There’s been a lot of hand-waving in the SEO blogosphere over the past year about how the most recent Google algorithm changes (Panda, Penguin, brand signals) are “ruining SEO”. I’ve heard comments about how organic search doesn’t work and that marketers should abandon SEO for PPC, social, and other traffic generation options.

I’m sorry, this kind of talk is moronic. If you ignore the static and look at the fundamental shifts in the search engine ranking algorithms, there has actually never been a better time to learn basic search engine optimization.  

Yes – Google is injecting some chaos in the process. The rules are changing on a weekly basis. The SEO experience and investments (sites, linkbuilding, etc) of your existing competitors is getting devalued on a weekly basis.

Which is exactly why you need to take a serious look at learning about it.

Two years ago, any new SEO project was forced to compete with established players who had 3 – 5 years of relevant technical experience and an established link network. Since there are economies of scale and experience in this business, new players don’t really have a change against somebody with that type of head start. Particularly if you’ve made the (intelligent and ethical) decision to stay relatively white hat in your link building. Spammers had the edge.. the only option would have been to attempt a 2 – 3 year stern chase on the link building front or pray that something goes viral on social media…

But now?

My god, you actually have to market now! You can’t just spew garbage on a website that only Google is going to read. You need to write stuff for humans. Stuff that makes them want to hit a twitter button and share it with their friends! How unfair!

Unlike two years ago, the “white hat” new guy actually has a chance!

And for the existing players… Yes – you need to rebuild your programs and figure out a whole new bag of tricks. But the contest has shifted back towards quality, not quantity. We’re back to survival of the fittest, not the fattest!

I’m aware there are probably some ulterior motives behind the change. Google’s PPC advertising business has done much better since the 2012 updates were unleashed. But seriously – the destruction and devaluation of existing SEO investments can only create massive opportunities for new players to take the lead in organic search…

Bring on the Zebra update (or whatever black and white animal is next in line)….

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