SEO is certainly changing, evolving as an industry. Agencies that once relied on SEO as a service are now adapting and morphing into something that is more in tune with content marketing. And while content marketing can certainly be done poorly, it’s much more transparent than bad SEO. Bad content is just… well, bad! It’s hard to fake good content creation and that’s just how Google wants it, and frankly I’m perfectly fine with that. In fact, I love that!

Google’s goal in unleashing its Panda and Penguin algorithm changes is to deliver good, relevant content when people conduct an online search. If they return bad, poorly written content is that good for a brand, or the user? Is that good for the agency that created that brand experience? The answer of course is no. And that’s why as a content creation agency, we pride ourselves in delivering well-written content.

Yeah… SEO is changing and morphing into something more content driven, but there are still SEO best practices that need to be incorporated into well-written content, into websites. Well-defined keyword lists are still of utmost importance, as is smart Meta data using those keywords. Link-building is still important, though it needs to be thought out strategically.

I recently came across an article at Search Engine Journal titled #1 Ranking on Google for Under $100 and I thought ‘this must be a parody article or some joke title’ but sadly no. It was not. I read the article as it discussed ‘SEO Tricks’ that could have you ranking at or near the top of Google quickly and inexpensively and began to think what a terrible guest post this really is. Buying domains at auction, write crappy content and get crappy content from cheap guest authors, link with naked URLs… really? The post even offers a ‘black hat tip’ and suggests not to use this last step on a client site or any site you cannot sacrifice. What the…?

Is this how agencies or search specialists are hanging on to what was an SEO career? I certainly expected more from Search Engine Journal. Yeah… SEO is changing so it’s time that we as industry professionals change and adapt. Embrace good content or get out of the industry! There will always be poorly-executed SEO and black hat tactics out there. While it saddens me to think that this stuff is being promoted on sites that represent the industry usually in a solid, bright light, I will say that it appears – based on the 404 I’m getting now – that they pulled the article. Still you can check out some of the chatter about the article here: http://www.inbound.org/articles/view/1-ranking-on-google-for-under-100.