SEO Should Be Dead

I want to start by saying I do not believe in onsite SEO or believe that it will still exist five years from now.

SEO is about things like; optimizing a keyword in the H1 tag, enhancing the title tag, keyword density, keyword proximity, internal linking with proper anchor text, validating your code, using CSS over tables, optimal use of flash and Java, we know the search engines like certain standards, so we use them.

However, if your web designer is on top of his/her game then they should be developing quality websites that go by the book.

Your site should validate!

Flash should be a movie or used sparingly and not be the entire website!

If your web designer builds a quality, well built website, by the book then it is optimized for the search engines.

Now, as the website owner, if you want people to come back to your site then you need to have fresh content. And you also need to understand the jargon people use when searching for your product or service and implement that into the text.

You do this for your website visitors however, the search engines will love you for it and it’s the final step in onsite optimization.
Onsite optimization is about the design and common sense.

But What about Off-Site Optimization, which carries more weight than on-site optimization?

If you have a local business then common sense says handout flyers, business cards, run ads on the local cable channel, put signs on your car, attend trade shows, chamber meetings and speak at local events as well as get involved in school, sports and church.

If you have an internet business then common sense should say post on forums, blogs, and directories, write articles, create profiles on social media sites and do videos.

Those things will also build back links and increase the visibility and ranking of your website.

Social media is a part of online marketing just like schools, sporting events and church is part of offline marketing, rather we like it or now.

Google understands more then we think or want to give them credit for, the best way to rank in Google is too ignore them.

I got this e-mail today and thought I would post it here along with my answer. However, I will remove the name and the website address.

Hello,

I’ve been reading your “95 % of blogs abandoned thread”, you are very knowledgeable about SEO strategies so I would like your advice. I employ SEO stretegies for my site including:
1. reciprocal link exchange with sites in my niche
2. commenting on blogs and websites in my niche
3. commenting on internet magazines such as yahoo shine
4. joining social bookmarking sites
5. joining blog directories
6. using twitter

I always leave a live link on all of the above. When I began this internet business I actually used a website but the company turned out to be of ill repute and I was able to get a refund and re-launched in blog format. My domain name and site name are two years old (I created them myself). In those early days I had to approach established websites for link exchange, now I receive link exchange requests. I also receive offers from advertisers (although at the present time it is for sample products not monetary payment but this is still proof that I will receive offers for payment soon). My page rank is now at 3 which is good. I don’t rely on PR that much, though as site quality is more important.

I know that advertisers look at the most popular sites ie the ones with high traffic. My traffic is not as good as I know it should be. I have a quality website and it is well respected, I receive compliments from readers and I welcome this. But I want to know what more I can do to get traffic. I receive less than 100 visitors per day and this is far FAR below what a general health site should receive.

My site url is

At your convenience could you take a look at my site and offers suggestions as to how I may improve it to get more traffic? I will say that I will not change my format because I do not want to lose my core audience. I do know that some readers are telling others about the site (not only have they told me so, I have seen it in recent traffic). I have approximately 70-80 subscribers/followers across feedburner, MyBlogLog, Blogged, BlogCatalog, and twitter (all of which has been since late 2008/to present). This is good, however I need more. So any advice would be helpful.

Thank you.

I want to post my response because some people might have these same type of question and maybe it will help someone else as well.

My Response;

Looks like you are doing everything right, although I would link my social media sites to one another.

In other words, if I had a MySpace page that was linked to my site, I might create two blogs talking about the same topic and link to my MySpace page. So it would have a little more weight when it linked to my site.
From there I would try and increase the number of keywords I was using. There are lots of free tools online like;
WordTracker.com

Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from Wordtracker

Free Search Term Suggestion Tool by KeywordDiscovery.com

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

https://www.PayPal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_shop-ext

eBay

Shopping.com – Find, Compare, and Buy Anything in Seconds

Search-based keyword tool

Google Trends
The idea is to get a good list of keywords that you want to target and then add keywords in with those keywords that you feel someone would search for.

If I was trying to sell website designs, I might use a list of keywords like these;
Buy
Buys
Buyer
Buyers
Buying
Bought
Order
Ordering
Orders
Ordered
Purchasing
Purchased
Purchase
Purchases
Cheapest
Cheap
Cheaper
Discounted
Discount
Discounting
Discounts
Special Offer
Special Offers
Sale
Sales
Sold
Selling
Value
Values
Valued
Coupon
Coupons
Cost
Costs
Costing
Shipping
Ship
Ships
Shipped
Sale Price
Sales Prices
Sales Pricing
Online
On Line
Promotion
Promotions
Promo
Promos
Promoting
Promote
Promotes
Merchandise
Merchandises
Merchandising
Merchandises
Merchant
Merchants
Refurbished
Free Shipping
Reasonable Price
Pre Owned
Used Using
Using
Pre Own
Old
Vintage
Pre Owns
Pre Owns
Pre Owning
Store
Stores
Vintage
How Much
Model Number
Quality
New
Newer
Newest
Special
Best
Most
Highest
Greatest
Top
Wholesale
Retail
Shop
Shopping
Shopper
Shops
Get
Gets
Getting
Got
Acquire
Acquiring
Acquired
Custom
Customer
Customers
Customize
Customized
Good Buy
Best Buy
Good Buys
Best Buys
Pay
Payment
Paying
Paid
Deal
Deals
Dealing
Bargain
Bargaining
Bargains
Bargained
Find
Found
Finding
Search
Searching
Searched
Negotiate
Negotiates
Negotiating
Low Price
Low Prices
Low Pricing
Low Priced
Lowest Price
Lowest Prices
Lowest Pricing
Lowest Priced
Economy
Economic
Economical
On Sale
Low Cost
Low Costs
Low Costing
Lowest Cost
Lowest Costs
Lowest Costing
Cut Rate
Cut Rates
Reduce
Reduced
Reducing
Bargain Basement
Bargain Basements
Best Cost
Best Costs
Best Price
Best Prices
Bonus
Bonuses
Free Bonus
Free Bonuses
Promo Bonus
Promo Bonuses
Gift
Gift
Free Gift
Free Gifts
Competitive Price
Competitive Pricing
Competitive Prices
Inexpensive
Easy on the Pocket
Easy on the Pockets
Review
Cost Effective
Reviews
Moneymaking
Useful

And then add my keywords to each of them.

For example, order a website design, I’d then write an article about ordering a website design.

I have noticed that with each blog post I make there is an increase in traffic. I have one site that is getting around 2,000 unique visitors per day and I try to make around 20 blog post on that site every day.

It has worked well for us so far.