SEO has always been a fast moving field – so much so – that what you knew 5 years ago is hardly relevant and potentially harmful today. Since Google’s latest updates, beginning with Panda in February of 2011 (rough times), and then EMD in 2012, the change rate has intensified even more. In fact, most of these updates could put SEOs in serious danger.

Even more, as Google has created these changes, many SEOs have lost their writing privileges. With content as king, you are being replaced by “content strategist”, “copywriters”, and “content managers”… The old way of SEO writing – is not relevant.  

You probably already know that.

In fact, you probably landed on this article because you have fallen to such woes. There are not many articles out there answering questions you are looking for. Such as, “How do I continue to grow my link profile in 2014?”, “What do I do to protect myself against the next Google Zoo? (Penguin, Panda, Hummingbird)?”

In this post, and ones to come, you’ll get an in-depth look on the SEO world, and some strategies that you can take to help you in the future. Plus, an answer to the question, Do SEOs still matter?

 

How Did We Get Here to Begin With?

Life Before Google (Pre 1998)

 

Google is only 15 years old, but it is hard to think of life before Google. What was life like before Google? AIM ruled the day. AOL told you that mail had arrived, and Yahoo ruled the web. Pre-Google, the most important elements were meta keywords and keyword density. And you wonder how we got here? Keyword stuffing was the name of game.

Google Takes the Stage (1998)

 

Google changed the game. Their algorithm (PageRank – thanks Larry) was based on links pointing to a site. In the easiest way to explain it, their algorithm was very similar to the “Facebook thumbs up”. The more links you had (thumbs up), the better you ranked.

It makes sense.

The more links you have – the more credible your information. This seemingly simple idea led to Google’s dominance. Why? Because their algorithm created significantly better results for the user. For the first time, pages were being ranked based on their quality and relevance to the user, not their hidden keywords.

The Venice Update (2009-2011)
People rarely discuss the Venice update. In Google’s attempt to create a more personalized search experience, the Venice update automatically accounted for the location of the searcher, even if they did not use localized keywords. For example, if I searched for “mechanic,” Google recognized the location of my computer’s IP, and pulled in a list of local results. If you looked in your browser settings, you noticed that you could change your current location.

What did the Venice Update Do? It meant you did not have to write sentences like this: “Boston mechanic is headquartered in Boston, MA. Our team of Boston mechanics ensure that any person looking for Boston mechanic services gets the help their cars need.” Not the most beautiful sentence every written, right? But thanks to the Venice update, your content did not have to be stuffed with keywords in order to tell Google you’re a local business. Plus, it gave small businesses a voice.

Panda (February 2011)
A happy farewell to link farms and hello to branded sites. Panda aimed to lower the rank of “low quality sites” or “thin sell sites”, and return higher-quality / branded sites near the top of the search results. Panda was something completely new for SEO. As SEOs, for a long time, we were doing the same things: keyword research, building [hopefully good] content, putting those keywords in the content, making it accessible, and then trying to get some links via social media, other bloggers, promotions, etc.. But now, you have to think about something more, brand and visitor trust.

Penguin (April 2012)
Penguin brought the following inspirational quote, “If you work in SEO, be good at it, not great”. Ironically, we want to be great at everything we do, except for optimizing anchor text. Penguin was the over optimization penalty – those with too many anchor text links were pushed off the front page. Penguin also ate those who used black hat techniques (the ones that Panda didn’t squash).

If you did not get hit by Panda, and you still use black hat techniques, your time is coming. Google will run an update of Panda every 2-3 months.

Welcome EMD Update. GoDaddy, Your Revenue is Going Down. (September 2012)
Have an exact match domain? It won’t help you that much. Payed 5k for AtlantaMechanic.com? Sorry, but now TheGoodMechanic.com will have about the same advantage as you…

 

The New Way is the White Hat highWAY

There was an 8 year span where black hat ruled the world (Google’s Front Page). Using terrible content, link farms, blog networks, anchor text, these sites won the algorithm game. But now, you are out of business  - or your business is struggling (and should be). If you want to continue growing, you need to adapt to the new SEO.

It used to all be about the keywords. If I wanted to rank for “mechanic in Boston”, I worked on that keyword by creating content, stuffing keywords, adding anchor text, and within a few weeks/ maybe months, I was #2. Then, with minimal update, I could keep my position on Google.

Not anymore.

 

What Should You Be Focusing on Now?

According to Matt Cutts: “It is pretty constant. [You should] make a great site that users love, a site they will tell their friends about, bookmark, come back too, visit over and over again”…

But what else, Matt? 

Links.

Google and Matt have been talking, tweeting, and discussing links all year long. In fact, at a recent conference, Pubcon 2013, Cutts talked about links a lot. Good links, press release links, bad links, disavowing links, paid links, etc…

Based on Cutts, Google, and the updates, you need to start focusing some (not all) of your attention on links. As we discussed earlier, links are the fundamental variable in the Google Algorithm, so how do you focus on links – without over focusing on links? It is a tough journey, but we have to begin somewhere.

 

Where do you start? Anchor Text Distribution

After Penguin, Panda, etc – YOU must begin at step 1. Check your links. You can start writing great content today, but if you don’t check your links, it won’t help much.

Before you start adding new links, creating great content, and changing your SEO landscape, make sure your foundation is solid. One of the best places to start in a post penguin – post panda world is your link profile.

Over the years, there were many ways to manipulate your rankings on Google, and links were one of them. Google has always been aware of this, and they are finally cracking down (in fact, anchor text misuse will trigger the Penguin filter quickly). Working for a company in-house, and for a handful of clients, I know how important it is to analyze link profiles. In fact, if the website is older, your job may be much harder (this is one crack in the “old websites rank better” foundation).

Why is it important?

If you over optimize your anchor links (past and present), you are going to get penalized.

What does this mean?

It means that every single site we looked at which got negatively hit by the Penguin Update had a “money keyword” as its anchor text for over 60% of its incoming links. On the other hand, the sites that were not hit by the update had much more random percentages. – MicrositeMasters.com

 

Common Objection:

If these links are coming from other sites, how can I control that? You can.

How? Because you probably placed those links.

Let’s use an example. Say your company is entitled “Outstanding SEO” and your link profile has over 70% anchor links with “Link Building Agency” or another “exact match” as the anchor text.

I don’t know about you, but it is awfully difficult to have your competitors or those in your niche write a post about you, with a link back to your site, with the anchor text being “Link Building Agency”. In fact, you would be lucky to get a link that says, “click here”. Google knows that. Thus, if you do have a high percentage of links with the same text, you probably placed it – making them unnatural…

Obtaining links from websites or pages in a similar niches and with relevant content to the keyword you’re trying to rank for is generally much harder to manipulate. This reality and ease of the manipulation obviously prompted Google to create this update. – MicrositeMasters.com

 

What Links Do You Need to Examine?

BRANDED LINKS

Branded anchor text includes any link that is a brand name (StudioPress), URL or domain (studiopress.com). Google wants to see these brand referrals. If you notice that your link profiles has higher branded links, that is okay. It is more natural.

COMPOUND / PARTIAL MATCH

Compound, also commonly known as ‘partial match anchor text’, is used when the link contains the brand or targeted term, in addition to other words that you aren’t targeting. For example, Studiopress may target ‘Studiopress WordPress Themes’ as a partial match…

EXACT MATCH

Exact match anchor text can be considered over optimization. This refers to the words in the links (anchor text, ie… WordPress Themes), exactly matching the keywords that you are trying to rank for. If you have a keyword, that is the H1 on your home page, included in your page title and contains a high volume of inbound links containing the anchor text, expect a smack from the Penguin…

WHITE NOISE/ GENERIC

‘Zero match anchor text’ or white noise / generic use call to actions to drive users to targeted pages. Example: click here, learn more, follow, read more, etc…

NAKED URLS

A naked URL is simply the domain name or page you are linking to. For example: https://elioverbey.net

TITLES

A commonly used form of anchor text is the title of the page you’re linking to (commonly seen in Academia). For example, a post I published a while back, “What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Is it Still Important?“, makes the title the anchor text.

IMAGE ANCHOR TEXT

Often overlooked, but are still powerful links, are links on images, which have keywords in the alternate text of the image…

Now Check Your Site’s Anchor Text Distribution

The first step in avoiding a link penalty is knowing your links. How do you do that? Hello Ahrefs, Moz Open Site Explorer, and a personal Favorite, Majestic SEO.

Based on a study by Majestic SEO, you want to make sure that your links look something like this:

This is a great rule of thumb to follow:

• 70% brand, URL, brand+keyword, and non-targeted anchor texts (Branded Links, White Noise, Naked URL, Titles, and Image)
• 25% partial, phrase, and broad match keyword anchor texts (Compound)
• 5% exact match anchor texts (Exact Match) Why So Low? You are going to get exact match anchor links without knowing it (You will probably make them yourself).

The easiest way to find your link distribution is through the Site Explorer tool at Majestic SEO. With a free account, you will be able to run the reports below.

For this case study, we are going to examine the links for Studiopress. First, go to Majestic and enter the URL you want to research:

 

Below is the Anchor Text chart for Studiopress. This is a fairly natural looking Anchor Text distribution.

Studiopress does fairly well. If you examine the chart closely:

• 41% of studiopress.com links come from “Genesis Framework” which is a branded identity of Studiopress.
• 8% of searches include Studiopress, and
• 36% include the other types of links: Naked, URL, etc..

Be Careful Genesis

One thing Genesis can improve upon is creating more links for Studiopress instead of the Genesis Framework (if they are going to use Studiopress as the main brand. I know people who are confused about Studiopress and think the Genesis Framework is its own brand). In  fact, it would be a fairly simple change: Studiopress has a referral program that uses Genesis Framework as the anchor text… (but that also brings up the question – are those technically paid links? – another post – another day)

What if you do not have a natural link portfolio?

Apply Natural Link Building to your Campaigns.

Keep an eye on your links. If you do not have a natural profile, consider diversifying some of your links:

• Add “click here” in an author biography.
• In Web Directories, change it up a bit.
• In Guest Postings, keep it natural.
• If you do ask for links, don’t demand specific anchor text. (Be careful soliciting links)
• Don’t send all of your links to the homepage.
• Most importantly, do your best to let links come naturally.

So, Do we SEOs still have a job?

This post is part 1 in a long series. Other posts will include: Broken Link Building, EDU. and GOV. links, Submission backlinks, content building, and more. Based on that response alone, you should have answer!

Absolutely.

You can’t just “start writing great content”. Forbes recently published an article that stated:

Invest in real, valuable, relevant content that your audience wants. Grow your internal thought leaders to where they can add value to your audience and positioning in the market. Follow internal SEO practices to make sure it is found and sees the light of day. Take the time to make it so compelling that people talk about it and share it.

If you have a bad link profile, struggle with page optimization, or can’t get links, great content won’t be your miracle. A company can write the best content, but have an old domain with spammy links, and still won’t be able to grow.

That is why you need SEO.

I’ve worked in SEO for a while now. When I first started, it was all about meta-keywords, keywords in the title, keywords in the text, and perhaps keywords that you couldn’t see in the footer (don’t hate too much – remember flash?).

But things have changed for the better. Now we are all about great content. In fact, this article from “The Death Of SEO: The Rise Of Social, PR, And Real Content” sums up the transition fairy well:

Invest in real, valuable, relevant content that your audience wants. Grow your internal thought leaders to where they can add value to your audience and positioning in the market. Follow internal SEO practices to make sure it is found and sees the light of day. Take the time to make it so compelling that people talk about it and share it.

With one slight understatement: SEO is still extremely important. It is not dead.

Having great content is the equivalent of having a great product. A great product still needs marketing to sell. The same is true for SEO. Great content needs search engine optimization.

So, what are some of the best On-Page SEO techniques that are still valid?

*On-page SEO refers to the process of optimizing specific pages and sections of your site content to make it more clear for users and search engines. The goal is to have any given page of your site — from top to bottom — be aligned with a certain topic.

*Off page SEO refers to techniques that can be used to improve the position of a web site in the search engine results page (SERPs). Many people associate off-page SEO with link building but it is not only that. In general, off Page SEO has to do with promotion via Social Media, Publications, etc… (Off-Page SEO won’t be discussed much in this article)

An Ideally Optimized Web Page (On-Page SEO)

An ideal web page should do all of the following:

• Provide unique content for your audience. Content that people are looking for and want to read.
• Be relevant to a specific topic (usually an idea or specific product)
  • Include subject (keyword) in title tag
  • Include subject (keyword) in URL
  • Include subject (keyword) in image alt text
  • Specify subject (keyword) several times throughout text content
• Internal Links
  • Link back to its category page
  • Link back to its subcategory page (If applicable)
  • Link back to its homepage (normally accomplished with an image link showing the website logo on the top left of a page)

The Need for SEO

When you start a website (or a small business), you begin with strangers. Strangers are people who have no idea who you are.

Strangers don’t know your logo or your brand. They have no idea that you exist right down the street, let alone that you have a website. The hope for you is that this unknown, unfamiliar website, name, sign, logo, will become a trusted figure in the community that people will seek out, but how do you get there? How do you get to know these strangers?

No matter how great your services are, your writing, or what your credentials are, if people do not know about you, they won’t get on a computer and find you by Brand (let alone search for you by name – if they don’t know it).

Creating Websites that Attract Visitors

So many times, when working with business owners, they spend hundreds of dollars on promoting their brand when people have no idea who they are or what they do – let alone their brand name. They promote “One Solution”, but if people do not know of the One Solution – how will they ever find it?

1. Your aim on the website is to attract strangers so that strangers become visitors, and visitors become clients. To make this happen, you need to create interesting content that is synonymous with who you are, and optimize that content in order to invite viewers onto your website.

2. Once those strangers become visitors, they create pageviews.

And although they are unique people (and they are reading your content), they don’t pay the bills. Those visitors are leads.

3. Next step, get those leads (the people on your page) to contact you, or come and visit you – to become paying customers.

A website / blog is just a platform for you to get people to come to your offices.

4. Once you have those customers, you have to delight them, gain their trust, so much so that they promote your brand, write positive reviews about you, and keep coming back for your services (no matter what they are).

Aka: People come alot. Huge LTV.

See the Funnel?

So how do you get strangers to look at your site, then take those visitors (who were strangers) and then turn them into customers and brand advocates? Website Optimization.

What is Optimization?

Optimization is making something as effective and functional as possible. Optimizing your website is setting your site up for success.

Optimization, for this article, will cover how to get people to your site (strangers to visitors), and what do you do with them once they get there (visitors to potential customers). If your site is not optimized, you cannot attract strangers. Optimized sites help you reach out.

Who do you optimize your site for?

You must optimize your site for the visitors and search engines. You have to optimize your site for both because a) if you optimize your site for visitors only – by adding tons of images, little text, and making a graphics heavy website – Google won’t notice it, but b) if you optimize only for Google – and do not write compelling, interesting content – you will not have repeat visitors, let alone customers.

Optimize for website visitors.

Visitors are people who come to your site. (If you do not already have it, you can add Google Analytics to your site to track your visitors.) Visitors are important because they mean more potential customers. But how do you get visitors?

Write articles to your buyers. Write content that they want to read. If you are a mechanic, write about potential problems and how to fix those problems.

For example, since the majority of searches are phrased as questions, write a blog post like, “How do I change my oil? Tips for Changing your Oil in Charlotte”. This is content that a) appeals to your audience, b) interest your audience, c)makes you the expert, and d) could potentially become a lead for oil changes.

If you have been blogging for a while now, but are not seeing any success, think about your audience for a bit. Who are they? What would they want to read? Marketing professionals like to call your audience “target audiences,” “buyer personas,” or etc… but honestly, don’t think of them that way. As a business owner, think of them as the person sitting next to you on the couch.

Don’t depersonalize or dehumanize the person. What is the person in your business (let’s call her Mary) interested in? What would help Mary solve a problem? What would be troubling Mary? What type of content would Mary want to read about [your business]?

You know your audience better than many marketing professionals. Why? Because you’ve had a personal conversation with most of them (or someone like them).

Once you have defined your audience, write to them.

Everything that you do on your site, should be controlled by who your audience is. Your blogging, offers, CTA’s, contact forms, everything should be directed to your audience. Create a website and content that is marketing to your audience (Mary).

Use language that they are comfortable with. Your audience doesn’t know (or care) about the new mufflers, or the technical terms when they are reading online. When they visit you in person, Yes!, they want and need to know that you can expertly work, but when they are reading online – they want and need you to use language they are comfortable with. Keeping it simple markets you to your audience, but also to the search engines.

Optimize for Search Engines

Google receives over 100 billion search queries a month (according to Search Engine Land), and most of those searches are looking for answers. People are more personal with Google than they are with counselors. People are seeking answers for their strained relationships, worries, problems, business, etc…

And although over 500 billion searches are made, 70-80% (according to Search Engine Watch) of users do not look past the first page of search results. So, this inevitably leads to the most important and most asked question by businesses (concerning their internet marketing):

How do I rank on Google? (or “How do I show up on the first page of Google?”)

SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Your job is to make it easier for the search engines to understand your content (internet crawler). Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc all use robots to crawl billions of sites. Your job, in addition to making great content for the user – is to make content readable for the crawlers.

The search engines crawl your pages with a robot, gather data by looking at a few key areas, identify what it is about, index it, and then serve that content to someone searching for that phrase or content. Confused yet?

Let’s make it a little simpler: Let’s go back to the first goal: Write content that appeals to your audience. But how do you write content to your audience and search engines?

You select keywords that your audience would be searching. If you are a counselor, you may have a list of keywords including: marriage counseling, career counseling, addiction counseling, etc… You pick a list of keywords “topics’ and write about those.

Use the same terminology that your audience uses. You want to use the same terms they are using because these are the terms they will use to find you. You have to think like your audience, because if you do not use they keywords they use, they will never find you.

There are five different places that you will want to consider adding your keywords to (let’s just be honest – there are millions of factors in SEO – but these 5 will certainly help):

1.Page Titles

The page title is one of the most important places to include your keyword phrase. The title lets your users know what the content will be about. Although a visitor may not notice this, the search engines will. If you are writing an article about Counseling in Boston, you would want your title to include the keywords “Counseling in Boston” or “Boston Counseling”.

2. URLs

Domains. It is great to have the domain describe what you do, such as: “BostonCounseling.com” or “CounselingBoston.com”. In fact, if you are just starting out in practice, considering removing your brand name in the domain, and focus on your keywords (no one knows your brand name anyway). Those domains describe what you do, and they include your keywords. If you cannot get a domain with your keywords, you need to include them in your URLs, such as www.thriveboston.com/marriage-counseling.

3. Page Headers

When you are in WordPress or your website text editor (even Word), have you ever noticed: Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Heading 4 Paragraph … These headings are important for both the user and the search engines. For the users, they show a subtle progression. For the search engines, they tell the robot that this content is important. Some people (SEO snobs) will say it is not important, but it doesn’t hurt. And with there being 7 billion websites out there, do you really think the robots read every word? The heading tags help the robots understand the content faster.

4. Content

Just make sure you use your keywords in your content. Don’t over use it. Just make sure you cover the topic. If you are writing on marriage counseling – just write on the topic. Trust me – you will use the words a lot. You will not have a problem with that.

5. Meta Description

The meta tag is visible on the search engine results. It is the 70 characters that are shown on the results pages (underneath the blue links). The meta description tag doesn’t play into the robots SEO algorithm (so they say!), but it will determine if your visitor clicks on your link or not. Your meta description is a brief synopsis of your article.

Other On Page SEO strategies (not touched upon):

• User friendly navigation (breadcrumbs, user sitemaps)
• Optimized internal links
• Image optimization (image size, proper image names, use of ALT tag)
• User friendly 404 pages
• Fast loading pages
• Google Authorship verification for all pages
• External links (no broken links or links to ‘bad’ sites)

Wrapping up:

1. Define your audience.
2. Build a website and content directed on them.
3. Structure your SEO on-page elements so they can actually find it.

But, that’s not the end. Just the beginning. Once you get those, you’ll engage in link building, redirects, Hcards, server optimization, authors, etc…

 

If you were to interview someone working in SEO and ask how he or she began their careers, most of them will say that they just “happened” to become interested in the industry. These people may have a degree in English, or were avid writers, and then learned the SEO tools needed to promote their content. Or perhaps, they were web designers, and learned a few more skills that could make them an extra buck. People just seem to happen to fall into SEO.

The reality is that people are not taught SEO, but they should be, especially in higher education. Without a standard for the field of SEO, anyone and everyone can say they know some SEO.

Most students graduating with a degree (with any correlation to marketing) will say they know SEO, and then they will mention something about “meta tags and keywords.” The reality is: these graduates know nothing of SEO, and it is one of the reasons that SEO gets a bad wrap and little attention by most consumers.

In fact, when working with clients, most wonder why I can’t accomplish #1 rankings for every keyword in a week. Clients say, “It’s just a little tweaking of the keyword tags, right?” The lack of educational standards in SEO is weakening the field and the credibility of our jobs.

As a former graduate student in media communication and an instructor at the college level, I have worked with a fair share of students and peers who graduate unintentionally lying to potential employers. On their resumes, they put those three letters (because they understand meta tags!), and they have no idea what SEO actually entails.

With this in mind, there is a huge opportunity for search engine marketing to be taught in higher education. Here are four reasons why it should be:

1.Creating an educational standard for SEO increases the credibility of the field.

I have worked with countless clients that want SEO services, but they are afraid that I will rip them off. Why? Because countless companies promised them #1 rankings, wasted their money, and now their website is worse than before. I, now, have to convince my client that we do things by the book, white-hat. I have to convince clients that my field is legitimate.

Without an educational standard for SEO, anyone can claim to do SEO, and if an 18-year-old blogger with no formal training can do SEO, then I cannot demand a high salary (or even a job).

The lack of educational training in SEO (mainly because the fields are new) is destroying our field.

2.SEO can help new graduates get their foot in the door at a reputable marketing agency.

At the beginning of the article, it was stated that most people just “happen” to fall into the world of SEO. Teaching students the tools needed for SEO can help them be “prepared” to work in SEO.

When most students graduate with their B.S. they have three options 1) take an internship, 2) go to graduate school, or 3) move back in with their parents and work an hourly job.

But teaching students SEO, can help students get ahead. This can help students land jobs such as “SEO Manager,” “SEO Strategist,” or even “Entry Level SEO.” These jobs are better than internships because they A) are paid, and B) generally, have room for growth. The SEO community is like none other, and most bosses are willing to take a chance on someone who understands the power of links.

Going to college is about getting a job, and teaching students SEO equips them to do just that.

3.SEO encourages analytical thinking, and that is what higher education is all about.

In college, you are taught math, english, business, art and psychology. All of these subjects flow into search engine marketing:

• Math: If you know how to interpret data, you will go far in SEO. Basic mathematic courses teach data interpretation, trends, and understanding graphs.
• English: If you are an outstanding writer, with content free of grammar errors, you will be an SEO rock star. English teaches the basics of writing, and SEO adapts that content for the web. English helps writers crafts creative ideas in a way that is free of errors and typos.
• Business: Most colleges will require you to take one business course, or a similar marketing course. In these classes, you will learn about the value of a customer, attrition, and how gaining customers is everything. SEO evolves around these very principles.
• Art and Psychology: Anyone who has dabbled in SEO knows that UI, UX, and web design play a huge role. The basics of art, the fundamentals of web design, and the understanding of the human (psychology) largely effect SEO in terms of design, analytics (flow, bounce rate, etc…) and the users interactions.

If SEO is an underlying element in all of these classes, why isn’t it taught as a course in a design, marketing, journalism, or a business program? It absolutely should be.

The end goal of higher education should allow students to take theoretical ideas and use them in every day life. The problem with most graduates today is that they have very little practical application, thus the need for internships.

Teaching students search engine marketing a) builds on a foundation they already have, and b) gives them a tangible skill that puts them ahead of the curve.

To not teach students SEO, is to not equip them.

4.Finally, One course in SEO is a resume builder for graduating students.

SEO should not just be a buzzword that’s used on resumes. It should be a skill that is taught in a class, like the Adobe Creative Suite (for Graphic Designers) or Final Cut (for Broadcast). A great course in SEO could cover any of these topics and students would graduate with these skills on their resume:

• HTML
• CSS
• Google Analytics
• PPC – Adwords
• Raven Tools
• Link Building
• Blog Writing
• Keyword Research
• On-Page Optomization
• Lead Development
• WordPress (CMS)
• The list could go on….

Instead of students graduating and writing “excellent communication skills” (when their skills may not be excellent) they can now write tangible skills on their resume.

Objection:

It has been said that you cannot teach students SEO because the field and search algorithms are constantly changing.

Answer: Everything is changing. Teaching students SEO is just like teaching them design, engineering, or nursing; every field is constantly changing (maybe not as quickly as SEO), but there is still change. If you really want to be good at anything, you have to keep up with it.

Most importantly, we have to remember that teaching SEO (or any subject for that matter) is more than just teaching students a subject. The best professors engrain in their students a passion for learning, and that is what SEO is all about – constantly learning.