So here we are again. Another week, another weekly link-fest.
Lots of good stuff here, if you missed any of it, make sure you check it out now. And if there’s something vital that I haven’t mentioned feel free to go ahead and drop a link for it the comments (but bear in mind that I do moderate all comments, so don’t go thinking that you can get away with just lobbing any old rubbish in there for the sake of trying to score a link).
And now, without any further ado, on with the linkage…
SEO is dead. Long live SEO.
Shoemoney and Marketing Pilgrim have announced that SEO is a dying industry. Now, I’m not saying that Jeremey and Greg are indulging in a bit of SEO-baiting (a la Jason Calacanis), but it does seem like a pretty successful way of getting links from people who are determined to point out how wrong they are.
People like Ian Laurie at Conversation Marketing and Taylor Pratt from Gonzo SEO with his Gloria Gaynor-esque post about how SEO will survive.
And now me. D’oh!
The best response I’ve seen so far though comes from Michael Gray on his Wolf-Howl blog, where he lists a wide variety of reasons why SEO not only isn’t dead, but will continue to thrive until web-designers, executives and just about everyone else involved with website creation, learn to stop messing things up and needing SEOs to come in and fix their problems.
Mmm, freshly baked, fudgey, chocolate-flavoured linkbait
This is absolute genius. The guys at PurposeInc have dedicated an entire post full of juicy links this week to a bloke they met briefly at a couple of events, because he sent them a box of chocolate brownies. Just goes to show that the personal touch and a well-thought out gesture can work wonders. So, well done to Scott Skinger of MountainInsider.com who will probably find that he’s now going to get a lot of new backlinks from other people hoping he’ll send them some brownies as well (BTW Scott, if you’re reading this, I like brownies without walnuts 
)
Just remember folks, this kind of confectionery-based bribery doesn’t work on everybody.
An Avatar Picture Speaks A Thousand Words
Linda Bustos over at GetElastic.com wrote a couple of great posts about the value of avatar pictures as a tool for personal branding. This worked as a brilliant piece of Sphinn-bait because so many of the avatars listed belong to active Spinners and I’m sure they were all happy to give the posts a thumbs up.
As a side note, it also prompted me to finally get around to adding an avatar of my own to my Twitter and Sphinn profiles (and I’ll get round to adding it to the rest over the next few days). I haven’t decided yet if I’ll make that my permanent avatar; I might try out a few different ones over the next week or so and see what gets the most positive feedback.
The too-long-to-read-at-work-so-it’s-on-the-list-for-the-weekend Bit
This week’s award for the best post that I haven’t had time to read all the way through yet goes to Adam Audette from AudetteMedia.com for his very lengthy, very detailed and very, very informative post on SEO-focussed Information Architecture. Just make sure you’re sitting comfortably and get yourself a cup of coffee before you start reading.
This just in from the Don’t-Fall-For-This Department
David Eaves at SEOCO.co.uk pointed out an article from The Times Online about SEO which stated that “Links to esteemed websites such as the BBC or a national newspaper act as advocates for its content, boosting its ranking with Google.” Which probably sent a load of Times readers scurrying off to add links to the Beeb on their sites in the hope of improving their own rankings.
Oh dear.
But just in case they know something I don’t…
Here’s a link to the homepage of the glorious British Broadcasting Corporation.
(looks around… checks SERPs… nope, no change… damn.)
The Random Funny Bit
I’m a huge fan of the Fake Steve Jobs Diary and I was especially amused by his post this week about Robert Scoble seeking to be acquired by Microsoft. As anyone who follows @Scobleizer on Twitter probably noticed this week, he’s been trying out the idea of Tweetvertising for his sponsors like Seagate, so perhaps pimping himself back to “The Borg” isn’t quite so far-fetched after all.
And there you have it.
Enjoy your weekend and remember,
If you can’t be good, be good at it.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi, thanks for writing about my article. You may not believe this, but it was not linkbait. I just do not mind taking an unpopular position if I believe in it! In my opinion, SEO is on life support.
Thanks for stopping by Greg. I do believe that you weren’t intentionally linkbaiting, that’s just how things turned out.
And I agree with your statement that “SEO as we know it is going to continue its death spiral.” But the key turn of phrase there is “as we know it.”
Where we differ is that I feel (and judging by your post’s comments so do a lot of other people) this just means that SEO will have to adapt and evolve to account for new trends in search, just as it has done in the past when major changes have occurred.
Whether that’s in the form of so-called SEO 2.0 or something else entirely, the simple fact is that as long as there are search engines there will be people working to ensure that their sites are optimized to appeal to they way those engines rank their results.
It’s the ones who fail to evolve and stick with outdated practices (like the meta-tagging example you gave) that will die out.