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Can SEO Be Automated?

Went Hot: September 18, 2007 - 7:25 am
Posted By: lorenbaker 656 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.searchenginejournal.com)
Category: SEO

Do we want robots performing SEO or a retraction to the glory days of Web Position Gold? Can software optimize a site better than humans? Commerce360 is making the switch over to a more automated SEO software platform. Can SEO's and software work hand in hand or is SEO a human process?

12 Comments

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from storyspinner 656 days ago #

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Great post Loren!

from planetc1 656 days ago #

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To the question in the title: Can SEO Be Automated? Yes. While I imagine no SEO wants to believe they could be replaced by a machine, history shows otherwise.

Over at Search Engine Journal suggest that an automated process will never happen. While it's not my intention to piss off hard-working SEOs, I think we're missing the bigger picture.

Can SEO be automated to a point that it would be somewhat effective (even if mediocre) and priced in a way that an individual, or mom-and-pop type business, could afford?

from kensavage 656 days ago #

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thought provoking yet made me throw my diet coke across the room.

Commerce360 really needs to step outside and get some fresh air.

from ukdaz 656 days ago #

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Can an automated program have the intuition/sixth sense a human does. Can automated SEO be just as creative? If it easily stands out as automated SEO will Google et all treat the pages it optimises as spam?

from toddmintz 656 days ago #

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We all know how well automated link-building techniques work:.)

from debram 656 days ago #

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".. yet made me throw my diet coke across the room"

What a waste of Diet Coke.

from drmadcow 656 days ago #

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I've seen Automated SEO services, and to call them effective is a joke. The biggest issues I saw were:

1) These robots are only as smart as there programmers and what they know about SEO.

2) Given the complexity of the English Language (or any language for that matter) these robots get confused and may choose words that may appear related, but are in fact very different.

3) Your website ultimately caters to humans, although it needs to be built for the engines. When you discount the end visitor they simply won't convert.

And I agree with Debram about what a waste of Diet Coke, although I'm drinking a no name Canadian brand with Splenda instead of my daily intake of Aspartame.

from toprank 655 days ago #

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Results will speak volumes with such a scenario. In the meantime, there is no stronger competitive advantage than the human connection between great content and authoritative editorial visibility. The power of social networks and relationships cannot be automated.

from betweenstations 655 days ago #

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It depends on the basis for comparison for 'effective.'

If 'automated SEO' is compared with the proposals some of my clients receive for 'SEO' from some places, I'd totally vote for automation -- I'm talking about those proposals that discuss how the meta-keywords tags are ALL WRONG.

Our developers are automating some of that hoo-ha already. But the process of doing real marketing? That takes some actual thought.

from cre8pc 655 days ago #

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They got VC for this????

from tamecrow 655 days ago #

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Sure, certain things can be automated - titles can be stuffed with keywords, links can be gathered, but how can a robot create informative copy and valuable content to attract visitors and links? I think we've heard too many predictions of things being automated and our jobs being taken over by computers, so I'm afraid I'm not subscribing to this theory :-)

from SearchBuzz 655 days ago #

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We currently are very automated and will continue to become more so as the industry evolves. Will humans ever be taken out of the equation....NO. Even if SEO became 'automated', who will be planning, developing, and strategizing the tools that are executing the automation. Someone, somewhere will always be building, creating, designing, and strategizing. It may just take on a different format.