Just about every time you open a web browser these days, it seems there’s new gloom and doom to digest. No, I’m not talking about news on the economy or the weather – I’m talking about experts predicting, projecting and prophesying the future of search engine optimization.
Every time someone from Google posts, speaks or tweets, there’s an immediate analysis and reading of the digital tea leaves, closely followed by all kinds of hand-wringing on the Interwebs. It seems to be one of those human activities (like talking about the weather) that kills time and solves nothing.
That’s why it’s time to bust all the myths that surround SEO. In fact, it’s time to burst the whole bubble of acronymish-algorthimic-jargonistic mishmash that surrounds SEO. It’s time to redefine what success means online. It’s time to call SEO what it really should be: the process of creating content that is Simply Excellent Online.
If the dizzying pace of changes from Google and other search oracles hasn’t sunk in yet, the era of gaming the system, stuffing keywords and a whole bunch of other counterproductive gimmicks is really, truly over.
That’s why I’m so pleased that the great folks at HubSpot have put their smart team together to create a new eBook that sets the record straight, 17 SEO Myths You Should Leave Behind in 2014.
I’m humbled to have my new definition of SEO included in the eBook (it’s on the page with Myth #3). I also wanted to share a bit of the thinking that led me to play wordsmith and dare to redefine SEO.
Our team at WordWrite comes at success online from a different perspective than most of those who have shaped the meaning of SEO in recent years. We’re not technologists, we’re not developers, we’re not code warriors. We’re content creators who believe that communication success is driven by great content, and most especially, by great stories.
Maybe that seems obvious to you. Or maybe it seems like a revelation. Regardless of your view, a simple search of the web will show that, until recently, the majority of discussion about communication success online has focused on things other than great content.
This is not even a cart before the horse discussion; it’s more like an obsessive fixation on the cart while ignoring the horse (including its care and feeding). Content, and most especially stories, are what make meaningful connections for people and organizations, whether the connections are to solicit aid for a natural disaster, the purchase of a complex B2B service or to provide the entertaining answer to one of life’s riddles.
Is the cart necessary? Of course. Should it be well built? Most definitely. But isn’t that a table stake? If you’re going to have success online, it can’t be about following a rigid set of mythical rules that apply only to the technical aspects of your online activity.
I love the 17 myths that HubSpot’s Rebecca Churt incorporated in the eBook, from #1, “I must submit my site to Google,” to #17, “SEO and inbound marketing don’t mix.” Don’t take my word for it, though; no less a search authority than Rand Fishkin, “the wizard of Moz,” says this in the foreword to the new eBook:
“It’s possible that you’ve been contacted by SEO firms or SEO practitioners in the past who weren’t fully above board or that you’ve read articles in the blogosphere or the mainstream media . . . that instilled some of these myths Rebecca tackle(s) as truths. . . I’m as confident as she is that what’s presented here are wrongheaded ways of thinking that can damage your marketing efforts on the web alongside some solid advice in how to avoid it.”
Are you ready to be Simply Excellent Online? Just click below to get started with the 17 SEO Myths You Should Leave Behind in 2014.
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