The Online Marketing consultant and SEO expert Miguel López breaks with the topics about a profession that evolves with the algorithms and the SERPs of the search engines. In an interview with Webpositer, he analyzed with light and stenographers the controversial relationship with Google, as well as some keys to current SEO.
The director of the Professional SEO Congress, which will hold its third edition on July 6 and 7 in Madrid, demystifies many of the legends surrounding SEO by analyzing, without ambiguity and with courage, the threads that actually move the online positioning of the companies and brands. Miguel López says that SMEs have already become aware that “you can not have an online project that does not do SEO” and that it is now “more complex, more expensive and more long-term.”
The latest update of Google Penguin would have shown, according to this expert in Online Marketing, that you can get lost between 70 and 80% of web traffic by the creation of links (link building) «cheap and fast» that devalue the site and they are easily detectable with tools such as Link Detective. However recognizes that, although Google tries to get results as relevant as possible, “actually it is difficult because the evil SEO is two steps ahead.”
The reign of content: From myth to reality
The relevance of content seems to be a constant in the evolution of search engine positioning. Asked about this debate, Lopez is blunt: “Google says that” content is king “because I really could not say anything else without the system falling apart. Years ago he said that the links were the main value in SEO and it got tainted, so much that today the subject is still very much alive ». However, he admits that “everything seems to indicate” that in the end it will be the content and its online diffusion (in social networks, mainly) “the one that wins” in front of other web positioning techniques.
With regard to the alleged enmity between Google and SEO, which is often “killed” endemically in some circles, this expert dismisses such a confrontation when applying lawful techniques, given that “SEO is to optimize, not position » In this sense, López defends that “without doing SEO, a site will never come out in the search engines”, but with optimization it can not be guaranteed that it will appear in the TOP10 of the SERPs.
Although there has been an awareness in SMEs of the need for SEO, López points out that many still intend to position sites programmed in Flash, with just one or two pages, without text content, without web analytics, without creating content. , etc.
The SEO that Google likes
The Mountain View have repeatedly stated that the key to not be penalized by the search engine is, in fact, to follow the rules that prescribe.
For this Online Marketing consultant, one of the challenges faced by professionals is that in order to position a website, a complete action plan must be carried out, which implies “doing a thousand things that cost time and money, and people want fast and cheap results ».
For Lopez, the main problem associated with the profession is that “it has been sold badly, as punctual actions that can be done on any website, and that in the long run is proving to be a waste of time and money. If you do good SEO you are not an enemy to anyone ».
Overeoptimization … To be, or not to be
The author of «SEO Book: Positioning in Search Engines» points out in the interview that when you consider the possible over-optimization of your site, probably your research will turn it into certainty.
“Someone who does not pass by optimizing does not ask that question. If you ask yourself: Have I put too many keywords? The answer is yes, surely yes, or you would not ask yourself that question, “sentence.
López believes that current SEO should be more natural and not seek the limit because “you risk to be penalized or, even easier, to stop your work from having value from one day to the next”. The expert emphasizes that the pillars on which the strategy is to be built are the design of an action plan, which requires sufficient resources for its execution, and, once put in place, the monitoring and analysis of its results.
Regarding web analytics, Miguel López stresses that the visibility of the site (calculated on the number of times and positions in which you appear in front of the competition), the trend in the positions and, therefore, the repercussion will have to be analyzed. of SEO in the digital business. This analysis may contemplate from 150 words to more than 3,000, depending on the size of the project.
SEO in Social Networks
López also stressed that the exercise of an SEO in Social Networks aimed at obtaining links and with low quality content can be detrimental to a brand.
Regardless of the fact that corporate profiles lose effectiveness as loyalty and communication channels, he warns that “you can find a dissatisfied follower who writes you a nice post saying that your interest in social networks does not pass through the user”. Thus, Lopez emphasizes that the use of Social Media to attract customers is not giving “the result that was expected”, as reflected by the low profitability of Facebook Ads.
Another one of the peculiarities that today is given in the Social Media Marketing would be the one that a mention by a personage of authority like Rand Fishkin (Seomoz) can be more effective than to obtain links of low quality and, even, to buy them -practice very persecuted by Google -.
The future of SEO
Lopez has predicted that the future of SEO is through the association of web projects to companies or businesses that promote them through Google Plus Local, which could be facilitated by linking to a personal phone number.
Likewise, search engines could penalize SERPs for those projects born to last only a few months using guerrilla SEO, or only those sites that are clearly identified “with name and surnames” are indexed.
In short, after the updates of the privacy policy and adjustments in Google Plus, control over the owner is now a reality.