The truth about SEO and who to trust in the industry is very complicated. That is why so many people are so confused when they are ready to pull the trigger and decide where and how they need assistance. Every company has a different approach and no two pricing models are alike. How do you know where to turn to? The reality is that things have changed over the last few years and they are even changing as we write this blog post.

Let’s look at some of the biggest factors and industry changes that have occurred just over the last few years that have changed the SEO industry and will most likely continue to change the industry as time goes on:

1. Social Media: Social media came in like a ferocious wave and just hit the entire world with an entirely new form of communication. Everything changed, how business communicate, how people communicate, where people go to seek information, how people meet, how people purchase, all this is just scratching the surface. All of a sudden marketers focus was not just around the search engines. All of a sudden their clients and their own audience were hanging out in this giant wave of chatter. SEO people had no choice but to get involved in this type of communication. Suddenly a quality communication approach was needed. You couldn’t just throw sub par press releases at these people otherwise you would be stoned in the town square.

2. Video Sharing: You can try to mash up a video using a generic movie maker software but chances are you will not benefit a great deal from it. Video sharing has created a new form of expression. Creativity combined with SEO makes for very powerful marketing efforts that could actually make an impact on a client’s bottom line.

3. Content Marketing: All of a sudden having a blog on a website and regularly writing and pushing the material out to the community is more important than ever. Creating link schemes and science projects to increase rankings are no longer the right approach. Content creates credibility and if a marketer can put out great writing in the right places their SEO can grow tenfold.

4. SEO Industry Trust – Practice What You Preach: It amazes me when I see so many sub par SEO consultants and firms that don’t know how to market themselves. The reality is SEO is so much more than just search engine rankings; it’s about marketing and building an online presence and reputation. The way I see it is if an SEO professional has no online presence then they should try another profession. If they can’t build it for themselves, how can they be trusted to build it for a potential client?

It is important to acknowledge that the SEO industry is changing very quickly and those who neglect to adopt that change will find themselves wondering what happened.

Writing by Nick Stamoulis