Google Outreach to Focus on Webmasters, not SEOs

[engine]

It seems Google's outreach is to focus more on webmasters and less on SEOs, according to Barry's report.

[seroundtable.com...]

[Robert Charlton]

I'm thinking that this might be an indication too about where parts of SEO might be headed. This below a quote from Barry in SER about what Gary Illyes and John Mueller have been discussing about the thrust of Google's public events ("Google dances" without the dancing). Some of those were great events... and it's very possible to learn a lot by chatting with Googlers.

Barry posted...

He {John M} said SEOs know mostly everything by now and Google wants to communicate more and help webmasters and developers learn more. Truth is, I always felt SEOs were a mix breed of webmasters and developers (and also marketers) but who get Google. I guess Google is saying here, they want to reach out to those webmasters who do not get Google and communicate more with them.

I'm wondering how much these might be resembling some of the Google tutorial sessions I've seen at various trade shows. Those that I've seen have focused essentially on user experience and site design... and what they've lacked for the most part up till now is the kind of Q&A that Gary and John can provide on solving issues that come up, and a deeper technical perspective.

IMO, Google's take on UX, and on web development from the Google perspective, could spread some knowledge around about where I feel that much current SEO is lacking. I'm looking forward to these, assuming that SEOs really aren't disqualified from attending... and that the refreshments are good. ;)

[RedBar]

Devil's Advocate here ... Or is Google trying to "assist/teach" smaller brands/websites how to compete against the big brands who dominate in many areas for which Joe Public does not need to see advertisements on Google since they (already) go there direct and G does not earn a single cent even when G ranks them at #1?

G's very own success at promoting big brands at the expense of others could/maybe is doing themselves harm, as in much less revenue growth than they "expected" it to be.

IMHO, it's too little, too late, I know my global industry has moved on and is definitely prospering without any G involvement whatsoever, the world is out there and there is more than one way to market successfully.

[aristotle]

Hmm I don't know which regular "webmasters" google wants to outreach to. I've never attended any of google's "public events" and strongly doubt that I ever will. How are they going to hold events that don't attract far more SEOs than regular webmasters?

[engine]

When you think about it, most SEOs using up-to-date processes know what they are doing, and Google has done its best over the years to obfuscate the opportunity for success for SMEs. Most SMEs have limited budgets, so the outreach will have to be funded by Google.

I'd like to see how Google intends to take this forward.

[JS_Harris]

SEO today = scribble some words on a page and give it a title. If it's reachable from the web it will be ranked based on just that, barring any technical issues with pageload. You don't even need a description tag. Proper spelling helps more than a description meta tag.

I think Google has leveled the playing field between a new site owner and a seasoned SEO expert quite a bit. Success to Google would mean that "search engine optimization" is obsolete.

Helping SEOs to help people is an extra layer they don't need as much as they once did.

[tangor]

the world is out there and there is more than one way to market successfully.

As more and more of the older sites get that, the more the dynamics change. g might find itself having to embrace "square one" all over again.

Meanwhile, g's public image is a bit tarnished these days, and as more leaks appear, more damage to the product might follow. That said, this outreach project might be a way to deal with those issues.

[haseebnajam]

it has always been the same..nothing new here. Google has never encouraged SEO.

one could argue that they indirectly means SEO but even then they dont suggest or approve seo and they have been quite vocal about it

What google consider SEO is simply "onpage" part of seo.

[webanalysisnlic]

Have you gone through today's article about "How Google approaches about SEO - Think with Google" also they have stated about 3 ways we think about SEO, I think this will be useful for this thread.