Article

Fredrik Norrbin
Fredrik Norrbin 9 September 2014

Why You Should Avoid Unnecessary Trends

Changing marketing strategy will often lead you nowhere. It's the same thing when it comes to SEO. Your SEO strategy needs to have a short, medium and long-term plan. If you don't have patience and persistence you will not reach the full potential in how your website can help your business to grow.

Always focusing on the newest trends in marketing can be like an illness that can infect small businesses or a marketing manager’s daily workload. You get approached by a skilled salesman or read about a new technology or service and you instantly need to have it integrated into your own marketing strategy. You prefer to brag about being an “early adopter” and show that you are not afraid to try new things, but what you should really do is analyse or ask yourself; “is this helping me to reach my goals?”

 

Changing marketing strategy, like you have to do if you want the latest, will often lead you nowhere. It’s the same thing when it comes to SEO. Your SEO strategy needs to have a short, medium and long-term plan. If you don’t have patience and persistence you will not reach the full potential in how your website can help your business to grow.

Implementing a SEO strategy often takes several months before you see the results. But the benefit of getting to the top 3 positions on a relevant and high search volume keyword is huge. Sadly some businesses don’t have the patience to wait for the results before they want to change strategy to get an easier or quicker result. When you start with your SEO strategy you have to let the seeds nourish and give them time to flourish. After that you will harvest the rewards like brand awareness and quality visitors from targeted traffic.

 

Adopting new trends is a never ending story

A few years ago it was a big buzz in the SEO pond about author rank. Discussions on how it could affect ranking or CTR went bananas on Twitter and other Social media platforms. After three years the great Google Authorship experiment has come to an end, but I am sure some skilled salesmen could sell a few more hours to their clients thanks to the buzz.

Today many Marketing-, SEO- and Communication agencies buzz about “content marketing is the new SEO“, “Social SEO” or even worse; “Ethical SEO“.

 

Content Marketing is not SEO

I am sure you have heard the phrase “Content is King”. Content is not king, content is good.Great content is even better. Content marketing is one of many parts of our SEO strategy but it is only when SEO is added to the mix when content marketing come into play.

The content you pushed for a month ago is normally forgotten. But together with SEO that can get a long lived life. Instead of only pushing content that bloggers discuss for a few days or gets shared on Twitter for an hour or two, it is better to create content that have value over a longer time.

As you already know you need good content and links to hold a position in the search results. If the content is good, have value over a long time and you make an effort to build permanent, quality links to it, then you will get the desired effect. Well-made content is also something that attracts natural links, and without links you will never get a top position on a competitive search phrase.

 

Social SEO – not for Google

From time to time I read a report stating that Google finally have taken social signals as a ranking factor in it’s algorithm. But still I haven’t seen any convincing evidence that this is the case.

The reason why social signals have such small impact – if any – in Google’s algorithm is because it is too easy to manipulate. This means it makes it enormously complex to evaluate how much a “share” or interaction in social media is worth from a ranking perspective.

With that said, it does not mean that it is bad working on strategies for social media. On the contrary, it is in many cases an excellent complement to other communication channels, and of course it can eventually help you getting a link or two. However, it is not the primary tool you will use this if your goal is to take positions in Google.

 

Ethical SEO vs Results

Ethical SEO is perhaps not really a trend, but it is a perfect example of a tiring sales pitch.

There are still a discussion on White Hat vs. Black Hat. If you do not know what it is, the most common definition of White Hat SEO is all SEO that follow the search engine guidelines, and Black Hat SEO is all SEO that don’t. If we can agree to ignore the nonsense on Doorway Pages, Meta Refresh redirects, cloaking, etc. and focus on what the discussion always is about; link acquisition.

As I see it there has never been a question of Black- or White Hat SEO, or even various Gray Hats. SEO is valuated by an algorithm and the algorithm has nothing to do with hats or ethics, it’s with mathematics. Links are one of the most, if not the most, important factor in this mathematical formula. If you do not understand that, you will not be able to claim your right on high competitive keywords.

SEO consultants have the responsibility to its customers to ensure that they understand the risks with SEO. And the client should require transparency, because without transparency the SEO consultant decide the risks for you.

 

Summary

Without patience and persistence to your SEO strategy, don’t expect to be successful. Don’t bother about what is new or trendy because there will always be something new. Your success depends on goals, strategies, tactics and how to be effective. Changing course or adopt new trends too often, will leave you behind your competitors. To rank in Google you need to stick to the basics, so please avoid unnecessary trends!

 

This article was originally posted on SEO Iberica

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