SEO IS DEAD Controversial or brilliant Marketing?
July 24, 2009 
43 Comments
When I released the SEO IS DEAD report a few days ago, I knew it was going to send tongues wagging, especially from the establishment (i.e. those that earn their living off SEO), but I had no idea just how much of a stirred reaction this would create, in fact I am more than a little surprised.
I had no idea what a backlash reaction the SEO community at large would provide. Already the bloggershere, twitter and facebook are awash with SEO people claiming that the SEO IS DEAD report is “rubbish and sensationalism”.
Notably most of these comments come from SEO individuals with pseudonyms like “Gun Ho SEO” and “SEO BOB”, and very entertaining is the fact that none of them have actually read the contents of the report, let alone accessed it.
You see the controversy is based around the name of my report, originally my report was going to be titled “TRADITIONAL SEO IS DEAD”, however that seemed a little harder to roll off the tongue than “SEO IS DEAD” and ever the marketer I knew that a little controversy would help move people past the yeah I need to look at it stage VS OH MY GOD I HAVE TO READ THIS stage.
Is it controversial? … Hell yes! … is it brilliant Marketing?… 4117 Downloads to date tells me it is!
Now look I know that whenever you tell a whole industry that their business model is built on quick sand and that their very lively hood is threatened, you’re goanna piss a few people off…
… but please all you half wit, half baked SEO’s out there that have not taken the time to read the report, but feel the need to shout the loudest as if you really know what’s going on… do us all a favour and climb down off your high horse and read the report before you comment.
Already much of what I have discussed in the report has started to happen, in fact if your Google Perry Marshals latest post about how affiliate review sites have been slapped in the last week, you’ll realise this is no game.
To all the SEO companies that have accessed the SEO IS DEAD report, many of whom have actually called me personally to thank me for this timely information, well done on realising you need to change your business and service models accordingly!
I think that whenever your market something you stand the risk of getting a few people upset, but at the end of the day you need to look at the result and that quality of the product.
I thought the marketing was effective, and the product truly over delivered. So much of what you say in the report makes logical sense, so I cant see how anybody could misinterpret this information if they actually read it.
Well done Justin, and forget the haters!
I will admit I was sceptical because of the Title, but you did accomplish the goal of getting me to read the report, and I am glad I did. Everything you say makes such sense, I just think its human nature to always look for the shortcut.
TBH I thought the report was a load of hype, but when I read the report I had one of those DUH light bulb moments. It was very illuminating to know where things are headed.
Thank you Justin.
I thought it was brilliant marketing, even the whole delivery system was outstanding and a good example of the way you should market and deliver a product, never mind these small minded people Justin, the proof is in the numbers.
HAHAHAHA – your email cracked me up Justin, looks like you know how to get angry, but seriously good for you man, keep rock’en the boat
I am supposed to be sleeping, instead I am back to reading your report again. LOL
You go boy!
I have been doing affiliate marketing for over six years now and have made a very good living out of it. I have bought books, tried different techniques and most of it was complete rubbish.
Then I met Justin at one of his seminars in Durban and have been fortunate to have Justin help me with my business over the last year and a half. He has helped me re-structure my sites according to the report. Its been hard work but I am so confident when google flips the switch that I will still have a business. His principals are sound and the report actually gives you a clear indication of what is required if you want to succeed in internet marketing.
Seriously Justin don’t worry about these people – they will learn the hard way.
You have my vote – china
Justin we have been doing SEO for the past 3 years for clients and achieved very good results.
To be honest when I saw your report I immediately thought “what a load of crap”… (the up sell the the video was a bit much) and I feel that you could have provided the video for free as you promised this was a free report.
At the end of the day though the information was good.
I thought the report was excellent.
I have not read the report and I don’t plan to, as I have already said on twitter, this is pure hype and you are playing with peoples emotions. SEO is NOT DEAD and it never will be.
@ SEO GUYS do you provide your services for free to your clients? Come on don’t be silly!
Was the marketing a little edgy, did it get my attention, and was the report of value. YES YES AND YES.
In other words a Job well done, forget those wanna’be losers Justin
Well hate it or love it, my question to you @ John would be; If this is all rubbish and you specifically mad an effort to comment on something that has little or no interest in your business. Are you willing to go with your current model and continue making money or are you going to hear what is actually happening out there?
Either or this report brings you back to core basics. Justin like Dale said you have my vote, damn these haters but what can you do!!!
Jusin your post insinuates that the whole seo industry is filled with idiots, and that you are the only G.O.D of search, come one dude its you that needs to get off your high horse.
I wonder if you’ll moderate this post, typical!
@ “Gun ho about seo” – so what? you are clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed are you, have you even read the report. I would never hire anyone who goes by the name of Gun ho about seo LOL you’re a joker man!
@ “Gun ho about seo” how many kinds of stupid are you?
Justin I love it. Talk about throwing the cat amongst the pigeons. In any case my personal experience with seo’s is that they always try and talk over you, like they are superior or something, this is not the case with you.
Kudos my friend Kudos
The name of your report was bound to make a few enemies, so you’ll have to deal with that because you chose the name buddy!
TBH Justin I took the header from whom it came. You are skilled in up selling, cross selling and creating the hype that is the core of Internet Marketing.
With the Florida update I was one of those that learnt the hard way how SEO REALLY works. The blackhats, (of whom I was one) lost loads of money. The Monday after the update I had to go for a sale, guess what, none of my sites was ranking. Needless to say I didn’t get the sale.
Needless to say Jagger didn’t touch one of my sites and doing SEO the right way is the only way to go.
@ John. Perhaps you should seriously consider buying the report, You seem to know very little about Internet Marketing and it’s dynamics. This is just an observation.
I remember about 2 years ago posting an article on BizComm and having similar people going nuts about my article, not reading it properly. It can be frustrating at times…
Firstly, good job Justin, well done. I liked it. My CC is still in my wallet but I’m thinking about it (taking the 2nd downsell that is
My five cents…
If you remove the event building (the site setup and conversion funnel was truly brilliant by the way), it really is very simple:
You need to offer massive value and create raving fans i.e. build trusted relationships with a specific audience/target market.
If you’re AUTHENTIC and TRANSPARENT and REAL, then you have nothing to worry about, you will naturally rise to the top. People can’t help but be attracted to honesty, straight-talk and authenticity.
If you concentrate on your strengths and what it is you have to offer to the world and deliver to the best of your ability, you cannot help but build a fan base (these are the people who will vote for you and make sure you are Google proof).
Prior to Web 2.0, realtionship building on the Internet was hard because it wasn’t so interactive (social), it was a one-way medium . . . so it was all about tricks, tactics, direct sales techniques and how to manipulate the search engine rankings.
These things, in many cases, of course do still apply, however whilst this may have been the primary path to online success in the past, you are now going to struggle if this is you core plan of action. You’ll get sniffed out, either by the search engines or by peoples BS detectors (the latter is more likely). And what happens now if people think you are a bag of hot air, they tell other people, and in a social media environment it spreads like wild fire. Why risk it?
So let’s summarise:
* Use an out of the box optimised platform/CMS e.g. http://www.diythemes.com
* Be useful, add value, produce remarkable and insanely useful content
* Network and relationship build your ass off
* Build and foster a community of raving fans
* Monetise your tribe by offering them something of true value (no, that’s not a hidden affiliate link).
P.S. The monetising part comes last for good reason. Give first. Collect later.
@ Roelof Vermeulen – for those who did not live through the Florida update like we did (it completely wiped me out) its hard to fully explain the effects.
@ Dale, I guess its natural by law of numbers to piss some folk off, however it still stings like hell, even to a seasoned vet like me
@ Luis Teixeira, you’ve seen the action plan in place and working, so you are right on… we’ll forget about the haters.
@ Phil, you’ve got that right, and you summarised the report nicely. As for the “down sell” you’ll still need to upgrade at some point to get all the info, so save yourself the hassle and go full hog the first time
And to everyone else, thanks for all the support guys it certainly does drown out the few who clearly just don’t get it. My aim is always to add as much value as I can, and I think everyone who knows me knows this to be true.
Thanks for info Justin! Read the report and must say that it does make sense – already started implementing some changes so we’ll see what happens when Google implements the changes – actually looking forward to it ?
Oh and to the “SEO geniuses” that’s upset about the name of your report – I think it’s excellent marketing. Like they say – bad publicity is good publicity…
Justin thanks, being new this one really was most probably the easiest to understand.
I have been sweating bullets all along to keep on the right side! Heard some scary results from “short cuts”, nothing in life is easy.
Phil summed this up pretty well! (quickly took a look at diythemes, something else to chew on!)
“If you don’t want to listen – then you must feel” for those who are ranting and raving.
TGF – Take a deserved weekend, a braai-beer and some NZ + SA Tri-Nations to watch.
Thanks again for SEO is DEAD much appreciated.
I don’t want to come across as “George Foreman” promoting something but (well by the way his grill isn’t that bad at all)…….
Before November 2008 I knew nothing about the internet, internet marketing, seo, affiliate marketing etc.
I was (still) fortunate enough to be part of a small group of individuals Justin mentor and the people out there in disbelieve should reconsider there view point. I have seen his action plan and methodology in action and can tell you he is all about results and ROI…and believe me it happens!
Sadly (or maybe fortunately), the universe got an ever working hand of maintaining a perfect equilibrium in all thing of live, business, money and wealth etc and therefore there MUST always be lots of people who are non-believers. Fuck, just image if everyone in the internet marketing sphere got this report? It’s just like everybody becoming a General Practitioner; who will be the patients in the end.
Justin, those who know you and your business model know what you, your knowledge, expertise and core principals are. Just like the other day in Durban when we discussed the responsibility a person in your shoes have towards others and how you realise this.
Good luck and with the report, it is great!!
Hey
Nice article, Only problem is you are shouting your mouth off claiming to be an “expert”
How come your site has no PR, you have a greyed out toolbar asshole.
Anyway, love your comical read about SEO is dead. Tell me, how much SEO experience do you have with large international companies driving CPA figures down by Search.
How many international clients do you have that are blue chip.
Keep dreaming dickhead, its people like you that are mickey mouse in south africa and make us all look like we dont know what we are talking about.
I personally run a team of 65 SEO staff in South Africa amongst a large social, paid, mobile and Dev teams,
SEO IS STILL THE MOST COST EFFECTIVE CPA DRIVER OF ALL TIME, I HAVE SEEN THIS WITH EVERY SINGLE LARGE CLIENT WE WORK WITH.
Asshole!
Andrew (if that is even your real name, since you have used a hotmail address to comment and withheld your über SEO company’s website address), if you’re going to try and sling mud, make sure you check your facts!
1. You have no room to speak about the report since you have not downloaded and read the report (clearly), because if you had, you would understand that the report explains that Traditional SEO is DEAD not SEO itself.
2. I have cross referenced your IP address and time commenting with my web stats (that’s something else you would have learnt about had you read the report) and my stats show that you have not even downloaded the report (amazing though that you comment on it with such authority)
The stats below show that you went from my site to the SEO is DEAD report landing page and DID NOT proceed to the Download Page.
Your comment IP info:
——————————–
Author : andrew (IP: 165.145.108.109 , dsl-145-108-109.telkomadsl.co.za)
E-mail : andrew_walters261@hotmail.com
URL : http://private
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=165.145.108.109
Your track log through our website:
——————————————-
Visitor ID 516494 [165.145.108.109, South Africa, Pretoria,
19:15:51 http://www.justinharrison.com/category/search-engine-optimisation
19:15:51 http://www.seo-is-dead.com/1.php [SEO-IS-DEAD Landing Page ]
3. I have never claimed to be and expert, however since “expert status” is something you achieve through delivering results, I don’t think the title is entirely unjustified.
4. As for blue chip clients, you’re playing in the minor leagues my friend, I don’t need to name drop because I am confidant enough that my service speaks for itself, and if you did take the time to research your facts, you would soon realise that we do business with the biggest of the biggest.
5. If you really are such an outstanding SEO company with SUCH A MASSIVE track record, why don’t you step out from behind your smoke and mirrors screen and provide us the URL to your “65 strong employee” SEO company?
Justin
Don’t mind Andrew. He is clearly a newbie SEO. Firstly The PR bar he is freaking out about is not even remotely important with regards to SEO.
@ Andrew
Any SEO expert can tell you that every single fact in Justin’s 20 page article is factual. I do not regard Meta Tags as important but every single fact was acurate. His anticipation is spot on about the road SEO is taking. I think you should read and analyse the paper by Yahoo! about Trustrank published in 2005 already, and the Google patents published after the paper to understand how brilliant Justin truly is in his forecast.
@ arandrew
You clearly have not read the report, and if you had then you must really be a terrible SEO provider, because being good at SEO means being good at gathering information as SEO is always morphing and evolving and as an SEO provider the change that Justin speaks of is 100% logical even to a novice
@ Roelof Vermeulen
I agree with you 100% Justin is spot on with his forecast.
@ Andrew, shame, you’re such a small minded creature that you have to resort to name calling… your world must be really small.
Justin, I would just delete his comment and move on!
@ andrew. I would hate to be one of your clients when Google decides to fully implement the changes Justin talks about in the seo is dead report.
Good luck!
@ Roelof Vermeulen. Well said!
Something else I just thought of. How is SEO THE MOST COST EFFECTIVE CPA DRIVER OF ALL TIME?
Just to make it clear Search Engine Advertising is CPA NOT Search Engine Optimization (SEO)!
Firstly I would like to officially apologise for my first statement on this article, when I saw the report being promoted all over twitter and facebook, my natural reaction was here goes another load of internet marketing hype.
@ Luis Teixeira your comment actually convinced me to download and checkout the report (and I have since also purchased the video).
I have to admit it was brilliantly simple and effective at conveying a very logical and unique perspective of where seo might end up, and even if it does not all “go social” I think Justin your input on adding real value in the value chain is a key point that we have all forgotten.
@ Andrew, I can understand where you coming from especially if you run and seo company, but my advice (from someone who was also a sceptic) read the report before you comment any further.
I am officially a Justin Harrison evangelist, this guy knows his stuff. Don’t make the same mistake I did… read the report, digest it and then apply some thinking to what he says.
WOW Justin you really have created an impact with this report.
I have downloaded the report and the video and I have to say I am more than impressed, even more by the fact that you always over deliver, you did not even mention the bonus videos in your sales video.
Thank you Justin, and for the few who don’t like or agree with your report, I cant wait till the Google update comes so we can say “we told you so.”
@ Roelof Vermeulen – VERY GOOD POINT about CPA.
Justin you are a real trooper for allowing the comments made by @ andrew on your blog, if it was my blog I would have blocked and banned him by now. LOL
As for you @ andrew GET A LIFE!
@ Andrew, don’t be such a tool.
@ Justin, I love the way you let the facts speak (poor Andrew)
@ Roelof Vermeulen, I agree the report hits the nail on the head.
Justin expect even more of this, me thinks you have just seen the tip of the iceberg and that this report is about to go viral like no other.
Its already been said, but forget the haters, you stick to your guns!
Good Report / Bad Name!
@ Andrew read the report then comment!
@ SEO 2.0 Justin got you to read the report didn’t he? I would say he did an exceptional job with the name, it sure as hell made me take a look!
Ah wonderful, just what we like, a bit of controversy
The thing that seemed to irk Andrew the most was the fact Justin site has no PR. It seems that what Andrew has failed to recognise/know is that SEO is really only one arrow in the Internet Marketers arsenal.
Right now, Justin is leveraging viral/social/email marketing to it’s max and I’d say it’s working rather nicely i.e sales are being made. Promoting and selling this report through a traditional SEO approach would take several months.
An appropriate quote comes to mind… ‘If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail’
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