Comments on: SEO as Website Positioning Strategy? - Updated

By: Google Universal Search and SEO: SEO is Dead Part 2 at Emergence Media

Google Universal Search and SEO: SEO is Dead Part 2 at Emergence Media — Wed, 23 May 2007 07:44:19 +0000

[...] SEO as Website Positioning Strategy? - Updated [...]

By: Marketing Changes: CMOs, Evangelist, Social Media Programs, Website Strategy Positioning at Emergence Media

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 06:42:14 +0000

[...] See more at: “SEO as Website Positioning Strategy? – Updated”, February 26, 2007 http://www.emergence-media.com/2007/02/seo-as-website-positioning-strategy/ [...]

By: Natasha Robinson

Natasha Robinson — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 01:45:14 +0000

WOW - Excellent piece - Where the hell have I been, that I’ve been missing pieces like this!? The Strategy group at the last agency that I worked for developed a great white paper (written by Doug Klein) that covers this as well. It’s the one named Internet Marketing Best Practices here - http://www.webassociates.com/library/whitepapers.aspx?docsource=whitepaper. However as per my last comment, selling the integrated approach is difficult when clients are not used to thinking about the STRATEGY of internet marketing. Especially when you have specialist firms claiming that you only need one and not the other.

By: Zach Katkin

Zach Katkin — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:17:03 +0000

Great points. I completely agree that SEO as a blanket term needs to be readdressed.

By: Website Visibility Optimization

Website Visibility Optimization — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:56:42 +0000

[...] In their article “SEO as Website Positioning Strategy? - Updated” Emergence Media observes the same. But, they have a different name in mind… Website Positioning Strategy. The great article goes in depth on the types of strategies involved in orchestrating and manipulating your website’s positioning online. [...]

By: Answering Jeremiah Owyang on SEO and Social Media at Emergence Media

Answering Jeremiah Owyang on SEO and Social Media at Emergence Media — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 06:10:12 +0000

[...] “Question 2) If Social Media is an effective way to gain in SEO (as well as engage an audience), should we increase Social Media Program budgets and reduce SEO budgets?” Cutting edge SEO is already incorporating website usability, widget creation, RSS feeds and linkbait (PR tactic to try to get people to link to your website) as part of the “SEO Tactics Toolbox”. Indeed, I’d say SEO people are one of the leaders pushing Social Media Marketing. SEO will not compete with Social Media, but will eventually merge with it. SEO will be about Website Positioning Strategy. As I’ve mentioned in my post “SEO as Website Positioning Strategy“: The idea of Strategic Website Positioning is to think of search marketing (organic SEO and PPC), social media marketing and website development as an integrated approach, by asking questions centered around: [...]

By: Brian Laks

Brian Laks — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:03:46 +0000

Your right, it’s hard to explain to them why they really need that sharp stick in the eye… Everybody wants the world until they realize what it’s gonna take… But baby steps are steps nonetheless, and you have to learn to walk before you can run… I guess it’s good there are SEO “physical therapists” like us that can help them out along the way…

By: Daniel R

Daniel R — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 07:42:34 +0000

@ Richard:
Tackling client education will be the biggest factor for SEO as it evolves into the next level. Add to this technical issues like AJAX/FLEX, and you have a big hairy thing to deal with it.

And unfortunately, as long as SEO is called just that, it will be very difficult to explain why something called “Search Engine Optimization” needs blogs, social media, usability studies etc.

I know I’ve been facing that issue more and more with our clients that require more sophisticated SEO strategies to succeed.

@ Brian:

“The successful websites will be those who embrace these changes as they arise instead of fighting the progress.”

True, but many do not see the need. Some of these companies have been slow to adopt SEO in the first place, then when they go for it - its baby steps. Even the simple steps like keyword research requires feedback from the client, coordination with their copywriter, approval on brand etc.

SEO is a lot of work. I’ve seen clients push for very aggressive launch dates, then bulk when they see the schedule - half of the deliverables are from their side to us. That is always shocking to see.

By: Brian Laks

Brian Laks — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:10:59 +0000

I agree that the tactics and strategies involved in SEO have changed considerably over the last few years. I think success will come from a combination of those strategies, rather than a strict adherence to one particular methodology. The successful websites will be those who embrace these changes as they arise instead of fighting the progress.

By: Richard Burckhardt

Richard Burckhardt — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 01:56:53 +0000

Right on the money. I do SEO for a company whose CEO was doing their optimization before I was brought on board. It is taking a herculean effort to get the development team caught up with the fact that SEO is no longer just tweaking titles and getting backlinks. Accepting social networking has been the hardest for them. They don’t understand it, so don’t see why we need it. They understand the need for press releases and shopping site feeds, but not Digg and the rest.

After a year of working to get one going, we’re just now getting the site a blog up and running. Once that’s up, we’ll tackle social networking.

SEO is now marketing, communications, public relations, web development, publishing, branding and more.

By: “Website Positioning Strategy” = New School SEO? | Search Marketing Standard Blog

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:01:42 +0000

[...] What Emergence Media has put together here is a great starting point for a new definition of SEO, and it’s one of the first elaborate and systematic attempts I’ve seen thus far. [...]

By: Daniel R

Daniel R — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 07:20:10 +0000

@Jake: Thanks again for emailing me about the coding issue.

@Stephanie: Thanks for your comment. I think just about everyone can agree on the tactics and the tools, but SEO and online marketing has changed so much in the past 2-3 years that it requires a whole new perspective of things, to rethink things in a new way.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:29:35 +0000

Very interesting perspective. Even sounds good to me. There are so many ways now to promote a website that the options can be rather overwhelming. But if you take the time to learn them one at a time, it’s not too bad.

By: Jake Lockley

Jake Lockley — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:28:45 +0000

Control code problem