Another 15 days have passed, and if you were thinking that Google had enough with three updates in a row (EMD Update, Panda 20 and Penguin 3), here we have the happy band of Mountain View pulling another news: the Link Disavow Tool.
And Twitter collapsed again!
I must admit – and I shared it publicly on Twitter – most of the instant-posts published and shared were almost a spin of the original Google one. I want to remark this sensation I had, because – in my opinion – is a clear metaphor of what we should not be blogging in our industry. It is perfectly legit to be on top the news (we do it to here on State of Search), but when it is an SEO writing in his blog or of his company, what do I expect is a personal view about the news presented. If it not so, well… I prefer Search Engine Land or State of Search: they are better that kind of job and always from a well-defined editorial point of view.
Ok… the curator in me has talked; let’s share something now.
Because, between the crowds of identical posts, there were at least a couple that I suggest reading or rereading more quietly:
- Google’s Disavow Tool – Take a Deep Breath by Dr Pete on SEOmoz;
- Google Disavow Tool by Aaron Wall on SEObook.
Do you know what is the biggest problem of all this news the Search Quality team is pushing out every few days? Well, obviously the stress they cause to all of us in the Search Industry. But it is not just that. It is also causing that other news from Google get unnoticed.
For instance, almost on the same day, on the Google official blog a news item was posted – Bringing History to Life – where Google presented its Cultural Institute project, where more than 40 online historical exhibitions are presented.
I warmly suggest you to explore it. Not only the exhibitions are über interesting, but the project itself is maybe one of the clearest examples of what a site should be for Google: engaging from the first page on, interactive, filled with useful and interesting content, addicting. You can literally spend hours exploring it.
Content Content Content… no, I am not of those saying the Content Marketing is the new SEO (and I am not the only one). They are two different disciplines and the people specialized in one or the other have very different skills, and the professionals good in both are very rare. But it gets clearer every day that SEO cannot reach its objective without a strong partnership with Content Marketing, and vice versa (and we should not forget the synergies with Social Media).
What SEOs must do is understand Content Marketing better, understand what can be its more profitable tactics in the next future, understand how to hire real writers for your blog, while being aware that to have a blog is not the same as saying having a Content strategy (or that neither thinking in terms of linkbait is having a content strategy.
From this synergy SEO have a lot to learn from, and discover that are the things in common than the contrary, for instance how to really do an editorial plan for enterprise news which will rock.
But you know what is making me banging my head against the wall in desperation? That are so many SEOs out there making senseless mistakes, or that should need to rediscover the basics and read, for instance, the SEO Audit Checklist Bill Slawski proposed in this guide, or – to just add another pain – how to do a real keyword search.
Probably, though, the biggest problem is that SEOs now have an identity crisis. What is an SEO? I tried to give an answer to it. I’d love to read yours here below in the comments.
