Just a few months ago, Mike Volpe blogged about Page Rank becoming irrelevant . The team at HubSpot has had engaging debates on the nuances of this topic and what innovations like Google Caffeine , social search, Facebook and Twitter search and real time search mean for SMBs trying hard to get found online.
What follows is a quick interview with Aaron Kahlow founder of the Online Marketing Summit , an educational resource for marketers trying to stay at the top of their game. Look for more perspectives from other SEO luminaries in the coming weeks.
How have you seen SEO as a practice change over the last few years?
SEO has become much more focused around fundamentals then tricks of the trade as those with the budgets have too much fear of getting banned. They are not looking to "work the system". Gaming the link system also seems to be diminishing, with entire business models folding under the weight of Google re-working algorithms to catch those that do. The most dramatic change is how social media and related recency are playing in the role of the SEO practice. Take blogs for example. How could a small consultant's blog out rank major publications? It is all due to publishing content quickly. To that point, one would be remiss if not to mention Real-Time Search. It is a HUGE wild card, that not even Google has figured out, because their algorithms are built over time, indexing, crawling, and real-time is well just that, "real" time.
Is search engine rank (page rank) important? Why or Why not?
Like all other indicators or even metrics, its importance is based on its comparative relevance. So, much like saying I had 100 unique visitors today ... what does that mean ... nothing unless compared to yesterday and if yesterday was 50 then, that's a good sign. Page Rank is an indicator, one of many, but unlike past years, it is no longer the Holy Grail for your site as a goal. If taken too seriously it can mislead you in many ways. I'd think of it as a barometer. If page rank drops then a storm is a brewing, if it stabilizes or goes up, the potential for good weather ahead is much greater.
How do you think localization and personalization have changed the relevance of search ranks?
Localization and personalization make it much, much harder for SEOs but produce an increasingly better experience for the user. Localization has a long way to go but like personalization, it's a step in the right direction for all.
What will be the impact of social media inclusion in search?
"Will" seems a little past tense... it HAS huge impact. There is not an SEO consultant worth his or her salt that would not list a social media tactic as one of their top priorities for any SEO strategy. The content goldmine of user generate content, the viral linking of forums and blogs, and the nascent stage of video, leads to a ton of great opportunities for the small business to out pace the slow moving behemoths.
What is the most important thing an SMB can do to improve organic traffic?
A Blog. Period.
Write content, have others write content and make it engaging and relevant, then the links will come. I Can't even begin to tell you the potential here, if you are willing to engage for a few hours a week.
What do you think about all the new trends in SEO and how is it impacting your business already?
Photo Courtesy of marciookabe
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Matthew Nelson 8:20 AM on April 19, 2010
Words of truth here. For our agency our blog is absolutely the main driver of all our traffic. It's this content that defines our group as professionals and helps show our current and potential clients that we are always working at getting better at what we do and are on the forefront of all the progressive things going on with marketing and design. We have seen nothing but steady growth when we are supporting and writing regularly.
Lyz Cordon 9:05 AM on April 19, 2010
My experiences exactly echo Aaron's points. I've been using social media and my blog, with any seriousness anyway, for less than six months but in that time I've seen huge increases in traffic to my site and much more user enagagement.
Tim Ware 10:08 AM on April 19, 2010
I agree 100% with Aaron that having a blog -- in a subdirectory of your primary domain, and set up with the right SEO plugins -- and blogging great content is the best way to generate both visits and backlinks.
I also agree, and as an SEO I always advise, that the best strategies for backlinking are those that focus on creating great content, period. As for getting into directories, think like a search engine. If your job is to provide searchers with the best content, would you give any value to the fact that a site is listed in a gazillion free directories that are not human monitored? In my recent blog post about best link-building strategies in 2010 I list about 10 directories worth the bother, and 9 of them are paid, because they hire humans to review content.
Finally, my business HyperArts is a great posterchild for the benefit of blogging to SEO. A year and a half ago we had about 4,000 visits/mo. to our site and had a PR of 6. Since then we have really focused on blogging great content about SEO and Facebook programming, and our monthly visits are now at about 46,000, with 39,000 being visits to the blog. And our PageRank just jumped to 7! This has results in many more leads.
So there it is! Listen up. :)
Marcus Sheridan, The Sales Lion 10:08 AM on April 19, 2010
Can I just get an 'AMEN' to page rank's importance taking a nose-dive?!! In my small business' niche, our page rank is lower than most of our competitors but we dominate in terms of traffic. This is why page rank, although I used to really let it bother me, has no relevancy to me now. Just like this article says, BLOGGING is everything, it's the great separator, it's what allows David to regularly beat Goliath. Very exciting time lie ahead for any business willing to put out great content.
Vancouver Real Estate 10:32 AM on April 19, 2010
Great post! Could not agree more with you. I am doing two tests right now where I am going after the same keywords with different approaches in order to see how the compare after 3, 6 and 9 months. Blog is very powerful tool that everybody has yet hardly anybody is making use of it.
Bruce Carlson 10:48 AM on April 19, 2010
Nice to hear that Aaron concurs with what some of us have been saying for a long time: If you're in business, you've got to have a blog! Going blogless really isn't an option anymore, no matter where you are in the business spectrum. There are just too many benefits, with the SEO factor being right at the top of the list. Thanks Kirsten for the post and interview with Aaron!
Matthew Zinda, Make My Own Website 11:06 AM on April 19, 2010
I, for one, like the new rules the search engines are using to determine search results for specific keywords.
It gives all marketers an equal opportunity.
Also, it provides more useful, relevant search results for the users of the search engines.
That is what we should be doing as marketers, isn't it? Providing users with useful, relevant information.
If your business is based on anything else, you are in trouble, and in my opinion, you deserve it.
Thank You-
Matthew Zinda
David Siteman Garland 11:17 AM on April 19, 2010
I'm with you on this. Blogging (video, audio, text, whatever suits your style) along with forming real relationships with your potential customers (and current ones) is the key to success. SEO may change, but relationships stay forever.
Lauren Perdue 11:57 AM on April 19, 2010
"The most dramatic change is how social media and related recency are playing in the role of the SEO practice. Take blogs for example. How could a small consultant's blog out rank major publications? It is all due to publishing content quickly."
This has been the case for awhile now. We've found our SEO Blog will rank very shortly after posting fresh content.
Colin 9:23 PM on April 19, 2010
I think that SEO is still important but not as important now as Social Media Optimization. With Facebook recently overtaking Google as the most visited website on the net shows that people using the net are dictating where it's future is heading and what it's going to be used for. Searching for information will still be a part of life on the net, but entertainment and sharing experiences is what most users are now looking for online. Ignore SMO at you peril! Another great blog article Hubspot.
John 12:30 AM on April 22, 2010
Blog with the hot subjects with unique and original content. It will result in higher search rank with more number of visit and ultimate your site's popularity. Look for the hot subject of a day, week and month and blog
David Robertson 10:37 AM on April 24, 2010
As a Honda dealership we have one of the more tech-savy automotive customers out there. It is so important for us to stay up on all these topics. The dissolution of the Page Rank as the only factor of importance has definitely changed the way we look at SEO. This blog and the tools the belong to hubspot have helped us put in perspective the climate of the SEO world. Looking forward to more posts like this.