Search Engine Optimization as a product.
SEO as a service, is offered from professional (and hopefully good) individuals like myself, as well as from big internet marketing companies, like eVisibility. The level of service also varies, for example:
- The individual consultant is often limited to how much he/she can actually do, and the level of knowledge is limited to what that person knows.
- The big agency can offer a wide range of services that intertwine and make up a healthy campaign. The level of knowledge is vast as there is a team of clever individuals working on the same campaign (at least that’s the case for good agencies).
The SEO Buyer.
As a prospect buyer of this service, one can be quite overwhelmed with the wide range of possibilities, actual deliverable tasks, personalities, cost, and more!
One of the things the SEO buyer starts to realize, as he/she shops around for their future SEO provider, is that different SEO providers will quote different deadlines to achieve a certain goal (usually measured around rankings).
We will get your website ranked in 3 months!!! GUARANTEED!!!
… oh boy…
SEO IS FOREVER!
Dear Mr. SEO Buyer,
Are you serious about thriving online? Yes? Well I have news for you, SEO is FOREVER!!
I understand that if you heard this during the sales process, you might think that the person on the other side of the phone has gone bananas. How can you even consider spending a bunch of money on something indefinitely (or at least for as long as you have a business that needs the internet)?
Don’t freak out, let me show you a different point of view on the subject at hand..
The 6 Months Trial
Once you find an SEO provider that you can trust, make sure that you have enough budget to run a 6 months campaign. You need to give your new partner some time to get the foundation established before you can expect to see any ROI.
After 6 months you should have a pretty good idea as to whether or not this is working for your business. You should be educated enough in the process to spot the weaknesses and strengths of your campaign.
If it’s working, keep going! If you have gotten great rankings and quality traffic, keep going!! Remember, there will always be someone, somewhere, doing the same thing you’re doing and more..
If you’re serious, Mr. SEO Buyer, you can never stop SEO, it’s forever!
–
Photo Credits:
SEO Blocks: Flashdaweb
Sleazebag Salesman: NVISolutions
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I would agree that it is more like, ‘SEO is here for a little bit longer, as it currently exists, and then maybe called something totally different.’ My thought is that what will probably end up being called ‘the Outernet’ will create so much search-bypassing content experiences that SEO’rs will need to become more App-timizers than anything else, making sure that they are able to outrank mobile apps that are in their same sphere of relevancy. Expect in the year 2300? Nah, more like within 5-7 years.
@Daniel Redman: I’m a bit bias since I’m the author of this post. However, I enjoy reading your comment and I think I understand what you’re saying… I think…
My opinion is that mobile devices and mobile computers will remain separate for a while, however, the trend is that mobile devices are more and more replicating the mobile computing experience. This merge will most likely continue to happen and end up giving us one set of results, all coming from the same “database of intentions” which SEOs will continue to work with and adapt themselves to.
Not sure about the “Outernet”, but I appreciate your opinion!!
@Daniel
What fucking planet do you live on? “App-timizers” and the “Outernet”.
This is not the minority report and the world will not let the minority report effect happen because of privacy.
Lets take a step back and let me educate your ass.
SEO is two folds at its simplest: On page optimization and link building. Now link building I can see being replaced by a brand awareness metric in far distance land where “ewoks” roam freely.
However, on page optimization will always be needed. PEOPLE (Brand Big Wigs, Web Developers, Social Media Experts) HAVE NO IDEA ON HOW TO ORGANIZE INFORMATION TO ROBOTS. That simple, we make it easier. Brands are always pumping our new content /websites or information and we will be there to organize it.
If “SEO is here for a little bit longer” can you please give me some examples of your “Outernet” or “App-timizers” or “Brain Inserting Marketing Brand Awareness Infusion Reduction Targeting Machines” ?
@imnotadoctor: Phew!! I’m sweating just reading that rant, and I do agree with you. Specially about PEOPLE and ROBOTS, well put.
@Daniel Redman: Are you going to let him talk to you like that?
Ricardo,
I’m not denying that mobile units have become our central hubs. However, think about the way you use your mobile and what makes your life easiest…One question: How many apps do you have and what % do you use them over mobile search?
imnotadoctor,
Let me take a minute to introduce you to the future by first talking about the present…
Old time SERPS are currently brandished with real time feeds. Why? Though high school kids still need to research homework assignments and grandmothers need to download screensavers with puppies and kitties, people most importantly want to find out what is happening in their world right now. Newspapers are failing with 24 hour old content. Real time trumps old time in the momentum department. That’s now; next is the further accessibility of only the things that we care about. Otherwise known as Apps. ‘We’ve got an app for that’ remember? It’s no coincidence that Apple has positioned themselves as the app leader. Apps give us ease of connectivity to shopping, bar hopping, research, entertainment, etc. The more sophisticated the app becomes, the less reliant you’ll be on search. The next-next thing is what I’ve referred to as the outernet; in other words, Augmented Reality & consumer products that dip their paws into connectivity. If my toaster automatically tweets for me, there is no need for me to login and spend my precious time typing anything. The less logging-in I accomplish, the less search potential I have as a user.
How bout dem apples, App-timizer? My advice is that you start learning C+-+ or whatever it is that apps are coded in, because you’ll be updating title tags in App Directories.
Thanks!
@daniel
Have you seen real time search in Google? It is a fucken joke. Just like people that think “Ghost Hunters” is a real show about real ghosts!
Not everyone is looking for real time information. Example, say you were looking for an Ugly Sweater for some shitty xmas party you were going to. Do you think you want real time results full of stupid twitter comments and reviews of a politicians self serving book that happened to be title “Christmas Sweater”? I think not!
Apps are here to stay for sure, but hey how do people find apps? The search for them! Maybe not on Google but in the Apple store. Hell maybe I will become an “SEOer”, as you call it, of search engines for apps.
The Augmented Reality concept is entertaining, and has a long way to go! How long did you think it took to perfect light speed travel in Star Wars?
PS.
I don’t give a fuck about your toaster.. that’s like referencing if your dick tweeted every time you got laid. TMI (too much information).
Hahahahahahaha, this is really hilarious. But @dredman, I am glad that you have jumped into the fray here because I am going to blow your mind.
Apps will be DEAD within the next 3-6 years. Mobile devices are progressing in such a fashion that they will not need apps installed locally on the phones, sucking up valuable resources, memory, and battery life. Browsers are getting more sophisticated and faster, flash will soon be available on all mobile browsers.
That being said “apps” will be replaced with a website. You go to a website to play with an app or interact with FourSquare, Facebook, or even Twitter. These companies will have highly optimized mobile sites that will perform better than the localized apps of today. Its basically your apps in the “cloud.” This will allow your phone to be faster, last longer, and provide a more powerful experience.
On the idea of where SEO will be in the coming years, it will still be widely needed. People will still use search engines to find most stuff. Sure, many sites will gain market share away from search engines in the traffic departments and engagement arenas. But it will not come anywhere close to the domination of the search engines. It will be like taking 5 drops of water from a 50 gallon tank. The search engines will still dominate and will still be the most relevant for transactions and lead gen.
SEO IS forever! Pho Ever!
@Daniel Redman: I actually have a bunch of apps on my phone, but none of them replace search. I use them as I would use software on my computer, and I still search just as I would using a browser on my computer.
If anything, the way I use my mobile device is more and more like I use a full desktop/laptop system.
@imnotadoctor: Ooof, that was below the belt… Expect a come back from Mr. Redman
@SEO Overlord: Holy crap!
Who approves this guy’s comments? I haven’t heard such language since I joined my local town hall meeting on health care.
Real time search being a joke now is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that it is important…no, crucial. That’s the message that Google has sent. I trust that the positioning of Google in real-time and Apple in apps (hell it’s in their name for crying out loud) should be big enough clues for you. @imnotadoctor, you’re starting to sound a lot like Danny Sullivan when he gets his pantie’s all bunched up about content pay walls.
I’m just trying to help you out, man. Help me help you…find a job in 2020.
SEO Overlord,
I’m with you on technology progressing, yadda-yadda Moore’s law, etc. But unless we are talking about projection screens or some sort of sci-fi light-bending, you can’t accomplish in 2.5inx2in monitor what you can a 15in. LCD. Apps have a place because they are organizable by micro-interest, websites aren’t monetized in a way that allow you to do the same. There are a lot of assumptions in you’re argument, mostly reliant on super sciency developments unlike anything we have today. By the time of which, the ‘algorithm’ will have been leaked/cracked anyhow.
Well I’m sorry your virgin ears are sensitive to my powerful and moving language.
**Earmuffs** (if you are sensitive to words like fuck please do not read anymore)
Who the fuck said people wanted real time results to dominate each search results? It’s called relevancy and user intent which is extremely hard for the search engines to get right. Hell maybe Google will not fix their irrelevant shitty real time results so people continue to click on their paid ads, thus making them richer. Reminds me of the marketing tactic of not placing any clocks in a casino. With that said, if real time results stay as an SEOer I will figure out how to get my content place in front of eyeballs. Hell I will optimize Twitter accounts! Regardless of what you attempt through at me or any other real SEOers we will learn how to adapt like we always do. Even if you want to try to get rid of us we you can’t cause we are marketers that fuck simple kid.
I understand you want to help me out, but I think you might be better off helping Mark Wahlberg’s third nipple.
If I smell like cabbage then you smell like scurvy.
Enjoy your day Sir cause you “look like a fool with his pants on the ground!”
@imnotadoctor, this is how you battle:
Distraction
Distraction
Make one point only
Distraction
Distraction
Distraction
Here’s a little distraction I made for you:
http://seo.ytmnd.com/
I hope you like it.
@Daniel
Thank you for complementing me on my awesome drunken Irish ninja battle skills!
You think I’m coming from one way only to appear out of the foggy shadows to slam my large pint glass filled with Guinness over your head!
If you are still licking your wounds like a little pussy .. pussy cat I mean .. I will buy an Irish Car Bomb?!
Cheers mate!