I’ve been picking up on a rumor that’s circulating around the blogosphere that some people are starting to believe that SEO doesn’t ‘matter anymore’.  As you know, rumors can spread quickly around the web. Aside from that, bloggers often  write about topics while having no more than basic knowledge and experience on the subject. Not all bloggers are seo experts, so it’s  not unusual that information you read on blogs can be inaccurate.

SEO can become frustrating when in theory, you’re expecting to receive a  massive web traffic, but never see any results in practice.  There can be a number of reasons why a search engine optimization campaign is not working the way you expect.   It’s my believe though, and I say this not as an seo expert , but as a someone with both technical and commercial knowledge combined with years of experience, that the main reason so many people fail to be successful  at it, is  due to the fact that they don’t fully understand search engines and the SEO process as a whole.

Being successful at optimizing your web pages and attracting  traffic through SE’s  goes a little  further than performing basic and easy techniques. Long term SEO success needs insight, anticipation, understanding and most of all, dedication. This means that if you want to get a good position the SERPS (search engine results page) you’ll have to start thinking not only like the search engines and the web surfers using them, but like the people behind the search engines, as well. Once you start doing this, you’ll be thinking like most experts or professional seo companies do.

With that said,  let’s get back to what this post is about, increasing your chances of attracting more traffic with SEO.  In this article I’d like to explain why SEO will always matter, I’d like to touch upon some of the factors that are the reason why people can get so frustrated with optimization. I’d also like to emphasize a few ways of changing a limiting mind sets, which can keep you from being successful …

1. SEO always matters because it’s based on technology
Just like your blog or web site is based on a technology, for instance HTML, PHP and so on, search engines are also based on technology. For search engines to index, categorize and put together search results, they need technical criteria an comparison functions. This is why criteria such as keyword density, number of inbound links and Page Rank were introduced . Search Engines are basically programs and they will always work on a criteria-comparison bases.

Basic SEO techniques teach you to optimize for the criteria that don’t change much. These are for instance page titles and keywords in anchor links.  On the other hand, professional optimizers usually get their success out of getting the maximum out of the ever changing criteria that matter, such as Page Rank (now a little less important) or appliance of long term SEO strategies (for instance long tail keywords).

SEO will always matter, in some way or another. It’s your job to keep up with how we think the criteria for indexing, and ranking are changing.  For example:  Page Rank was treated differently just a while ago than it is right now. This means that you should find out what to put more focus upon right now.

An effective way of anticipating what’s going to change in the world of seo factors is just using your mind logically and keeping updated with the latest information. Common Sense Search Engine Optimization, is an article I’ve written on this subject. Check it out if you like.

2. How you deal with the competition determines your success
If you look at the number of web pages that are optimized for the same keywords that you’d like to rank high for, take the following into account : the larger the number of competitors, the smaller the chance  that you’ll break through to any page close to the first.  Some people keep optimizing and never even receive search engine traffic as a result of doing this. The web surfer just does not click through to page number 23.

Also, the type of competition matters a lot. If you try to optimize for a term like ‘search engine rankings‘, you can be sure that a host of your competitors who are writing about this topic are experienced search engine optimizers. Thus it will be even more difficult to get good rankings (since these people know what they are doing).

It’s very important to look at the market you want to break into from different perspectives, not only from an absolute keyword point of view.  This is why you need to check out what your competitors are doing if you want to increase your changes of success with SEO.

Implementing a solid  SEO Strategy is one of the remedies to circumvent tough competition. SEO strategies are custom and there are no standard solutions.  You’ll have to think of your own ways by being creative and learn as much as you can about search engine optimization (what you are doing now) and internet marketing (link baiting and so on) Applying a combination of knowledge, creative thinking and hard work will surely give you results.

3. SEO is a Dynamic Process, things are constantly changing

The goal of a search engine is to provide the web surfer with the most relevant search results. Keeping this in mind and applying some techno-logic,  it’s impossible for search engines to continuously use the same  indexing and ranking criteria. It would mean that eventually the search results would become less relevant.  This is of course because the rest of the web is developing. Web surfers now have numerous choices for finding relevant information.  For instance :  through social media sites such as facebook or stumbleupon.

If you want to keep getting results from seo techniques, you will have to keep moving ‘with the field’. As said, today Page Rank is treated differently than it was a while ago. On the other hand social media marketing provides us with more opportunity to receive inbound links, which is still a primary factor for good rankings. Of course the people behind the search engines are taking all the developments on the web into account. They are always trying to integrate developments into their services and business strategies (Google Blog search for instance).  After reading the previous, your logic should tell that a drop in importance of our notorious Page Rank could be anticipated.

Consider this example : Johnny is on facebook all day long and has built a huge network. He is no seo expert,  but he has found a way to get people to link to his blog. He does this by socializing with everybody in the field.  As a result of hist subconscious 24 hours a day of social media marketing marketing campaign he’s accumulated hundreds of inbound links to his ‘amateur seo blog’.

As a result, over time, Johnny had ended upon the first page of Google for the keyword ‘search engine placement‘.  However, johnny is not a professional optimizer and thus his information is actually not as valuable as it seems.  Google sending visitors to his blog nonetheless and what do they find ? Non-relevance.

Wouldn’t it be logic for search engines to start thinking of ways the apply criteria to the inbound links in order to identify them as valuable or less valuable ? Before social media it was a different situation. Some criteria have become obsolete, some have gone down in weight.  What I am saying is that the web is always changing and that you need to keep this in mind if you want to be successful at seo.

For now I rest my case and I would like to add that concluding that SEO does not matter anymore is like denying that an apple grows on trees.  Compare in this case the apples to web traffic : If for some reason we do not find apples on our tree, there must be a reason for this. Maybe the weather has changed. Maybe it’s not the season ? We may have polluted the ground and caused the tree to die or maybe someone has just stolen our apples.

Whatever the reasons, I hope this article and the tips in it have provided some readers with insight into the world of seo and the dynamics of web marketing.

Hopefully it will be a helpful read to people who are facing the ever prevalent SEO Frustration Syndrome …