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Have we run out of good SEO/SEM topics to write about?
Went Hot: March 17, 2008 - 6:12 am
Posted By: Jill 60 days ago
Topic Type: Discussion
Category: SEM Industry
Unfortunately, the good stuff was few and far between. Mostly all I could find were posts about blogging and how to get rich quick. The few posts with an SEO bent, were mostly inaccurate or had been previously discussed ad nauseum.
Even the hot topics for the week were all about Twitter, Stumble and blogging. There were a few interesting topics, but not much for my tastes.
So I'm wondering...have we simply run out of good SEO and SEM topics?
36 Comments
Comments
Well jeez... there must be some good topics out there, guess we need to dig a little deeper - or revisit some oldies. I know I write about things more as the mood/emotion strikes me these days than actually planning them out.
I know I have made a concious decision to get into SEO more in the comming months as I have been wrestling with the meaning and value of SMM lately - which really isn't my territory. I know Micheal (Martinez) tends to motivate me a lot (either pro or con)... he has a nack for that. But I do want to get back into SEO...
Some ideas to that end;
SEO and Mobile - needs more love
Google Hacks - understanding security issues
SEO Industry Standards - old horse, but I have a related rant
Social Search and Verticals
I am also keen on Analytics/Metrics related discussions as many SEOs have gravitated into valuating services beyond mere rankings and there isn't a lot of chatter to that end.....
..but really, after 2 years.. 200+ blog posts, 3000+ forum posts... writing about SEO can get old - after all, it's not rocket science right? (hee hee)....
i welcome any new ideas and concepts to bite into.... HELP!
Ok... just for U Jill - http://sphinn.com/story/34938
Hows that for a new angle?
Hey theGypsy, thanks for your comments. Unfortunately, as soon as I see Twitter, or Flickr, or even the words Social Media in a post, it makes me want to run as I'm so sick of hearing about all of them.
To me, all that stuff is cool and interesting, but it's ancillary to SEO/SEM. They are traffic generators, and ways of marketing websites, and perhaps link building tools to a certain extent. But they're not search marketing, imo.
That said, I write a variety of columns, newsletters, etc., and I definitely understand the difficulty in coming up with new topics, or at least a different spin (sphinn?) on things. I do think it's still doable, but it depends on the target market you're writing to.
For instance, in my TalentZoo column, the audience doesn't already know much about SEO, so I can find tons of stuff to write about. But I would never use those same articles/topics in my Search Engine Land column, as the audience is generally more experienced, advanced search marketers.
It's getting tough out there, that's for sure. Especially with everyone and their brother (and their dogs) writing about (or trying to write about) search marketing.
He he... Call me Dave.. it's ok :0)
Agreed on all counts. I am pretty sure my recent journey into SMM (writing at least) were in part created by the phenomenon you touched on. I write more rudimentary posts for other publications I am involved with, that I wouldn't on my blog for the same reasoning of the educated readership.
I am not a 'Twitter' myself but have been studying qualitative research in my free time (fun guy huh?) and found that piece above the norm for SMM related posts, thus potetially 'new' territory... but yes, I must admit I am a search geek at heart - not a social butterfly.
As far as the deluge of writers and access to them (via locales such as Sphinn) that might play into it. I know I am often put nearly to sleep with the sheep mentality as far as band wagoneers all covering the same (hot) topics each week. The noise to signal ratio in the blog-o-sphere in reminiscant of many SEO boards over the last year or two....
..but I shall pick up the challange and try and run with it. Hopefully this thread bears some fruit as well... Maybe this topic needs some qualitative research itself (ha ha haha...)
I may just have to create some more accounts so I can sphinn this multiple times. I'm glad to hear that I am not the only one sick of "27 ways to use Twitter to make Toast" stories hitting the home page. Blech...
I don't think we've run out of topics, but I do think people are writing less and less of actual SEO/SEM content lately and a lot more "look at me!" junk...but that's a different discussion that I don't want to get lambasted for here.
Hehe...that's awesome. If only you could really use it for that!
I think in terms of Sphinn, part of the problem (for me at least) lies in the fact that it's not strictly a search marketing forum, but all of Internet marketing. I've discussed this in other rants here already, so that's all I'll say on the topic.
But if anyone wants to start a sphinn-like place that only allows search marketing topics, please let me know, cuz I'll be there!
The interesting posts are become fewer and further between. That's for sure.
There's also complete multiple-submit overkill on some topics. I wish threads could be merged when that happens.
Ditto what g1smd said. Finding something readable is getting more difficult.
I think this is less a content producer or sphinn/community problem than it is a reader problem. If you are very experienced or knowledgeable (like Jill, for example), you won't see many things that'll amaze you. The more you consume social news and the more you're plugged into what's going on in the industry or niche, the more you feel that some stories are repeating itself.
The less you read, the more you'll find interesting or intellectually stimulating. I think some people really enjoy Sphinn's content but for those more experienced or active, you'll tend to find some content stale.
Conversations are started because people are influenced or inspired by things they read... the recent boom in Twitter articles reflects the increase in SEOs/Marketers using or experimenting with Twitter. The buzz will die in time.
I can remember a period last year when there were a LOT of Stumbleupon articles on Sphinn over a few weeks as well for some reason...
In a way we might be simply incredibly spoiled.
There's an ongoing avalanche of mostly on-topic content we're experiencing.
Tons and tons of posts in Google Reader (or whatever your RSS client is).
Tens to hundreds of submissions here. They don't always cover what we might consider new ground but some of them are really well written - at the very least.
You write; So I'm wondering...have we simply run out of good SEO and SEM topics?
No, there's tons of topics to explore still. We have much more hard data on how people are influenced by, react to or interact with advertisement than we have for people's relations with search engines, for example. Marketing, brand perception, feel of SERP quality -- those and more come into play when, within seconds, people make a choice which link to click. Influencing them via the SERP medium is much different from traditional modesl. Delicious area to explore (and test! and play with!).
Oh -- and for me Sphinn is a social place first. Then a discovery place; new people, new blogs, new sites. If I really want to quickly scan an find a jewel or two, I probably dive into one of my news readers. Faster, more scanable -- and a much, much larger pool :)
Hey Jill - TalentZoo column? Where's that - I'd love to read it
While Sphinn is dominated by search marketers, it should be remembered that it is the home of Internet Marketing news and discussion. It is not exclusively a search marketers domain. So to me the other articles have as much a right to be here as any SEO/SEM articles... even if I don't use or have an interest in Twitter.
@Kalena it's at talentzoo.com
@JamesDuthie absolutely! Which is why I'd be interested in a sphinn-like place that only allows search marketing topics.
Sounds like a nice little business opportunity for you Jill... :)
I agree wholeheartedly with Jill.
The majority of readers might appreciate the articles that's being submitted to Sphinn. But if we continue down this road, Sphinn will just turn into SEOnewbieville, assuming it hasn't already. There's nothing wrong with going that route except we will end up with a community of mediocre marketers. I don't believe in a product that caters to the common denominator.
The reason for the lack of SEO-related articles is simple; Sphinn's submitters are largely social media marketers/bloggers, not SEOs.
I'm starting to tune out of Sphinn and looking for other ways to filter out the noise. I believe personalized results is the solution but I doubt that will get implemented anytime soon.
As stated by JamesDuthie, Sphinn is an internet marketing forum and therefore posts about marketing via Twitter are on-topic - whether they deserve to go Hot is up to the Sphinn community.
If you're only interested in strictly search marketing, there is a link in the top navigation which allows you to see only topics within the Search Marketing category.
As for posting for the sake of posting (rather than for editorial quality), I'll be starting a new discussion/announcement about this later today.
FWIW, I think SEO has turned a corner and it can't be considered in isolation from social media and/or blogging these days. Content and links are still key and the best way to deliver/receive those is by blogging or writing articles and using social media to market your content. Online reputation management is gaining a lot of attention now and that goes hand in hand with social media marketing. My clients and students are asking questions about these subjects and how to implement them. So for me, the themes I see on Sphinn are aligned to my interests as an SEO and my client's interests. Yes, there is some repetition and some crap affiliate stuff getting through to Sphinn, but any site that becomes popular quickly has to deal with spam and make the fences higher bit by bit.
@Halfdeck "But if we continue down this road, Sphinn will just turn into SEOnewbieville, assuming it hasn't already. There's nothing wrong with going that route except we will end up with a community of mediocre marketers. I don't believe in a product that caters to the common denominator."
I think thats the nature of social media - the knowledgeable people are in early and after time get drowned out with the less experienced. It happens to (most) forums when they get big ( i.e. DP), and digg etc.
I think it happens to most things - by the time a fashion becomes mainstream the experts at the fringe move on to something newer until that cycle repeats. There are exceptions - I think the cre8asite forum is a great place for advanced topics - but site owners still have to balance growing their sites and keeping the subject matter advanced enough to interest their original members.
As membership sites grow the value of the network grows meaning there is more incentive for late adapters to join - and those late adopters are generally less knowledgeable
Good SEO topics like case studies and best practice articles are time consuming to produce so we see very few of them. The good SEO's are too busy with clients while bloggers are always happy to churn out content.
I've learned over time to never publish anything just before, during, or just after a major conference if I want people to read it (unless it is about the conference). I also avoid publishing Friday, Saturday or Sunday if possible for the same reasons. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who follows similar advice and that might have explained why Sphinn might have been slow this this past weekend...many publishers were either in transit to SES New York or didn't want to publish anything against its backdrop.
If Sphinn were to try to carve out strictly Search Engine Marketing topics and not cover other aspects of Internet Marketing, I think it would be much less effective. If you wanted purity of topic, rather than effective advice then you could restrict it to SEO. After all there are lots of so-called experts who are only still selling top rankings in Google.
.. and yes there's still lots of new topics to be covered. It's just that they get increasingly buried by the flood of low-quality items.
The basics of SEO aren't rocket science and the art of making a good site really hasn't changed all that much. A lot of the controversy over "what works" and "what doesn't work" has died down since quality links and content have replaced tricks that used to work.
I think there's still a lot for newbies to read, but very few earth-shattering developments for pros who've been around a while.
@Scottie - THANK YOU for saying it. The basics of SEO aren't rocket science.
I find that the same instructional guides are posted again and again and again on blog after blog after blog and with nothing new being revealed. These article get submitted to Sphinn and spun up with glorious comments about how great the "SEO Image Optimization 101" post was.
Instead of rehashing the same old stuff over and over, how about some thoughtful posts on the state of the industry, where it's been and where it's going.
I don't need to read about Alt tags any more and there are already too many references for the "newbie"
@ TinPig- you are welcome. I am the master of the obvious. ;)
It's not shocking that a bunch of bloggers and social marketers write about blogging and social marketing so much... but I'm with Jill on this. Seems like the noise is as hot as the signal.
*** I find that the same instructional guides are posted again and again and again on blog after blog after blog ... ***
Not only that, but some are repeating stuff from years ago, when the best techniques have now moved on somewhat; while others are so incomplete, or so full of errors, as to be unusable, or even downright dangerous.
I'm glad you posted about this, Jill. I thought it was just me.
I know that there are sites and blogs I consider must-reads multiple times every day.
A month ago I was visiting Sphinn 2-3 times a day, maybe more. However, I'm now coming here maybe once a day. It's stopped feeling like a must-read to me. What's on the front page seems not to have changed hardly at all in the past couple days, and the What's New section seems to be overloaded with facebook-twitter-makemoney-SM posts to the point where I'm lucky if I see one topic on a whole page of entries that hits me as must-read.
Sphinn has the authors and the ability to be essential reading for most of us, but it's not living up to that for me, personally, right now.
Interesting topic.
Miriam
That comment from Maki is, I think, the core issue at hand, but also ties in very well with Scottie's comment:
Those of us who've been around a couple of blocks don't see much that's new...except for what is truly new to us, and at the moment, that's social networking.
And I agree with Kalena, when she says:
Is there a lot of noise on Sphinn? Yes, just like there is everywhere else. It's just a fact of life that we have to sift through the grit to find the gems.
Have we run out of good SEO/SEM topics to write about? In some ways, yes, because so many have written so much over time. There will always be new things to write about, but not by everyone every day - maybe not even by a few every week or month. So if someone's job is to write material, choices must be made... write something new about seo/sem if something new springs to mind, write something old about seo/sem with hopefully a modern twist to keep it fresh, write something old about seo/sem for those who may have missed it in the past, or write about something that is tangentially related to seo/sem such as social media, because it is still new, and therefore lends itself to lots of new material ideas.
Three years from now, social media marketers will probably be holding this same conversation about that topic, and what's new will become old, while something else becomes the new waiting to grow old. Kind of like each of us. :)
Information on "signal to noise" and future plans can be found here: http://sphinn.com/story/35250
What JohnWeb said. And Scottie said.
I do value Spinn as a place where I can get an overview of what's happening out there. But lately there are too many of the "5 Ways to ..." titles which I find monumentally irritating.
The problem is, I guess, to come up with material that people who've been at this for a while might find interesting and useful.
@ donna - I think you've got yourself a blog post there. Just don't Sphinn it! LOL
@ Kalena, i would but it would be old news now. ;)
There is too much social media out there, it's the quick fix everybody is after. Just like search engine forums are overloaded with directory related threads.
Problem is that those few who find more effective ways of marketing, are not always willing to publically share them.
So what that leaves us with is more or less common knowledge.
~ Mike Dammann
Jill one way to create new things to write about is to make-up new, must need, SEO techniques like "PR Sulpting" and write about it, LOL
Hmm...Jaan, I think you're onto something there!
Sorry if I'm late here, but there's definitely fresh content if you know where to look. Discover the blogs here, then add em to your reader. Slightly Shady SEO regularly does original stuff, Maki's posts on psychology and persuasion are original, Miriam Ellis' series of interviews with local search pros was enlightening, Todd Mintz's pieces with Aaron Wall, Brian Provost and John Andrews were nice. And if I can boast just a little, I think my disguising paid links as AdSense/display ads was halfway original.