To teach or not teach SEO -- it's seems that is the question...
Thanks Google. Really. Without you my job might be boring or at least mundane. I might actually be able to take content that I'm teaching and "set it and forget it". But no. You have to keep evolving and offering up nifty little tools that create these interesting dialogues out on the intertubes.
The current plethora of "predictions" posts have spawned a particularly interesting debate that actually has a big impact on my lessons plans for my Spring semester Internet Marketing course -- does SEO matter anymore? Back in the day when I first started teaching Internet Marketing I went over the different search sites and directories describing to my students how to get your site listed. We would talk about Yahoo! and Microsoft and Google and DMoz and DogPile. We'd explore who acquired whom and the changes in the rules. White Hat and Black Hat. Link Farms. Meta Tags, Keywords, Key phrases, Alt-tags...OH MY. Now, we talk about content, content, content. There is discussion about what you have control over and what you don't. We focus on top properties with the most traffic, emphasize conversion and the importance of analytics in understanding which search properties garner you the best leads. We talk about inbound and outbound. We talk about tags, and keywords and relevance. We've been talking more and more about the impact of social media on SEO as well. But, if I listen to Robert Scoble in his recent post: 2010: The Year SEO Isn't Important Anymore I can just get rid of that whole focus on SEO. Ok, well not really. His point is that things are changing so fast between Google and Bing that the small business can't really keep up (frankly not many people can) and that so many search results are served up now based on personal search behavior and location that well...you just don't need to focus so much on making your site SEO friendly because they'll find you anyway. Of course his real message is that anyone engaged in utilizing online tools to market their business must look at a holistic approach. This is probably the most important part of his message. Enter in Danny Sullivan (without whom I could NOT teach my class anything about Search. Danny, you might not know this, but you have been in my class since 2000 when I first started teaching!). Danny wrote a great post today over at SearchEngineLand in response to the Scoble POV. His post, entitled, "Is SEO Dead? 1997 Prediction, Meet 2009 Reality" shows just how challenging these "predictions" can be -- SEO is not "dead" says Sullivan. As a matter of fact it, just like everything else on the web, is evolving, and more importantly if you are talking about a holistic approach to your online marketing strategy you must consider the important aspects of SEO -- regardless of what Google and Bing roll out tomorrow. Another post by Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media entitled "Ignore Robert Scoble, SEO Still Matters for SMBs points out that for the small business it's vital that they be found when people are looking for them. Ignore SEO at your own peril because " ...search engine optimization will remain important to your site until the days that people stop searching." What's a simple College Prof. supposed to make of all this debate (insert what's a simple SMB, or student, or agency...)? Well from my perspective I think they are all right.Ain't that just like a professor! Scoble highlights the holistic approach and addresses the key changes that are influencing search results. We MUST be aware of these as consumers and as marketers. They will continue to influence search results and most importantly how people search. But Sullivan and Barone are also right. They point out how important SEO is and continues to be because of people's reliance on the search engines to find what they are looking for. You MUST be there and you must be aware of ways in which you can get found on the terms that are most relevant in order to provide your customer with the most valuable experience. So will I keep teaching SEO in my class in the spring? Ayup. Will I bring up both POVs in class? Ayup.And I'm sure my students and I will have great debate about the whole thing as well.
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