SES Amsterdam: The future of SEO
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SES Amsterdam: The future of SEO

6th October 2011

We are at SES Amsterdam today, which is a local SES event with many local speakers, but also some international stuff. One of the speakers is Martin Mc Donald of OMD. He delivered the keynote at this years SES Amsterdam. Below you can find the live blog of his session.

SEO has long time not been an industry, it was just about breaking the algorithm. Which was relatively simple. As an industry we broke PageRank. For some keywords it’s only possible to rank based on getting (buying) massive amounts of links. Now SEO is a wide part of online marketing. If you get SEO you get the rest of online marketing.

The future of the algorithm

Everyone has a social profile, only few people have the ability to make regular links on blogs or other websites. The data set of social is much bigger than links. Google algorithm has to shift to social signals. And it’s hard to break the social graph with money.

The future of the industry

We’re still growing up. What do we need to do to grow up?

1) Get shit done

Boards of directories are the no. 1 enemy of the SEO industry. Talk business, not search.
For example, don’t talk about getting more links, but activating brand evangelists.

2) Teach search

No one knows what SEO is. Educate stakeholders. Evangelise, don’t bore!

3) Choose the right strategy

Non-transactional websites: focus on brand building using SEO. Find relevant easy terms. ‘get healthy’ for fitness clubs, ‘how to make fruit juice’ for Tropicana. TV branding campaigns work on impresioons, why not search?

Be innovative! Engage the searcher where they least expect it. If you’re in a competitive niche, focus on a related less competitive niche.

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Written By
Jeroen van Eck is a consultant search engine marketing at the online marketing company E-Focus in the Netherlands.
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