It’s been a while since I’ve posted here – crazy busy and not too much time to ponder. Been waiting for something to come along which would trigger fingers to keyboard. Jeff Jarvis did just that with his post proclaiming the end of SEO.
I love this topic and usually like to claim the death of SEO myself, at least once every year and have been ever since I started in this business. But whenever I hear non-SEO going there I start to get a little defensive.
Jeff’s argument isn’t new, and as a searcher I’d love to see the end of the trickery that allows a site to punch above its weight.
But I think there’s a huge misconception about what is SEO and the SEO community has to take responsibility for that.
For me, SEO has really been about understanding how search engines interact with content and how people interact with search engines and content. How that information is used is a matter of ethics and taste. The good SEOs have always concentrated on connecting the right customers with the right brands.
Yes, personalisation including localisation reduces trickery, but ultimately helps the good SEO to deliver the right customer.
Personalisation and localisation is not new. When Google decided to increase visibility for local sites in local searches a few years ago, it made it much easier to connect with more relevant customers.
Tricks may and should be less effective, but the core knowledge of SEO will still be important to making those connections.
