determine what sites are “quality” enough to show the users of its search engine. Too many people try to argue with the madness, but it’s futile. I gave up a while ago and now I simply follow the guidelines Google puts in place.

Guess what? It works.

Instead of going with SEO industry trends, I began following what Google says as if it was my father giving me advice. (Who knows, maybe it is.)

While Google is very secretive to its exact algorithms that govern search results, it is pretty clear and transparent about what webmasters can do to affect each one. In fact, it offers a guide to SEO which tells you the basics, gives you best practice advice, and even offers chats where you can ask questions (and get answers) with Google itself.

Disagree? No problem. Here is my logic—take it or leave it:

To me, that simply means listening to what Google says says is going to give you a greater chance of showing up higher in search results. As such, you MUST engage in SEO as this is how Google will rank you or even take notice of you in the first place.

As stated previously, Google will tell you what its looking for. Simply keep up with the changes, and everything will be fine. If there is a new industry “trend,” then verify it with Google.

When I talk about an industry “trend,” I am really talking about a fad created by the SEO community. Joe Goldstein, Lead SEO at Navolutions, explains what I mean: “Most of these fads, such as guest posting, broken link building, and schema authorship rich snippet abuse, revolve around the edges of Google’s Webmaster guidelines.

Once a technique is accepted as legitimate [by the SEO community], the next step is for the community to push it to its absolute limit, just to see what they can get away with. After a while, Google puts the brakes on the newest techniques, discounts a lot of the links involved, and penalizes the worst offenders.”

Some marketers confuse SEO change with SEO death. There are constant changes in the industry, but this does not mean that SEO is dead. Pete Schauer, Digital Strategy Manager for SEMGeeks , agrees. “SEO has changed throughout the years, but that’s all it’s done. It still plays a major role in digital marketing.

Changed? Yes it has and you need to keep up with the changes as opposed to the community trends (or fads).

Marketers are scared of change so many still keyword stuff and ignore link building best practices while risking (if not already experiencing) a Google penalty. Schauer sums it up perfectly in a blog post on digital marketing : “At the end of the day, you can’t win without SEO.”

Absolutely true! So if SEO is changing, why would you keep up with it or not? It makes no sense if you don’t.

Huh? Let me explain.

About a year ago, there was a comment on a public forum about an article I wrote on my website. While everyone was debating the content itself, this particular comment stated that there was no real value in the article and that it must have been written for SEO purposes. Despite being the most illogical comment in the debate, it is a perfect example to explain where SEO was and where it is now.

Years ago, content was 100 percent keyword-focused. This is because Google relied heavily on keywords. Writers and webmasters would stuff content with keywords to the point it was unreadable. Those who have not kept up with the SEO industry can still be found on Elance and Freelancer offering to write “keyword rich articles” for next to nothing.

In addition to keywords, Google relied heavily on backlinks (and still does) to determine the most relevant websites. Link building practices became about building as many backlinks as possible in order to let Google know you were relevant. Link schemes came along and soon it was a numbers game, not a quality game.

Well, Google was not pleased with these type of “ black-hat ” tactics and adjusted its algorithms accordingly. Google knows that it must return quality results (not results they were “tricked” into showing because of SEO techniques), which is why it continues to change things up, and for the better I might add.

Instead of focusing on SEO first (keyword stuffing), you need to simply keep it in mind. Your content must be of quality so that a reader enjoys it and shares it. Google will take notice of this and rank you accordingly. Write your article first, then you can go back and place a few keywords you think are relevant to the content.

“Never keyword stuff,” says SEO expert John Lincoln, author of the book Digital Influencer. “It is an old practice and in the current SEO environment it is much better to have quality content. As long as you place your keyword in the title and once or twice in the copy and optimize your images, you are good to go.”

So, make sure to use keywords relevant to the content, but don’t use the same word/phrase so many times that it become unreadable. Make sure to share your content, but don’t spam it on websites (e.g., spamming comments on WordPress websites) or make it part of a link scheme. Keeping SEO in mind will help your marketing efforts, but focusing on SEO first is likely to get you penalized.

There are numerous myths floating around about why SEO is dead. One myth is that mobile apps and social networks are taking away market share from websites and therefore you need to concentrate your efforts on building a mobile app instead of SEO.

While that is true in part, it does not mean that SEO is dead. In fact, quite the opposite.

Just because you have a mobile app does not mean people are going to stop searching for you online. Just because you are on social media does not mean people will find you. Mobile apps and social media are taking away website market share, but how do people know you have an app in the first place? Here’s a hint—it’s SEO!

Ever heard of app indexing ? Well, it is one of the most recent methods Google uses to deliver quality content to its users. When searching on mobile, Google now returns mobile apps in search results.

What does this tell me? Simple. Despite people using apps and social media on a larger scale, it still is not large enough to abandon SEO. If it were so, Google would not return the results in search. Google is trying to tell people “there’s an app for that” and lead them to it. Why would Google even show these results if SEO is dead?

Nothing wrong with building a mobile app and concentrating on social media, but you must also focus on SEO. In fact, you can even incorporate social media and mobile apps in your SEO efforts to help drive people to your website.

As stated earlier, my contention is easy to state. SEO has been shown to work time and time again, and there is nothing compelling to show the opposite. Until there are enough influencers and experts to provide solid evidence that we no longer need it, I suggest we still focus on it.

The short of it? SEO is NOT dead! Deal with it!

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