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The Future of SEO – Revisited

I recently wrote an article The New Age of SEO which discussed some of the implications of the the changes to Google’s search algorithms through Google Caffeine, and the impending release of the those changes into the wild.

Another important set of data to take into account when considering where the future of SEO is headed, comes from SEOMoz. Every 2 years SEOMoz releases critical data, comprised of responses to over 100 question that are submitted by those who are considered the top SEO experts from around the globe.

Earlier this week I began to study this data and to consider the findings of the experts and the report as a whole. Some interesting revelations came to the fore. However I couldn’t help but notice some very clear inconsistencies with the resultant data. In some cases, experts are clearly contradicting each other and so I felt that the data, while still a useful insight, is far from conclusive.

The idea behind the Search Engine Ranking Factors report is an attempt to better understand how the 800 lb gorilla (Google) thinks. Understanding how the algorithm works is vital to earning you place on the first page of the SERPs.

The most interesting revelation for me, was that 48% of all the participating SEO experts stated that’

Links will decline in importance, but remain powerful, as newer signals rise from usage data, social graph data & other sources to replace them.

Other interesting data that came from the report was that 51% beleived that the algorithmic changes in February, known as ‘Vince’, resulted in an unintentional preference towards well-known, public brands. Not good news for the small business owner. But blogging still remains a prominent contender with 66% rating Blogging and Engagement with the Blogosphere as having a high value.

I also noticed two very distinct issues with the data set, although one of these was most likely not foreseen. That is the relationship and the importance of social media particularly Twitter traffic and more importantly the inbound links from Twitter.

According to the report, none of the experts believe that links from social media sites are any great importance with regard to SEO and improving both page rank and search results. However, from the data being collected from many sources, as well as my own testing with Google Caffeine, it would appear that the experts are completely wrong on this front.

The second area of focus for me was that there were many references in the report to LSI, or Latent Semantic Indexing. Now while it is true that Google  did register a patent that may appear to comprise LSI, there has been much debate over whether or not that patent is in fact for LSI.

More importantly however is the fact that much testing has been performed over the past year to determine if LSI is in fact being used in Google’s algorithm. To date, there is no conclusive evidence that LSI does actually exist.

As you probably know Andy Jenkins recently left the team at Stompernet to pursue other ventures. But many months before Andy departed, he produced a video that was release at the Stomperblog which went to great lengths to discuss the validity of LSI, if it fact exists and he even discussed how it could be tested and the resultant set of data the should logically be retrieved if LSI was in fact part of the algorithm.

The test failed at every point, and it became abundantly clear that, while LSI may very well be in the works for Google, there is no sign of it in the wild.

So where does that leave us?

Actually it leaves us all in exactly the same place. SEO experts don’t have all the answers. Most of what that they say is guess work excluding some very tried and true methods such as link building, relevant content and a few other techniques that are known to work. But beyond that, it comes down to that same old story. Test, test, then test some more.

The SEOmoz report is a great source of information. Some of the contributions are quite enlightening but as I said, in almost all of the commentaries, there was at least some contradiction. I’d encourage you to review the report if SEO is important to you. You will no doubt gain some valuable knowledge and hopefully we’ll see you on the front page of Google before too long.

Related Posts

1. The Mindest of a Winner – Seth Godin
2. SEO Update – How To Optimize for 2010 and Beyond
3. Is Google PageRank Still Important?
4. The New Age of SEO – Google Caffeine
5. My Google Nightmare

Tags: blog, Blogging, google, search algorithms, SEO, seo experts