If you’ve been following the digital marketing blogosphere for the last week, by now you’ve probably concluded that SEO is dead because within 3 months there will be no more keyword data in Google Analytics. Right? Its the end of SEO. No more measuring. No more valuable data. Its Adwords or nothing.
Let’s just stop the madness right now. This is a load of BS. Yes, as usual, Google has shaken the SEO world to its core. In case you haven’t noticed, these major shake ups happen, at least, once a year. What does it mean? It means we evolve. Is this a frustration for marketers? Sure! No one likes change and with so many scam artists in the SEO industry, this will make it very difficult for shoddy SEO companies that provide pretty SEO reports that don’t mean much to continue on the way they have… unless of course they’re just going to completely fabricate reporting, which I suppose isn’t out of the realm of possibilities given the loose ethics already being employed, but I digress… SEO isn’t dead.
So why all the doom and gloom? You know the old saying in news media, “if it bleeds, it leads.” Its an attention grabber and not to mislead you, this is an important change, but thats all it is — a change. The way we measure will change. The depth at which SEO’s will need to research and compile data will be more involved. Reporting valuable metrics will become more time consuming. But those of us providing a real SEO service are already well on our way to sorting this out — AND IT HASN’T EVEN HAPPENED YET! So, you can take a deep breath and stop panicking.
Wondering about the solutions in the works? Rand Fishkin of Moz has already begun to trudge the path. You can see his suggestions in this short video.
Still not convinced? How many times have you heard SEO is dead before? You know what happens every time people write that SEO is dead? SEO company‘s website traffic spikes through the roof and leads pour in. Don’t believe me? Here is our website traffic for the last 7 days. This is all a direct result of the pandemonium surrounding Google’s latest shake up.
The real question is what to do as a business owner to make sure you’re ready to compete in the new SEO landscape that is fast approaching. For one thing, call your SEO company. Ask how they are preparing for the shift ahead.
Look at the reporting you’ve been receiving. Is it solely keyword based? Are there metrics on specific landing pages? Do you get reports that show the actual content created by your SEO company? Does reporting connect the dots from keywords, to traffic, to landing pages, to leads, to conversion? Is your SEO company talking about shifting focus from high level metrics to conversion based metrics? If not, why not?
Here are some questions to ask yourself as a business owner. Is your SEO company, just an SEO company? SEO isn’t a marketing strategy. A marketing strategy consists of many components of which SEO is one of them, but the should be part of a greater overall strategy and those components should all be tied together for the purpose of definable goals that can be measured and held accountable. If you’re just “paying for SEO,” then you’re probably missing the boat.
OK. Crisis averted. Let’s get back to business.