SEO in any ones book, seems to be in a purple patch. Certainly in the UK it appears to have gained traction into many mainstream organisations, and is now part of my FTSE 250 and Fortune 500 organisations marketing strategies. However it unfortunately is still tainted by a dark undercurrent of black hat SEO’s and link spammers which continue to create some negative association with the profession - whether that is justified or not justified is another question.

However it is a couple of posts that have been made that have got me thinking, namely Rand Fishkin’s 8 ways to buy links without ‘buying links’ and Chris Hart’s ‘What if SEO was spelled TSA’

Indeed Rand’s post is indicative of just what a different beast SEO has become. ‘Traditional’ forms of marketing such as Online PR play a far more important role in SEO than ever before - not just from a linkage perspective, but also in terms of branding and standalone traffic acquisition tools - with social media bringing a facet of marketing not previously available to marketeers (either online or offline) to the table.

Just look at metrics for measurment these days. Gone are the days when rankings were the only way to measure SEO success. Blended search has certainly created food for thought here - as well as new channels for savvy marketeers to exploit. ‘SEO’ is far more tactical than ever. Online Brand Reputation for example should have ‘SEO’ at its heart, with brand exposure and coverage more important and high profile than ever.

Surely we (as search marketeers) have evolved from merely optimising for search engine rankings alone. Is search engine optimisation therefore the best term to describe what we do?  The term ’search engine optimisation’ appears to have been around for around 11 years or so now (one of the earliest references I can find is fom David Stoddard from Frontiernet in August 1997) - however Danny Sullivan gives a great breakdown of this on the Search Engine Watch Forums. I would suggest SEO has changed significantly since then - lets face it Google was nowhere near the beast it has become, search marketing industry still in its infancy and social media just a glimmer on the horizon.

In the absence of any suitable replacements, bar ‘digital asset optimisation’ (coined by Lee Odden in 2007) it appears it is still here for a while, however one can’t help thinking whether SEO 3.0 could see a new beginning, and potentially a new name?

[ This post from Peter Young's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]

Whether indeed we are technically in a recession is a different question, however one thing is for sure. Times are tough, and marketing budgets are being squeezed for everything they can in order to maximise ROI. Every penny/cent has to be accountable. It will therefore come as no suprise to many that SEO came out as the most ‘popular’ channel for marketeers in a poll by Lee Odden’s Toprankblog

That itself is a massive boost for SEO, with the incorporation of the channel as a mainstream marketing activity continues. This year in particular has been a particularly good for SEO, with many advertisers shifting budgets into search engine optimisation. Part of this can be put down to marketeers and budget decision makers comfort with SEO, and the ‘disassociation’ from its black art days. I would also suggest the further integration of paid search into many marketing budgets, is another of the reasons behind this pickup in SEO - as many studies by organisations such as Google and Yahoo have highlighted the benefits of utilising a double facing/doubleplay tactic on key terms. Lee also highlights the considerable exploitation of Social Media and the integration of Search Engine Optimisation into many of these technologies.

There were however a couple of interesting stats.

• Affiliate Marketing came into just 11% of respondants. Now this could be dependant on the background of many of the respondants however given the current economic climate, I was suprised to see Affiliate Marketing so low down in this poll
• Video Marketing - Interesting I said not suprising. Certainly I have to say I am not suprised this is down at the bottom. Video Marketing does not have the same direct response ability of other channels such as SEO, Paid Search and Affiliate Marketing. Certainly in times where marketing spends are more flexible I am sure this will significantly increase, however in the meantime, the use of high end video advertising is likely to stay subdued for the forseable future.

Whilst this was just a smallish study, it certainly raises some interesting questions