Eric and I were eating lunch a few weeks ago and I asked him the question that I get asked all the time, "Is SEO dead?"  I know it's not, but I really wanted his take and I talked him in to creating this content for you.

Here's what Eric said:

I always thought it's kind of funny and inclined to chuckle a bit when people ask me the question: Is SEO dead? [In case you don't know what SEO stands for, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.] Why? Well, typically with my experience, the people who are asking the question usually don't have a good understanding of how SEO works and/or have been struggling using SEO as an online marketing strategy to grow their business.

I'd like to take this opportunity to present some facts on what SEO is and why so many people are not seeing successes with SEO. After reading this, I'll let you decide for yourself whether SEO is dead or not. According to InternetLiveStats.com, Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average, which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.

Whoa! That's a ton of searches. With that stats in mind, with over 3.5 billion searches per day, that's a massive amount of traffic to websites generated through the search engines along. I can confidently tell you that SEO will live as long as people are doing searches on Google.Search Engine Optimization is a practice by optimizing the contents of a webpage, along with establishing authority of the page, to increase the placement or position in the search results.

The reason why many people claim that SEO is dead is perhaps because of their focus on wanting to get ranked high in the search results with competitive keywords. That my friend, I can tell you it has nothing to do with whether SEO is dead or alive. It has everything to do with competition! The number one reason why many has failed in doing SEO is because they take on the wrong challenge.

I don't know about you, but I like to win. Personally, I much rather compete in a junior high track and field than in the olympic game. I know that I stand no chance whatsoever in competing and winning in an olympic game, however, I'll stand a great chance of winning if I'm running in a 400 m junior high track and field competition! You may think it's really not fair, but when it comes to SEO, I much rather win than lose in this game.

How do I do that with SEO? I simply focus on competing against the less competitive keywords. This is where "Keyword Research" comes in. Keyword research is the essence of SEO. If you are not spending at least a third of your time doing keyword research, your efforts with SEO will likely be DOA.

The reason why the keyword research process is so important, is because it is similar to laying the foundation of a house. If the foundation is not solid, the house will likely crumble after it's built. The keyword research process should help you reveal the following information for every keyword:

- competition

- search volume

- related keywords

Knowing this information will help you narrow down the type of games you can compete in. For example, if I am starting a new e-commerce store selling watches online, trying to get my website ranked for the keyword "watches" is basically suicidal. However, after doing keyword research, I've discovered that a keyword such as "watch strap color rules" has waaaaay less competition. Getting one of my web pages to rank high for that keyword will be a bazillion times easier than popular keyword "watches".

That's it! That's how I do SEO every day for my clients and my own e-commerce websites.

P.s. I know this may not mean a whole lot to some people simply because anyone can make any kind of outrageous claim on the internet, but in case you are still not convinced, I've been able to generate over $1 million dollars in sales online just for doing SEO for my own e-commerce websites. Yes, you read that right, it's websites with "s", meaning I've done this in multiple industries and I can guarantee you that SEO is definitely NOT dead ;)

P.P.s. I have partnered with Michelle to put together a Private Mentorship Group on SEO. In 2 weeks, you will learn not just how SEO works, but being mentored by Eric and leave with actionable SEO tips for your own website. One of our previous members, Brandi wrote and tell us this:

I'm so glad I joined in on the mentorship...!! It's been very helpful being able to ask questions and to hear everyone else's questions and your answers!

The Private Mentorship Group is limited to 10 members max. If you are interested, reserve YOUR spot today:

http://airau.com/michelle-mccullough-mentorship-seo/

Eric Chang is the Director of Marketing at Airau Marketing. Airau Marketing is a full-service marketing agency serving clients from United States to Canada in a wide array of industries: E-commerce, Retail, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Education, Non-profit, and Technology.In addition to running Airau Marketing, Eric also operates several online businesses utilizing the same marketing strategies he teaches in his Private Mentorship Groups.Eric was recognized as the Top 40 Under Forty by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce and BDO in 2016.

Previous
Previous

How to Create a Simple and Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy

Next
Next

How to Get Back on Track With Your Goals