Death is the inevitable result of life. We are born. Somewhere along the way we become useful. Then we become useless again and die.

On this day, a life is gone. The life of the Content SEO. There are two types of SEO’s. Not WhiteHats and BlackHats, in case that’s what you were thinking. I’ve never worn a hat and I’m not going to start now. Rumor has it they lead to premature balding. The Content SEO The first group I call the copywriters. This group likes to place the chosen keywords in the page titles, in H* tags and in optimized density within the body copy. This group usually also believes in creating redundant “content pages” targeting less than competitive keywords. The targeting of less than competitive keywords is more often referred to as targeting “more relevant” keywords. For instance, instead of targeting a search term like “web hosting” which you could retire on, they choose to target “Florida web hosting”, “expert economical Florida web hosting”, and “cheap affordable PHP website hosting in Tampa”. One common trait of the content-focused SEO is the inability to compete for highly competitive keywords. This is common amongst the SEO copywriters, or the “content SEO” people. They target lots of keywords that are typically less productive than the other group. Another identifying trait is the common utterance of “PageRank doesn’t matter.” Or, “PR is dead”. Or, “links should occur naturally”. The Link Mongers The other type of SEO is the SEO that focuses on link acquisition. Sure, throw some keywords on the page, but the bulk of the energy is spent on acquiring links. The Link Monger knows the value of PageRank and the power of anchor text. “Link Mongering” – it sure doesn’t sound pretty. In fact, it isn’t pretty. “I want my son to be a doctor, lawyer or link monger when he grows up.” … You’re not hearing that on a daily basis. But the fact remains, link mongers own the competitive keywords. It comes down to this: You cannot keyword density your client into a #1 spot for highly competitive keywords. You cannot page title your client into a #1 spot for highly competitive keywords. The only way you’re going to get there is by way of PageRank and anchor text of inbound links. The bulk of SEO discussions should not be about SEO copywriting. They should be about link generation. Rest in Peace Persons practicing SEO would be well advised to note that the day of impotent SEO copywriters dictating the rules is over. The bell tolls for those SEO’s of years past. Search engine optimization must focus on link acquisition to be useful.

This is common knowledge these days. No longer can an SEO pass themselves off as useful if they do not go after and get a respectable amount of links for their clients.

In what has become mainstream SEO, the content SEO is scoffed. The old “don’t worry about PageRank – worry about creating good content” argument has become a laughable mockery of SEO. Even the beginning webmaster knows the value of PageRank, and that PageRank wins.

The discussions of content SEO vs real SEO may continue, but it’s simply a formality. Content SEO is as dead. It’s been murdered by the Link Mongers.