More on SEO for Web 2.0

It all used to be so easy, the search optimization business. You added a bunch of keywords to the header component on the page, paid some online company a few bucks to blast out thousands of links back to the home page. Got a cup of coffee and watched the PageRank rise. There are not as many economists running commercial websites as one might think so the Law of Diminishing Returns was not a concern. But diminish they did and the nature of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is changing right along with it.

Memo to me #1: It is about the searcher, not about the publisher: When we think of Google, we think of billions and billions of dollars in Google Adwords revenue. We mock the mission of “Do no Evil” and assume that our friends at Google mean this in terms of recycling and charitable giving. No. Google means it in terms of get the searcher to the information that they need as quickly as possible. In the beginning, they trusted us with linking as an indicator of relevance. We blew that with the miserable failure parlor trick. As soon as processing power got beefy enough, context came into the mix and, while not impossible, it is very, very hard to game context.

Memo to me #2: It is more about relationships that one night stands: The original PageRank was built on the foundation of a relationship between two entities that signified endorsement. Then the low-ball SEO tactics came on line with gray to black methods and the whole search optimization trade became like a Roadrunner-Wiley Coyote cartoon. Easy SEO went the way of free love (was it every REALLY free?) and Disco. The only thing freely propagating was additions to PageRank: Hilltop algorithm, HITS algorithm, Orion algorithm and lots of little algorithms.

These and other enhancements put an end to the coffee sipping, laid-back waiting for the site to magically appear in prime position on the search results page. Say goodbye to voluminous lists of randomly related keywords that you are to sprinkle around your website like text-based breadcrumbs.

SEO 2.0 is about relational content modeling and making sure that there are links to appropriate “next steps” content on the important pages on your site. And, some of these links should go off your site because you don’t know everything (Memo to me #1). It may take longer to get into prime positioning and you may not get placement for all of the terms that you want. However, you will get customers that stay on your site longer and engage on a deeper level. These are the customers that are more likely to give you money.

SEO 2.0 is about money but only in the Pay-Per-Click sense of a designated section of the search results page. It is no longer prudent to pursue reciprocal linking or paid directory linking as Google admits to discounting or dismissing these links and the other search engines likely do also. This makes link building very hard and time consuming. It also requires strategy and consistency.

SEO 2.0 is about keeping up; keeping up with the developments in search technology, keeping up with your customers’ behavior through analytics and market research and keeping up with the world around us.

SEO 2.0 is about matchmaking; finding the right resources to link in and for out links, establishing relationships both on and off the site. It is about sticking with a subject for more than 1 night, choosing something to become authoritative about and getting the customer to information that they did not know they needed or wanted to know.

SEO 2.0 is about both organic and paid placement; you can have the organic without the PPC but not the other. Our customers have been using search engines for over 10 years. They are savvy enough to know that the ads to the right are there because the published paid more to be there. And they also know that the center of the page is where it’s at for the answers to their information need.

Yes, SEO used to be a lot easier, run the tools, generate a report or two and you’re done. It is not so easy now but it is a lot more interesting and better for the searchers. That makes it better for the clients.