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03.16.06
Complexity Compels Changes For SEO Firms
 By
Jim Hedger
The process of search engine optimization and placement has undergone a number
of fundamental changes over the past year.
Once a highly technical, hands-on operation, SEO is now more about analyzing information, strategic planning and long-term consultation. The changing nature of how SEO services are performed has caused many SEO firms to make radical alterations to their office environments and staff skill-sets. The most interesting thing about this period of intense change in the search marketing industry is that the biggest changes are only starting to happen.
There are now three general types or groupings of SEO practitioner. The first group is in decline; the second in transition, and the third is just starting to find its stride.
There is a declining number of SEOs who work solely for themselves, optimizing sites targeting the affiliate marketing, casino or adult entertainment sectors. Some of these practitioners had moved to the AdSense-rich environment of the blogosphere over the past two years, prompting stricter rules designed to discourage overt content duplication and blog-link spam.
This first group has been steadily moving on to other endeavors, mostly because their working environment is simply getting too difficult to make as much money as their skills could command in other sectors of the search marketing field.
Members of the second group of SEOs, the ones in transition, work for established search marketing firms and primarily serve a range of commercial clients. This type of SEO has existed for over a decade and has been generally successful financially and professionally. Chances are the firm they work for employs less than ten full time staff members and they are likely juggling a number of client files at any given time. It is stressful, fun and enlightening work but it is also becoming more complex by the day.
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For this group, the changes in the search marketplace and in the business of search marketing are proving to be highly disruptive. For established SEO firms, a feeling of being squeezed on both sides is very real.
The search engine environment has expanded enormously over the past two years. Along with traditional search engines such as Google or Yahoo, there are a variety of more specific search marketing venues to think about, depending on the needs of the client being represented. This growth is paralleled by the increasing sophistication of Internet users and online content. The practice of SEO today requires a much deeper knowledge base and more person-hours per file.
When caught between a rock and a hard place, the only practical direction to go
is up. Proactive SEO firms began making changes to their operations months ago
though, as most SEO firms are quite busy, signs of those changes are only recently
starting to materialize in the form of new content on their websites. A number
of other firms, as well as StepForth, are refocusing many of the core services
they offer.
Read
the Full Article
About the Author:
Jim Hedger is the SEO Manager of StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, StepForth is the result of the consolidation of BraveArt Website Management, Promotion Experts, and Phoenix Creative Works, and has provided professional search engine placement and management services since 1997. |
