Welcome to the new face of Search Engine Optimization.

photo credit: quinn.anya

Here at Veribatim we've been following SEO trends for years, watching the gimmicks and trick used to put a site at the top of a list. We've done work in the optimization field before, but I'll readily admit its not been our forte. The trends and tricks changed too quickly to not devote a full time staff person to analyzing the right direction. While most of the basic principles of SEO have remained the same (see the four ares Google pay attention to in SEO), the unobtainable algorithm to get your page to #1 has been like the search for the Holy Grail.

That is until Google Caffeine started to break onto the seen. As a marketer who believes in purity of message I am pleased by what I perceive Caffeine to be. Caffeine depends more on your content than your meta-data, meaning that your site should reflect what you actually do. Right now some websites are written just for search engines, not for their market. Google is trying to reward people who write for their audience instead of trying to game the system.

To find out more about what Caffeine brings to the table and how it might affect the current standing of your website, check out Irbtrax's post on Caffeine.

Wanted to do a quick blog post. Last week I was a panelist at the Dallas SEO/SEM Meetup along with Damian Skinner & Erick Osia. We discussed a number of topics from social media to viral video to Blackhat SEO. I posted a recording of this event on the Meetup's Upload section here.

Feel free to go listen to it. I know some of the questions are hard to hear but the answers are great. (If anyone knows how to edit audio, feel free to fix it!) Some examples of questions answered:

• How do I use social media to make money for my business?
• What should I use for my business on Facebook: a profile or a fan page?
• Does Wordpress index its pages?
• What does "Black-hat" mean?
• Should I use forums as part of my social media outreach?

Also wanted to give a shout-out to all the Twitters there!

Panelists:

@erickosia - Erick Osia

@damianstweet - Damian Skinner

@Veribatim - Kat Rice

Our Awesome Guests

@blueprintrealty - Bill Nicholson

@mktgmaster724 - Scott Saldinger

@smartacusguys - Rudy Lopez

@gushin - Dennis Guten

@natefalconer - Nate Falconer

@Andiqa - Andrea Duncan

We had more guests, so if you attended and would like to share your twitter, please leave it in the comments below! Be sure to check out the Dallas SEO/SEM group. Its a fantastic group. And I'm not just saying that because I'm an organizer. Check them out, and consider attending once a month with us.