81 replies to this topic

[Scottie]

I am amazed at the number of people I have talked to in the last 6 months or so who have said they are losing interest in SEO. Why is that?

Are we just a bunch of challenge seekers and the game isn't fun anymore? Has the SEO landscape changed so much that we aren't as fascinated by it as we once were? Has it become too hard/too easy?

Any thoughts?

[qwerty]

I guess it depends on who these people are. It seems to me that in the past few years, a lot of people have set up web sites and called themselves SEOs, then they start posting in the forums asking how to do it.

I may not be as experienced as some people in the biz, but at least I'd been doing the work for a couple of years before I decided to call myself an SEO.

I certainly don't think it's too easy. The challenges have changed a bit over the years, though. Maybe some folks aren't interested in learning new things, so they just give it up.

[Jill]

Holy I can't believe you posted this. I was actually going to post a similar thread last week, but never got around to it.

I know exactly what you're talking about. Anything to do with SEO these days, I could simply care less. I look at article headlines and think, who cares? Same old same old. Which is weird, because there is always something new coming up, but I just don't care.

I remember my first conference and how I was in heaven getting to talk about search engines and SEO with people. Now I go to a conference and would rather talk about just about anything else or I'm bored to tears. (Just don't talk about medical stuff to me!)

I'm much more interested these days in learning more about marketing and branding, as well as running a successful business, managing employees, dealing with clients and all that. The SEO stuff itself is old hat and really just a big fat *yawn*.

[bwelford]

Well how can you optimize Search Engines, when there are 3 1/2 major search engines each serving up a variety of SERP's to different searchers, depending on their location and their personal wishes on how the search should be done. It was very much easier when there was only one game in town, so a high ranking on www.google.com was a clear and measurable quantity you could optimize.

I'm certainly with you, Jill, in going for the bigger picture with marketing and branding. What really counts is the conversion to sales.

[BobetteKyle]

Jill, those things are ssoooooo much more interesting anyway.

I'm not "in the biz," so can't speak from direct experience (aside from what I do with my own sites), but I have some speculations...

There are parts of the implementation that are downright repetitious and boring: link building and optimizing code, for example (I know these aren't boring to some, but I have a low tolerance for repetition. ). I can see how some parts could get very old after a while. I can't take much of that...puts me in a real funk.

The parts that excite me are what comes into play when I think about the things that indirectly optimize a site - business-building, strategy, and non-SEO marketing. If I think about SEO in those terms and think "How can I improve rankings through marketing / building the business," then it stays interesting.

My non-professional-SEO .

[Matt B]

Ultimately, SEO is an based on good marketing principles, so I don't think the "evolution" of optimization into marketing is all that strange. Coming from a marketing background, SEO always made sense, and now makes more sense than ever as analytics has caught up and enables pure tracking numbers to back up sound marketing principles.

Bored with SEO? yes - nothing has really changed in SEO since 1999. Bored with this new frontier of SEO-based website marketing? No way man!

[Jill]

It was very much easier when there was only one game in town, so a high ranking on www.google.com was a clear and measurable quantity you could optimize.

It's not even that it's hard, that might actually be fun. It's just the whole topic is a snooze!

I think maybe just reading the same posts over and over again is part of it too...

[Scottie]

I actually thought it was more fun when there were more players. You certainly had more to learn and compare when the traffic came from multiple sources.

Google got so good at it, that they are the standard and it seems that the other engines simply try to modify the standard set by Google. I'd love to see a challenger (are you listening Teoma?) that uses different critera and delivers great results. Teoma's link analysis (communities of links) would seem to be a great differentiator, but it never seems to pick up any favor with the searching public.

[OldWelshGuy]

A couple of reasons really, and Scottie summed it up. We all like a challenge, and apart from going after a different market where is the challenge?

[BobetteKyle]

Bored with this new frontier of SEO-based website marketing? No way man!

To me, that's because the "answer" is unique for each Website. When you expand the definition beyond the standard questions about pagerank, rankings, link popularity, etc. the answer is different each time. It's harder, which means more failures and refinements, but it also means much greater feelings of accomplishment when it all comes together.

[Matt B]

To me, that's because the "answer" is unique for each Website. When you expand the definition beyond the standard questions about pagerank, rankings, link popularity, etc. the answer is different each time. It's harder, which means more failures and refinements, but it also means much greater feelings of accomplishment when it all comes together.

Exactly - That's the thrill. Finding the right answer to each unique situation. And sometimes, rankings are not even in the equation!

[Jill]

It is certainly more interesting to start looking at and figuring out conversions rather than rankings. I'm glad that we're moving into that era. Still have a few of those clients that don't get it though...

We're purchasing a ClickTracks Pro this week, and that alone should provide some really great challenges, which I'm looking forward to!

[cline]

I can't imagine how Jill and some of the moderators here have managed to stay interested as long as they have, especially fielding newbie questions day after day.

I've always shied away from too clearly positioning myself as an SEO. Sure, I do it. But I only do it for some of my clients. Marketing strategy and tactics, and marketing analytics are the most interesting subjects for me. SEO is just a tactic. A while back I decided I didn't even want to quote for clients who wanted only SEO. Just yesterday I declined to consider a client and recommended they contact someone else.

[Jill]

Great to be able to pick and choose, eh cline?

[Randy]

Everybody's already hit on it, but SEO for SEO's sake is boring and frankly a waste of time.

Marketing, as in implementing an overall marketing plan, is where everything is headed. And for good reason.

The problem for traditional SEO's or anybody who looks only at rankings and gross traffic is that they're missing 90% of the boat. Not that there's much they can do about it in many cases. People get so focused on that very limited scope of data. And even if an SEO delivers more traffic, and more importantly better conversions, very few businesses will allow that kind of information to someone they're outsourcing work to.

Best to get in on the ground floor for sure. But it's going to take a lot more trust between SEO's / SEM's and their clients to get the really relevant data.