Hey folks Austin here and it’s time for another Weekly SEO Recap.

What happens if you Google SEO?  You get all the latest SEO articles that Google thinks is relevant to your search……but are they relevant to you?  Let me be the judge of that and help you cut to the chase.

 

FYI: I’ve decided to add random pictures of cute kittens

 

Is SEO Dead?

I’m calling this the humorous SEO is Dead edition.  Ok the first thing I saw when I Googled SEO is an article on Forbes titled, “Is SEO Dead?”  I couldn’t help but laugh because it was just the other day I saw an article on Forbes titled, “SEO is not dead and will Never Die.” So what is it Forbes!  Is SEO Dead or Not Dead?!?!?!

What’s surprising about this article is that it’s actually good.  There is no actionable advice or tips on how to improve your skill set, which if you haven’t notice I tend to lean towards.  But what I like about this article is that it very clearly states the direction that SEO has taken by giving us a starting point, an end destination, and shows where we are currently on that path as an industry.  I usually say read one of these types of articles once a year, but this article is good because it doesn’t go on the defensive, it simply states the journey the SEO industry has taken.

The best part, and the part I completely 100% agree upon is, “I’d say that the role of SEO has changed from specialist/technician to more of a project manager/strategist role.  SEOs are exceptional at understanding how all the pieces of the online marketing puzzle fit together.

Positives:

–          Quick & easy read through

–           Clear explanation of the current state of the industry

–           Helps you identify where you are on the industry curve

Negatives

–          Still had to skim through the article to find the most interesting parts.

Overall: Read it

 

 

Future SERP: A Glimpse at Google 2014

 

Is it that time of year already?  You know that time of the year in which everyone starts making predictions on the future of SEO.  Well apparently Dr. Pete over at the Moz blog is leading the way in predictions.  His blog brings on six predictions based somewhat on data and trends he’s collected over the year.  If you’ve followed the industry for a while you could probably make similar predictions, but what’s nice is Dr. Pete has given us a percentage of coming true based on his data collected.  Plus we’re getting some nice visuals as to what a future SERP could look like.  But unfortunately there is no actionable items to prepare yourself for these changes.  So the article falls short and in my opinion is a nice what-if piece.

Positives:

–          Predictions based on percentage of coming true

–           Introduction to SERP changes if you haven’t been paying attention

Negatives

–          No actionable advice to prepare you for possible SERP changes

–           Too early for SEO in 2014 stuff

Overall: Skim through it

 

FYI: I got bored of cute kittens.  From now on you’ll see Psycho Kittens.

 

 

5 Strategic Steps to Big Content

I love big content, in fact you can ask any of my fellow colleagues from today or yesterday and they’ll tell you I love big content.  In fact my holy grail is to create one big piece of content over a 3-4 month period of time that provides the benefit of a year’s worth of work.  So if you’re anything like me, or if you read the top article in this week’s SEO Recap about the future of the SEO industry you should definitely be working on creating bigger, better, more viral content.  Anything you can do to help prepare you, or to point you in the right direction for improving your skill set is something I’m interested in.

Positives:

–          Actionable steps

–           Case study Pros

Negatives

–          No Case study Cons or long term results

–           Lots of information

Overall: Skim through it and bookmark for later

 

Are all Comments with Links spam?

Guess who just got a video response from Matt Cutts head of Google webspam?  Yeah that’s right we did!  Chase sent in the following questions months ago,

“Google’s Webmaster guidelines discourage forum signature links but what about links from comments?  Is link building by commenting against Google Webmaster guidelines?  What if it’s a topically relevant site and the comment is meaningful?”

In Matt’s video response he says,

“I leave topically relevant comments on topically relevant sites all the time. So if somebody posts an SEO conspiracy theory and I’m like, ‘No that’s not right”

Chase got a big kick out of that bolded comment above because he thinks Matt might be making a jab directly at Chase for posting his SEO conspiracy theory on, “How Matt Cutts spreads PR evenly on 977 posts and counting.” So take a look at the video and tell us what you think in the comments below.

Positives:

–          The most intellectually stimulating question that was ever asked.

Negatives

–          Nothing.  It was perfect

Overall: Watch or you’ll get fired, and die on the way home. 😉

Did Matt Cutts take a stab at Chase?  Comment below and let us know!