What Is SEO These Days?

After reading a funny post in a discussion group about SEO and astrology, I came upon another discussion that wonders What Is Seo These Days?

What is SEO is these days and how does PPC fit in and provide benefits to an organic campaign?

Is it “dead”? Dependent on the position of the planets? How about the weather? Is search engine optimization voodoo magic?

Do we even need SEO anymore?

Some of the comments so far:

SEO is:

1. Getting pages crawled by SE’s

2. Appearing in search results (SERPS)

3. Coming up high in SERPS (not beating competition but being satisfied to be in top 10)

4. Persuading searchers to click into the site (still part of on page SEO)

5. Following up with a site that’s usable, accessible and converts marketing traffic to completing the goals set forth by the site

To do this means understanding web design, programming, copywriting, persuasive architecture, user experience design, accessibility, target user demographics and user behavior.

“An SEO is someone who understands how people search for information (on the web and in other ways) and ensures that they or their clients are visible in the unpaid listings that are provided. A search marketer, by the way, is someone that ensures listing in both paid and unpaid listings.”

I still believe that Internet marketing is a better expression of what we should all be doing as we build websites that perform and achieve the objectives of their owners.

The “easier to use” aspect of my definition encompasses usability, accessibility, increasing conversions, and other activities that help obtain the objectives of someone who has a site and wants to increase their visibility on the Web while fulfilling the purposes for which they put the site online in the first place.

Far from being an exercise in futility, search engine optimization and marketing are skills web site owners depend on.

However, it’s a practice not limited to search engines anymore.

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