SEOMOZ has some nice blogging going on about the state of the art of SEO. The guys and ladies over there are really ankle deep in understanding the algo in all its permutations. In fact, they brought to my attention that Google Real Time Search has been shut down until it integrates with the new Google+. A little weird.
I like SEOMOZ people because like scientists they hypothesize and test. It’s good to know there are some real white hat SEOers out there. As I was reading a long and over-my-head post, it got to thinking about the different between traffic (n., people lingering) and traffic (vb., as in drug traffic, moving product). The two definitions are linked, no doubt; you can’t move product unless you have people paying attention. But good marketing and good SEO people know that “nothing really happens in marketing until somebody buys something.”
An SEO practitioner who gets your URL into the top 2 or 3 positions for a targeted search phrase, has done a marvelous day’s work. Building traffic (n.). Many stop there, believing their work to be done. And many dashboard operators feel the same way. But SEO professionals who pass on knowledge and science and a predictive notion of what will transact and maintain business? Those people are trafficking (vb.)
If interviewing an SEO company for hire and all they talk about is getting you to the top of the Google search queue, keep on searching. SEOMOZ seems to get it. Peace!