seo is dead: it's a linkless, seoless world

It’s a Linkless, SEOless World...

And many marketers have their knickers tied up in a twist over it...

Introduction

•Eric Ward: Link Moses, writes for Link Week column at SearchEngineLand.com

•Rae Hoffman: CEO of PushFire, author of the often controversial Sugarrae blog.

WHO:

•Eric Ward: 11 Reasons Link Building Is A Futile Waste Of Time — And One Big Reason It Isn’t

•Rae Hoffman: Google Propaganda, SEO and Why Marketers Need to Wake up

WHAT:

•Eric Ward: at SearchEngineLand.com

•Rae Hoffman: at SugarRae.com

WHERE:

The Premise

“A lot of people who think “SEO is dead” in my opinion, do so because they were “one trick ponies” so to speak - had one ranking tactic in their arsenal that they con2sed with a strategy – build keyword based links.”

~ Rae Hoffman

“It’s been made clear by everyone that link building is now dead, the last nail in the coffin being the guest blog p4t, hammered in by my friend, colleague, and occasional co-panelist, Matt Cutts, who takes way more grief than he deserves.”

~ Eric Ward

“To be clear, I’m not picking on Matt personally here, even though his p4t was partially responsible for spurring this p4t. Google is a huge company and Matt doesn’t run it. I’m sure when Matt is met with 5amples of the above, he’s sometimes like…” ~ Rae Hoffman

Speaking of Matt Cutts, we DO like the guy:

Is Good Content Good Enough?

“You now have one single solitary content mission:Be awesome. Be awesome and the world will find and share that awesomeness — this is the 2014 social version of 1994′s ‘build it and they will come’ approach, or the

2010 version of ‘just make it an app and they will download it.’ ” ~ Eric Ward

“Somehow, someway, the web has evolved into this a8olutely am9ing collection of utterly brilliant content that builds its own links or downloads itself onto your handheld. ” ~ Eric Ward

“We’re told to “create good content” and our Google rankings will be fine.

I’m sorry, but I live in reality. In reality, creating good content guarantees you nothing. :ere’s no guarantee good content will magically be shared.”

~ Rae Hoffman

•If good content does get shared, and gets shared so much that a larger site republishes it, it could screw me.•If people like it, and link to it with too much anchor, it could screw me.•If not enough quality sites link to it in proportion to the overall inbound links, it could screw me.•If multiple bloggers with a good audience who can give me good 5p4ure, but that also blatantly sell links or publish a lot of guest p4ts links to it, it could screw me.•If I include a ni;y graphic in it and enough people rep4t that graphic and give me a link credit for being the source, it could screw me.

~ Rae Hoffman

“In short, I’m supp4ed to publish awesome content, not actively promote it and hope that the right rati4 of the right t<e of people (sites) like it and link to it. Oh, and then I’m supp4ed to cr4s my fingers and hope that my competitors don’t actively try to f*** with my ‘create good content’ stars aligning.” ~ Rae Hoffman

Link Building: it must be dead

“I don’t have to build links anymore, and I have never felt so liberated. So free. All the years I spent endless hours trying to help content get discovered — and I didn’t real=e I didn’t have to do any of it. :4e 163 conference gigs? Waste of time. 300+ articles, columns and p4ts? Digital litter. :e massive project I just wrapped up for the Sochi Olympics? I’m sending their check back.”

~ Eric Ward

:ere are over 5,300 articles that have the words “link building is dead” in their title. :ere is no p4sible way they can all be wrong — at least one out of 5,300 has to have some truth to it, am I right? ~ Eric Ward

“Google says that anything that manipulates the natural link ec4ystem of the web is bad. But the largest manipulator of the linking ec4ystem today (and has been for a long time) is Google themselves. :ey created a currency around links, then failed to control it, then issued mandates to alter it to compensate for their failings for their own benefit.” ~ Rae Hoffman

“Over the last two years, the number of don’ts is increasing as quickly as Miley Cyrus’s sluttiness while the number of “d4” continues to dwindle.”

~ Rae Hoffman

Link Building: do’s or don’ts?

“Press Releases Don’t Work. (Not true. Press releases about nothing and filled with keyword anchors don’t work. Press releases about something that is actually worth announcing might just get you written about [and linked to] by someone that has credibility. Big difference.)” ~ Eric Ward

“Google says you’re not supp4ed to add any anchor rich links to your press releases without a nofollow or risk a negative impact on your search results. Yet, when they announced Calico, they put two links within the press release to their own properties using anchor t5t – without using a nofollow. :is of course resulted in straight links from folks who scraped the release. :is doesn’t appear to have had any effect on that rank of the page they linked to in the release in regards to ranking on the anchor used.”

~ Rae Hoffman

“Widgets Don’t Work. (Not true. Widgets that embed and/or require inclusion of source code containing links don’t work. Not all widgets are like this.)”

~ Eric Ward

“Google says embedding links within widgets without a nofollow is not only bad, but cause for penal=ation within their search results. However, it appears Google Maps is 5empt from feeling any wrath.”

~ Rae Hoffman

“Guest P4ts Don’t Work. (Not true. Isn’t this column [at SearchEngineLand.com] technically a “guest p4t”? Aren’t you reading it right now?)”

~ Eric Ward

“And now, we’ve added sites who allow guest p4ts to the chopping block.”

~ Rae Hoffman

“Directories Don’t Work. (Not true. Directories with no actual purp4e don’t work. Topical, vertical, niche, and highly curated directories are a solid source of traffic and credibility.)” ~ Eric Ward

“Anchor T5t Doesn’t Work. (Not true. If the we8ite that contains the anchor t5t has produced historical signals that indicate it has been a highly credible source for a long time, then anchor t5t originating from that source is likely to be quite help2l — and you won’t be able to control it because that’s what made it credible in the first place.)”

~ Eric Ward

“Link Networks Don’t Work. (Not true. It all depends on how you are defining the term “link network.” Isn’t a nationwide collection of state chapter we8ites of any national organ=ation a link network? Yes, it is. And if you are a new chapter of that national organ=ation, launch a site, and get your link like all the others have, aren’t you now a part of a link network? Yes, you are — as you should be.)”

~ Eric Ward

“Paid Links Will Get You BUSTed. (Not true. Nothing more to say on this one.)”

~ Eric Ward

“‘We’ are not allowed to give away products to bloggers to review unless we demand a nofollow on the p4t. But, Google can give away thousands of Android phones in 2009 resulting in thousands of links without any issue or slap from Google’s search division.”

~ Rae Hoffman

“Infographics Don’t Work. (Not true. Have we reached the point where every single compl5, statistic-driven fact and finding has now been made perfectly clear by infographic artists? No. But we have reached the point where 7,500 charts showing why e-cigarettes are good for you is not help2l.)”

~ Eric Ward

“All of what you’ve read so far is both true and false at the same time. How does that help to clear up matters?”

~ Eric Ward

“In today’s linking environment, everything is a matter of nuance. Everything works and nothing works, depending on a variety of variables and intentions.”

~ Eric Ward

“For every tactic you tell me is good, I can show you how it could be bad. For every tactic you tell me is wrong, I can find a scenario where it could be right.”

~ Eric Ward

“And this isn’t news.  It’s always been this way. :ere has never been a shortage of link builders, but there has always been a shortage of content linking strategists who recogn=e search is just one piece of the linking puzzle and know what to do about it.”

~ Eric Ward

Don’t like it?You don’t have to...

(or do you?)

“Of course, Google (and their fanboys) will tell you that you’re free to do whatever you want, and simply accept that you might not appear (well) in Google as a result.

But let’s face it…”

“:at’s some financially devastating bullshit – even to the largest of brands. Just like a tyrannical leader can tell his cit=ens if they don’t like it, they can move – he knows that the large majority of th4e cit=ens have no realistic, viable choice but to endure – and obey – the tyranny.” ~ Rae Hoffman

1. Google’s primary concern is not “the web” or “you” – it’s Google2. Penguin is not always fair – Google knows it but… see #1 3. Panda is not always fair – Google knows it but… see #14. Google talks the talk, but does not walk the walk and there’s nothing we can do about it5. “Creating good content” guarantees you JACK SHIT when it comes to ranking6. SEO is as alive now as it was a decade ago7. SEO has evolved to become the result of an actual marketing strategy versus marketing tactics8. Your pony is dead.

~ Rae Hoffman

No wonder our knickers are in a twist...

Wherever shall we go?Whatever shall we do?

“From here on out, you work on generating traffic. From here on out, you work on generating branding. From here on out, you work on obtaining customers. From here on out, you work on making your product or service or “value provide” (for bloggers) f** epic. Not just epic – F** EPIC.”

~ Rae Hoffman

“I’m not saying the new SEO is not to do SEO. I’m saying that you need to do things in the m4t search optim=ed way as p4sible, but never l4ing site of the fact that what you’re supp4ed to be doing is building a business and not merely building search engine rankings.” ~ Rae Hoffman

“By doing so, you’re doing the m4t defensible thing you can for your business. And, you’ll end up doing the very thing that Google is looking to reward in their algorithm. Google doesn’t want to make we8ites popular, they want to rank popular we8ites. If you don’t understand the difference, you’re in for one hell of an uphill climb.” ~ Rae Hoffman

“And if Google still screws you at the end of the day – despite you trying your best to “do things right” – doing so is your only chance to survive – and thrive.”

~ Rae Hoffman

“Please ignore this column and accept my apologies. I have to get back to work a;er all.”

~ Eric Ward

So don’t get your knickers in a knot; it solves nothing and makes you walk funny.

build your business.

build your business.then build search engine rankings.

tgcafe.it/seo-guide-2014 here’s how:

Click on the link now

tgcafe.it/seo-guide-2014 here’s how: