What you need to know about SEO in 2009

by Patrick Altoft on March 13, 2008

Have you ever noticed that by the time a search engine optimisation strategy becomes widely used it has become largely useless?

If so then you might also have noticed that early adopters of certain techniques benefit from “grandfathering” of the effects of the strategies while newcomers are unable to see the same benefits.

For example a site that exchanged links 5 years ago now sees good rankings because of these links while anybody building similar links this year will not see anywhere near the same effects. The same applies to article and web directory links, paid links and almost any other link you can think of.

By the time most people start using a strategy it has stopped working. Early adopters usually get to keep the positive effects of the technique (sometimes as a result of self reinforcing authority) while those just learning about the strategy end up chasing their tails.

How can we learn from this?

The key is to start using SEO strategies before they become popular. The only way to do this is to either take a very lucky guess at what signals Google might use in the future (such as bookmarks) OR to try as many aggressive organic marketing strategies as possible in the hope that some might work.

Google has been using PageRank for years and there can be no doubt that within the next 18 months social data will start to become more integrated with the natural search results. Google already uses personalised search so they are building up a history of the sites you like and the sites you don’t. If Google buys Digg, del.icio.us or Facebook this dataset is going to become huge.

What can we do?

Create ideas that can spread & encourage users to spread them
Become the viral marketing leader in your niche
Build a presence on social networks such as Facebook
Encourage your users to bookmark your sites in browsers & on web services
Use buttons to let users share by email
Increase the number of RSS users
Build links from socials sites, forget about nofollow

Photo credit

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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

Jcyreus 13 Mar 2008 at 3:50 am: Something that I’ve found very helpful in building traffic to Jcyreus dot Com is to push every article that I publish out to my Facebook profile. In looking at my server logs, about 15% of my traffic is coming from links to articles that were pushed to Facebook.

That and pushing for readers to subscribe via RSS are the best tactics in your list.
Aaron at FullTiltBlogging.com 13 Mar 2008 at 4:18 am: Great post. You mention Facebook, what other networking sites do you see as crucial in SEO in the coming months?
MandS 13 Mar 2008 at 8:32 pm: Some really good ideas for promotion! Yes, we must think about how the things will work in the appropriate future. Those webmasters who are looking deeply forward will gain better success in the next few years!
Eamon 14 Mar 2008 at 10:54 pm: This is a particularly useful post.

Was wondering though, any ideas on how to ‘Build a presence on social networks such as Facebook’. I am only just beginning to get kind of used to blogging now. Any tips on Facebook would be appreciated.
Patrick Altoft 14 Mar 2008 at 11:11 pm
Find me on Twitter: Well I would suggest coming up with a killer Facebook app but I’m not a Facebook expert.
More comments from Patrick Altoft
May 15 Mar 2008 at 7:54 pm: Thanks for the tips Patrick. I am on the constant lookout for new ways in the SEO area
Scott F 15 Mar 2008 at 7:59 pm: I agree with you when you say that one should build something that encourages users to spread them.

I have personally worked for low life affiliate marketers that spam internet up and down to get back links and yet do not provide any worthy content to their users. I believe that affiliate marketing is an industry that needs to be closely watched by the bigger search engines as they have a tendency to misdirect most searches done on the internet. Just my two cents.
Teodolfo 16 Mar 2008 at 3:39 am: Social media/bookmarking/networking is the future. Aside from the major social sites like facebook, myspace, friendster, mybloglog, etc., I believe niche social media sites is going to play a role in your ranking in the near future.

I am in the real estate niche and I actively participate in a social networking site that is focused on this niche. Would you believe everytime I post, Google indexes my blog post in less than an hour. I don’t think even blogger.com can beat that.

So I suspect, Google favors the niche web2.0 sites right now. So find your niche.
Tibi Puiu 17 Mar 2008 at 8:10 am: I always try to think of popular things in advance, but it’s a bit hard isn’t it . I mean popular stuff, that isn’t popular yet is a bit hard to predict.
Wade 17 Mar 2008 at 12:35 pm: The hardest thing for any new site is getting the hits. An SEO optimized site helps out a lot, but only so much. The rest lies in the hands of your pagerank. So how does your page rank go up? Linkbacks and new/updated content will help out a lot!
Simon Dance 31 Mar 2008 at 9:07 am: Some excellent advice there… but haven’t you missed out on a fundamental point?
The notion of creating “Lasting Value” on your website, which is carried through your business and the way you serve customers. That and perhaps even that alone will ensure prosperity in 2009+
Mark 04 May 2008 at 10:54 pm: Thanks for using my photo and for the credit link.

Bitterjug
chris 13 Feb 2009 at 1:17 pm: I have a few more procedures that many ppl may not have thought of:

1. wikipedia, check you main keyword isnt on there, if it is, like your site as an external site; the no-follow ref is setup on wikipedia so this is more about real visitors.

2. find sites like aboutus.org, and add your site, as well as add external links to related links.

3. create (as said above) articles and then post them into Digg etc

4. use any photos on your site, and then post them into Digg etc.

5. make sure you check out this 101 guide for seo here:
http://webdevnews.net/2008/09/101-quick-links-for-seo/

6. also, take a look at h@me Interiors, and see how I have hacked up the osc code for increased seo.
http://www.homestansted.co.uk