As a result of around both the Internet Marketing and SEO community, I see 2 rather different methods of SEO being used. Having spent time following a few forums geared to both, it seems valid to discuss what I call “Marketing SEO” and “Webmaster SEO”. Maybe your idea of Marketing SEO is little more than using SENuke and comment spamming while using software to spin 12,000 articles. Though that person probably exists, there is more to this story.
Many of the successful marketers I have seen use some or all of these methods:
- Writing quality articles. Sometimes spinning, but usually by hand or re-writing them.
- Putting article like content in web 2 sites like Squidoo.com
- Posting in forums relevant to their niche.
- Creating profiles in social media sites and forums.
- Putting videos up on YouTube and other similar sites.
- Niche blogging with original content.
- Auto blogging, podcasting, and a few more I probably forgot to mention.
All of these methods have one common denominator landing them somewhere on a road between junk and golden, which is “How Good Is Your Content?”. They also tend to be links that one can just go out and start making. Using good content and syndicating it well does build links. It can also draw people who find this content back to a website or blog.
One effective SEO method used by often Marketer SEO’s (and many webmaster SEO’s), not often talked about as SEO, is the many links from affiliates. I see that as a voted for editorial link because affiliates choose which offer to promote.
I see what I have deemed to call “Webmaster SEO” as a different approach that may be better or worse, depending on your point of view, beliefs, and goals.
This would tend to be a longer term approach where the practitioners are seeking to get a smaller number of high quality links. Their approach is more technical and involves more analysis. They will use competitor’s link methods and take the time to contact many other websites to get a link, usually in exchange for some valuable content. That , submitting to directories, and making quality content well structured for the search engines to find are their primary methods. I know they use others but seek mainly to generate chosen editorial links.
From reading posts by people who are doing SEO for their own sites and reading in-house SEO people and some independent professional SEO it is pretty clear they tend to bag on some of the techniques used in Marketing SEO types. To be fair some Marketing SEO types think these Webmaster SEO methods are timid, at best.
Some approaches like link bait, and paid links, fall into either description easily. Personally I scan the world for what works and look for people who are reporting from actual testing. All these methods work. To gain the best results create an SEO plan when you first plan your site. Designing your site to benefit the people you want to attract will help a lot to define the best keywords to use in your SEO campaign. Select implementation methods that balance your own risk to reward comfort level based on the most accurate information you can find. Then experiment and test the results.
