Course Content
40 SEOs Fears: How Search Marketing Is Changing & Common Problems
I thought it would be useful to get a sense of the fears, insecurities, and anxieties that search marketers are experiencing. So, we decided to ask 40 search marketers to name their greatest fear that keeps them awake at night (with the exception of babies, insomnia, and their favorite sports team losing). These are all people who are actively working in the industry, and whose livelihood depend on what they do (no arm-chair marketers here). Here’s what they all said.
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HOW TO USE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) TO GROW REVENUES
    About Lesson

    I thought it would be useful to get a sense of the fears, insecurities, and anxieties that search marketers are experiencing. So, we decided to ask 40 search marketers to name their greatest fear that keeps them awake at night (with the exception of babies, insomnia, and their favorite sports team losing).

    These are all people who are actively working in the industry, and whose livelihood depend on what they do (no arm-chair marketers here). Here’s what they all said.

    Fear #1: Google is becoming a destination site

    What scares me the most about where the industry is headed, is that Google is increasingly making itself a destination site, rather than just a directory of links. With changes such as Google Now, Knowledge Graph, Google Glass, etc. users can increasingly get the answers to their queries without ever leaving Google. Google’s CEO Larry Page has even said that he wants to make Google a “Knowledge Engine” rather than just a search engine. While this is all good and well, it ignores the fact that most of Google’s “knowledge” comes from the content produced by webmasters.

    In the past, webmasters have made their sites freely accessible to Google in exchange for search traffic, but if Google is just going to scrape the “knowledge” created by third-parties without giving anything in return, then the exchange becomes unbalanced. As a content producer and search marketer, this is a worrying trend.

    – Takeshi Young, SEO Team Lead at EntirelyPets.com

    Fear #2: Google is dominating our everyday lives

    As long as one understands that the only thing constant is change, there is no reason to lose any sleep. As the search engines and searchers themselves become more sophisticated, so must our digital marketing techniques. The paradigm shift away from gaming the algorithm to delivering something useful, with real value, has already taken place.

    That said, I think everyone should be concerned about the power that Google has over the internet and our daily lives in general. Look for Google Plus to grow and the new YouTube comment system to be expanded across the web. Google Glass has implications far beyond what the average consumer realizes and they aren’t all good. Mobile is the present – no longer the future.

    – Chuck Price, founder of Measurable SEO

    Fear #3: SEO alone is no longer enough

    I don’t really have a fear about where the industry is headed, however the breadth of knowledge and skill that is now necessary to “get results” is pretty incredible. We used to be able to “do SEO” and get results. While SEO may still be the dominant factor, there are many other skills that are now necessary to truly succeed online. To get solid traction a site must understand how to effectively write, publish and socialize content, engage with their audience online and develop a site that provides a superb user experience.

    SEO alone no longer works and all of these areas must be in play. The problem arises when you realize that all of these are just too vast for even a single person to be able to know and/or implement effectively. A team of individuals, each with expertise in a particular area of web marketing (SEO, content, social, etc.) is needed. All of these changes are truly great for the web, but makes the web marketing services needed to succeed much more vast.

    – Stoney deGeyter, President of Pole Position Marketing

    Fear #4: SEO is now more difficult and expensive

    In the SEO world, some items that keep me awake at night is that SEO is getting much more difficult, time consuming and expensive for small businesses. In the past several years bigger brands have gained a lot of advantages in the search engines. As the amount of social signals, paid advertising and voice search results increase in the search engines, I only see this trend continuing. The one spot where small businesses still have a chance to shine is local SEO. Small businesses also need to implement a multi-faceted digital marketing plan to compete now, instead of just doing several SEO tactics such as link building, optimizing web pages and buying an exact match domain to rank well in the search engines.

    – Jeff Shjarback, Internet Marketing Consultant

    Fear #5: Clients are disregarding SEO

    One thing that’s been on my mind a lot as of late that I find troublesome is the shift in client mentality. Because of all the Google updates and misinformation out there I am finding that a lot of people are looking for partners to help with content, reputation management and social media and seem to want to disregard SEO. They think they just need a partner to help them pump out tons of content and promote it, but seem to be caring less and less about building a strong foundation in SEO for their website. This is troublesome because all of these other things are great and definitely helpful, but if they don’t have a solid foundation to build upon it can limit their overall reach and effort.

    – Mike Wilton, Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur

    Fear #6: Google is becoming less transparent

    The thing I am most concerned about is Google moving away from transparency in the data it allows organic search marketers to access. This loss of transparency makes measurement more time consuming, makes programs less effective and creates a less predictability in getting results to rank. While I believe that Google ultimately wishes to choose the best results without any guidance or manipulation by search marketers, I am concerned that algorithms are imperfect and will turn ranking into a popularity contest as opposed to a meritocracy. This will ultimately favor brands, which is good for them and limiting to everyone else.

    It takes more time and tools to establish a performance baseline, which takes focus away from the optimization process. Pretty much everyone loses in this scenario; website owners, searchers and even Google when searchers grow frustrated by less relevant search results.

    – Jeff Sauer, Founder, Jeffalytics

    Fear #7: Delivering quality results

    Right now the only thing that really keeps me awake at night is how to scale my business. There’s still a tremendous amount of need for smart search marketers and digital marketers. It’s about how to keep delivering quality while taking on the clients you really want.

    – AJ Kohn, Owner at Blind Five Year Old and Author of Ultimate Guide to Google+ SEO

    Fear #8: You’re guilty until proven innocent, according to Google

    What keeps me awake at night? Google.

    I honestly believe that if nobody is scared by Google in SEO, they’re lying. Right now, we’re in an online world where it’s very much guilty until proven innocent with them. If they take a disliking to the way a website has linked to you, or even the website that has linked to you, you have to crawl through broken glass for forgiveness and even then it might not be enough. I look after some pretty big websites that attract some amazing links but what happens if Google turns around and says “You know what, some of those are dodgy” or “That link pattern falls in nicely with what we’ve seen spammers do” then we’re in a position where we then have to spend time trawling through our link profile to see what WE think Google dislikes and then try our hardest to get them removed.

    The same is happening with guest blogging at the minute. Lets say years back, you’re ahead of the trend and you use guest blogging as a way of building natural links to your website. You scale it up because it works, you get exposure and engagement as well as great traffic. But now Google is saying that they’re targeting websites that use guest posting at scale. Is it my fault for utilising something that works? How can I be punished for being completely within Googles TOS one month and then the next it’s deemed unnatural and the website is tittering.

    – Jason Dexter, Freelance SEO and Online Marketing Expert

    Fear #9: 100% Not Provided

    I’m sure I probably worry about the same things as most search marketers. That being: What will we do when our analytics data hits 100% not-provided? How will we be able to show our clients exactly where we are adding value?

    The problem we face now is that, where as we used to be able to account for every click, every keyword, link, ranking improvement/regression, we no longer can. At least, not to the extent that clients have become accustomed to. It would have been better to have never had it at all than to have had it taken away from us so coldly.

    Search marketing was this magical pill that allowed companies to monitor and control every penny of their budget. It was implicitly measurable. That was its USP, its raison d’être. It still is to a certain extent, of course, especially when compared to more “traditional” forms of marketing. But I worry about Google keeping us in the dark and I worry about clients’ expectations.

    Conversely, I feel this will lead to more creative and strategic campaigns, where the results are multi-faceted and more holistic. I’m talking about campaigns that are measurable even without using Google’s limited available data. Campaigns that contribute to a company’s branding and conversion rates, as well as improving rankings.

    The search marketers who are most frustrated and “scared” at the moment are search marketers who became too comfortable with “the rules” too early on. There never were any rules, there were never any guarantees. Nothing has changed. I think we should be very excited about that.

    – Ben Holbrook, Head of Content at Verve Search

    Fear #10: Preparing strategy pitches for clients

    I still get super nervous before any strategy pitch. Anytime we’ve come up with a new plan for a client and are preparing to present it to them, I lose sleep over whether or not we’re making the right decision. This industry thrives off of pushing strategies and tactics forward, so making sure we’re always coming up with the next best thing is an amazing opportunity and challenge, but still SO nerve-wracking.

    – Rob Toledo, Works at Distilled

    Fear #11: Generating campaign ideas

    The only thing that keeps me awake at night is campaign ideas. We market our clients using creative content; games, graphics, interactive graphics and kick-ass written content so we generally find we’re immune to any negative impacts from algorithm changes. A side effect of this means that it is hard to switch off and I often find I’m hit with an inspiring idea at 1 am when I’m trying to sleep. My pro-tip is to keep a notebook on the bedside table to scribble down those late night flashes of inspiration.

    – Nichola Stott, founder and managing director of theMediaFlow

    Fear #12: Keeping up with changes in AdWords

    My biggest concern is how much Google is changing in respect to Adwords, and being able to keep up with the changes. The launch of the new Enhanced Campaign structure last year caused a great deal of upheaval in the paid search arena, because clients were forced to have to migrate to the new structure, which in many cases required campaigns to be rebuilt. And the strong focus on mobile is definitely a push from Google, based on their strategy, and what the market is moving towards. There are constant updates coming out, and it’s a challenge to keep up with all of the new enhancements, and determining how these changes will affect existing clients. We have an obligation to our clients to keep them informed of the changes, and ensuring that we understand the implications to them of implementing them.

    – Diane Pease, Paid Search Director at Archology

    Fear #13: The SEO Industry’s Perceived Slimy Reputation

    What really concerns me most is the state of the SEO industry. There is a plethora of bad advice – it’s coming out of people’s mouths on stages at conferences (“experts”!), there’s bad SEO advice published in books, and there’s probably more bad SEO advice online these days than there is good, considering a lot of old tactics are still out there. People are learning from this and spreading misinformation.

    On top of that, inexperienced or just daring SEOs use practices that get their clients in trouble. When you have several high-profile cases of big brands being burned by their SEOs on top of droves of SEO companies that can’t deliver (incredibly common), the general public has grown to mistrust SEOs more than ever.

    What keeps me up at night is dealing with the embarrassment of being associated with an industry that people think is downright slimy. It’s my personal plight to change this industry and it’s snake oil reputation by educating people correctly and leading by example. I get no sleep a lot of nights.

    – Laura Lippay, SEOgadget

    Fear #14: Keeping up with Google and competitors

    The thing that keeps me awake at night is the never ending task of keeping up with Google and ahead of our competitors. SEO changes quickly and it always prudent to achieve a wide variety of signals rather than focusing too much on old school tactics. Over the last few years this has meant continually evolving our service and incorporating additional skills.

    One example of this has been evolving our link development department into a best in class outreach and PR team. Recruitment and training aside, now we’ve got a couple of years of experience and learned a lot from our mistakes. Being increasingly successful in that area has brought its own sleepless nights. As our clients trust us more and get adventurous with the work they’re willing to carry out for SEO, we find we’re doing more work beyond the internet. Running events, networking and developing relationships in the real world all come packaged with their own headaches.

    – Richard Falconer, Head of SEO at DigitasLBi

    Fear #15: Clients not adhering to your proposed strategy

    To me, there is nothing worse than when a client decides to ignore the strategy and direction their search marketing agency has provided them with to implement. This is by far my biggest fear and it has kept me from getting a good nights rest of several occasions. In order to have a successful digital campaign clients must adhere to the specific strategy and advice they are given. If they don’t their ability to succeed in increasing their online visibility is in jeopardy.

    – Michael Kovis, Search Marketing Director at jWeb Media

    Fear #16: Google’s Monopoly

    I’m not afraid of the next Google update or algorithm rewrite.

    On the other hand I see that Google is continuously limiting the organic search as we know it. Soon enough they might stop showing organic results altogether and many people wouldn’t even notice anymore due to all the ads, sponsored results and pay to play Google services that replace SERPs right now. Google will also increasingly scrape third party sites instead of linking out to them. Ultimately Google is eagerly working on their own proprietary Web given the scare-mongering against open source hyperlinks and pushing of proprietary technologies like Google+, +1, authorship, rich snippets etc.

    What I’m truly afraid is the unlimited power Google has already.

    One day there might nothing be left beside the likes of Google. Right now they only monopolize the search traffic and access to information but a few years from now they might be running the whole Internet of things etc. They may monopolize not only markets but power altogether. Once the market breaks down and politicians will be compromised people will embrace any power that will keep them safe at night instead. Their Boston Dynamics robots may replace workers and security. Their Nest thermostats might control your home. In short it’s a truly Orwellian dystopia in the making. I may read a bit too much science fiction books you might argue but I like to be able to know what’s coming up in the future. I’m preparing myself all the time.

    – Tadeusz Szewczyk, Blog, Social Media & Search Specialist at Onreact.com

    Fear #17: Google Rankings of Client Sites

    When I first started out in Search Marketing I was kept awake by practically everything – from the kind (and number) of responses I was anticipating from an outreach email to whether or not I’d wake up to find that a client’s site had overturned a month on month conversion deficit. These days my campaigns are considerably better organised and planned out, so it tends to be the things that are more outside my control that make me restless.

    It can be frustrating and draining when a site that you’ve taken care to market and promote in the most sanctioned ways possible is outperformed or outranked by an objectively – whether onpage, offpage or both – inferior site. It’s in Google’s benefit for them to provide the best possible sites, but I’d be lying if I said that the positions that some sites are taking up in certain SERPs doesn’t lead to a bit of tooth grinding on a evening.

    – Dave Hellowell, Content Marketing Specialist at Blueclaw

    Fear #18: The battle between being creative and delivering results

    One thing that worries me is the constant opportunity to learn new things, which can at sometimes be in direct tension with the ability to deliver consistant work. Some of the biggest and fastest growing digital agencies aren’t those doing the most interesting or innovative work. Being bigger isn’t always better but it does seem to me often who we think of as some of the most creative and inventive in our industry aren’t those seeing the best commercial returns.

    – Kelvin Newman, Search Engine Marketing at SiteVisibility

    Fear #19: Content “Shock”

    What worries me most and has been a concern for a long time isn’t actually related to the work that we, or other successful agencies, conduct. Instead I’m more worried about the rise in low quality content and negative practices used by underhand companies or those looking for very quick wins. Not only do these tactics cause fatigue for readers who will grow tired of the deluge of poor quality content and sites, but they also cause Google to clamp down on a tighter scale which more and more often is causing collateral damage to good websites.

    – Mike Essex, Online Marketing Manager at Koozai