SMX Advanced: Classic SEO (still) rules

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009.

The first afternoon presentation, “SEO Ranking Factors in 2009,” brought together a large number of SEO luminaries, largely through soon-to-be-released survey results conducted by SEOmoz. Also on the panel were Yahoo!‘s Laura Lippay and the always entertaining Marty Weintraub of aimClear.

What is the state of SEO ranking factors for 2009? About the same as for 2008. Generally speaking, SEO has best practices that change littel over time. Even the relative value of specific tactics has not changed much. Content is still king, and links are still necessary for any remotely competitive keyword. There are little details upon which the professionals may disagree somewhat, but the factors that matter most are surprisingly (and somewhat reassuringly) consistent over time.

So what has changed? There are many little details that are up for debate as long as the search engines operates as black boxes, but these are “just details.” They distract from the overall strategies of developing good content and getting links from reputable sites. The only thing that has definitively changed: difficulty. There are many more players vying for high rankings than 5 or even 3 years ago, and they are generally more sophisticated. Search engines are smarter and more discerning.

The bottom line for companies pursuing high rankings: the industry may seem to be changing rapidly, but the fundamental principles of SEO are basically unchanged. At the same time, expectations of difficulty need to be adjusted.