I remember the first time I used a new search engine called Google. I had been partial to Yahoo, and I was very skeptical about using something different. I was working on a technical problem with our database servers, and I had been stumped for a long time, unable to fix the problem. I had tried a number of search engines already, and I just couldn’t find the answer I needed. I decided to try this new search engine I had heard so much about. The first 3 search results gave me exactly what I was looking for. I thought to myself, “I would pay to use this! It made my job so much easier!”
From there, Google grew and grew. I remember seeing a headline somewhere: “SEO is Dead.” No more keyword stuffing. No more making sure you had the exact keyword density on all your pages. As Google quickly took over most search traffic, search engine optimizers everywhere found that they had to adapt their practices to please the new sheriff in town.
A new type of SEO emerged. Google uses an algorithm that lets websites “vote” for other websites as a sort of popularity contest. Marketing companies quickly caught onto how to keep their sites at the top of the search results. Spam links began popping up in the comments of others’ blogs, and paid links on adult sites, link farms, and article spinning for content emerged within the SEO community.
But Google did not become the number one search engine because they are dumb. Next came Google’s anti-fraud updates, named after cute animals, i.e. Panda and Penguin. Then they started hitting large sites that threw what they were doing in Google’s face, daring Google to catch them. Again, people began declaring, “SEO is Dead,” almost 12 years after Google first changed the SEO landscape.
I contend that ethical SEO has never died. Do what the search engines find valuable, and you will have a long career in search engine optimization. Google loves high-quality content, and they like it when you give credit (in other words, links) to sites that deserve credit. Don’t try to create useless content that doesn’t make sense. Don’t try to game the system by artificially inflating sites with a link farm. Follow their rules, and don’t take short cuts.
When choosing a marketing company, make sure you know what SEO tactics they use. If they can’t tell you, run away as fast as you can. Demand that they be very specific on how they plan to provide SEO for your site. A bad SEO company can do things that will cost you more to fix later than what you pay them now to do. A good SEO company, on the other hand, can help take your site from being relatively unknown to being a leader in your industry.
Boostability has always striven to be more than just a good SEO company; we strive to be the best. As we transition into a new year, we look forward to continuing to provide above board, “white hat” SEO practices that will help our customers achieve higher rankings now. We are also committed to continuing to innovate, finding additional ways to help our clients achieve their long-term goals for their online businesses in the future.
As we look forward to 2013, we are excited about the future of SEO and the contributions that Boostability will continue to make to this dynamic industry.
