SEO... Is it Getting Easier or Harder?

 by Pete Nikiel

It used to be all about coding and keywords and meta data and meta descriptions and I never learned how to do any of that.  It was technical. I called on the web guys to handle it, or maybe the IT guy.

And Google kept (keeps) changing the rules!  I was once being quizzed about it all and I was asked what Penguin was.  I thought the guy was kidding.  I went on to learn that Penguin was preceded by Panda.  What do these cute zoo animals have to do with Google's algorithmic changes and the way that a marketer does his job?

Apparently, a lot.

I'm assured that the technical stuff that I needed help with is still important but I can still talk someone more tech-savvy into taking care of that for me.  These little critters (or the changes for which they served as code-names) have taken the spotlight off that that work, somewhat, and shined it on content.  That's where a strong marketing guy/gal steps up to the plate.

Google has trained its spiders (yet another critter!) to crawl through websites and look for fresh content that is relevant to the reader and helpful to the consumer.  Those spiders have become pretty sophisticated, and mighty picky.

They look for quality content.  They don't like repetitive content.  They like content that is promoted throughout the social sites (particularly on Google +).  They like lots and lots of relevant content:  blog posts, eBooks, website articles, videos, podcasts, you get the idea.  The more you post, and the better it is, the more attention you receive.

So back to my original question, has SEO gotten easier or harder?  From my point of view, it has become a lot more work, but it is work that I can do.   I understand it, enjoy doing it, and I'm good at it.  Let the techo-wizards do their magic then move on to fix the email server (or whatever they do when they say they're too busy).  That's when a marketer takes over and creates strong, interesting content that is helpful to their consumer.  We have been talking online for a couple of years about content marketing.  Now, thanks to Penguin, it is even more important.  It is a key to SEO and strong organic search results.