7 Opportunities for “New School” SEO

The “SEO being bad” debate is almost as tired as the blackhat/whitehat debate now. I’m not real excited about defending the virtues of SEO – I know how fantastic it can be, and to explain it properly, it would require a proper understanding of the history of search, and mainly unwritten history of the dynamics between optimizers and engineers. I told a friend today that I will now forever be marketing consultant from the SEO school of thought. I consider practicing SEO an honor, and while I’m sure there is probably better terminology, I’d rather be working than addressing folks that don’t “get it”. So for those that do – here’s some ideas of things to watch, and poke at if you’re not already. I’d call it SEO 2.0 – but that would defeat the concept of staying ahead of the curve on things.

1. Onebox optimization
   There is a lot of opportunity for folks to jump to the top of the SERPS in local, product search, and other niche areas. I have really been lackadaisical on this myself, but there is plenty of opportunities to poke at the onebox. See Brian Mark’s site for inspiration.
2. Social media marketing
   SMM is NOT social media manipulation – it is learning what social communities online are looking for and giving it to them… (…so hard that they BLEED) – quoting DaveN

Video promotion
There’s this little site called youtube that 90% of corporate drones waste 50% of their 40 hours per week on. There not ALL watching drunken litesaber fight videos – okay, well maybe they ARE – but if that’s what they want – GIVE IT TO THEM – just put your URL in as a watermark.
Community participation
Everybody is looking for answers on the web. Find where you’re the expert, and become more so. Credibility is not a commodity, and there is a LOT of value to it.
Reputation management
The new public relations – Google is the new http://, and everyone’s got MINIMUM 5 spots to defend. Those that are proactive will not be sorry. Knuckleheads that buck the trend probably will be (best free advice ever given).
Media piggybacking
Not seeing urls on superbowl ads makes me cry. Search traffic may still only be a small percentage of overall exposure – what old school marketers still don’t get is that it’s the GOOD percentage of the exposure (the BEST customers that are interested and take action) – Someone with lots of patience has gotta continue to explain this.
Ideas and execution
As Aaron says – ideas are the currency in our economy, and executing on them is the next best thing to creating them. There is a lot to be said for being the first to market. Okay, you caught me, this one isn’t really an opportunity, it’s more of a philosophy and a reminder to pick something and run with an idea that you have confidence in, and see it through to fruition. Don’t pick an idea that sucks.

Each one of these areas has a ruleset to play by. The SEO school of thought teaches us to learn the rules, and cater our content, site, or product for the most optimal results within the given ruleset. SEO’s are the folks that push the limits, and force the rules to evolve (think of athletes like Shaq that dominated so much the rules had to change). SEO is more than a process. It is understanding what OPTIMAL really means to the point of perfection, and knowing when striving further towards that perfection has hit a point of diminishing returns.

Todd Malicoat

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