Here's a Dozen Reasons Why The Term SEO (AKA Search Engine Optimization) Is Obsolete

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

By Hector Cisneros

I often hear the term SEO in conversations. This happens when consulting with clients or just talking with friends or associates. Yet, few of the people I speak with have a handle on what SEO means to the average business owner. Sure, if you ask them what SEO means most will retort "Search Engine Optimization". However, if you take the question just one step further, you find that the person you're talking to gets stymied, and often resorts to a reply of "I don't know what's entailed". By the same token, I ask prospects what kind of marketing they are engaged in and they will say I have a guy who is doing SEO work for them. Again, when I ask specifically what their "SEO person" is doing, I get the reply, "I don't know"! The truth is - SEO is not just one thing. Twenty years ago SEO did mean on page Search Engine optimization, but today SEO involves hundreds of ranking factors and dozens of both on and off page elements that need to be optimized to maximize your results. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will cover a dozen factors that show the term SEO is vague at best at that we should be using a new term like Search Marketing or Content Marketing. So pull out your checklist and get ready to cross your T's and dot your i's as we pull back the curtain on the term SEO.

Hummingbird is Nothing to Hum About!

By Carl Weiss

Black-chinned Hummingbird -- Moab, Utah, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You may have heard that Google recently released its latest algorithm update named Hummingbird.  This new algorithm hasn’t brought any smiles to advertisers faces. I haven’t seen anyone singing (or humming) Google’s praises since they announced the change. What I find interesting is that Google always seems to name its updates after cute little animals like pandas, penguins and now a hummingbird.  Meanwhile their effect on many websites is more like being attacked by lions and tigers.  That being said, what I have brought you today is a cold, hard look at when, why and how search engines of all kinds insist on playing games with all website owners and what you can do to keep ahead of changes that can leave you in the darkest regions of cyberspace.