[Webpro] Is SEO dead?

[Marilyn Matty]

--- listadmin <info at webdesign-list.com> wrote:
> Hi people   :)
> 
> Wondering about SEO...
> 
> With Google messing around more and more with the
> search engine
> optimizers ('Google dance', 'Florida update'), 

I'm just finishing up a SEO update for a client - my
pitch being that a new Goodle dance trend means the
site has new moves to perfect. The rankings have been
consistantly good for this site, but had slipped a
little; it makes a difference because this client is a
professional musician specializing in a niche and gets
a lot of visitors, and subsequent business, from
Google.

The copy didn't change radically, we just needed to
reposition a few paragraphs on some pages, I changed
the titles on most of the pages to reflect the
contents of particular articles (I had originally
given the pages all the same titles), and got a little
more discriptive with copy in some of the internal
links.

and
> with respected
> SEO experts talking about moving to 'measuring
> conversion rather
> than rankings' (Danny Sullivan), what are the many
> SEO firms facing
> today?

With each new dance, it becomes increasingly important
to get the steps right. And if a client doesn't make
the cut in particular searches, there won't be click
throughs or conversions.

> 
> I think you cannot really optimize a website only
> from the outside
> anymore. It's all about relevant content... If a
> site owner doesn't
> want to provide that, a SEO professional cannot do
> much.

Derek Miller has some good articles on PenMachine and
Daring Fireball:

http://www.penmachine.com/journal/2004_05_01_news_archive.html#108584718276974265

http://daringfireball.net/2004/05/writing_for_google

> 
> How can a SEO pro earn money, if the search engines
> change their
> algo every few weeks?

It's a selling opportunity - not only can you pitch
new clients, you can convince old clients to sign up
for a contract for regular updates or a quick and
dirty SEO makeover. A while back, I convinced this
same client that a CSS update would improve rankings
as restyling headings would help with the engines
while <font> tags were not just obsolete, they weren't
doing anything positive to promote the site.

Marilyn


	
		
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