Dixon is giving a presentation right now about the changing nature of search, and pointing at the problem I see with clients a lot too: SEO can not be a “slice” of your marketing “pie”, it needs to be a fundamental value in all your other marketing activities.
Yes you need to do your “basic 101″ SEO: get your on-page optimization done well, good URL’s, good meta tags, etc. etc. But you need to think of SEO when you do press releases, offline marketing, e-mail marketing: all the time.
Since getting links has become so important for your SEO, and you can’t really do easy link buys anymore, your other marketing activities need to help you in acquiring those links. New ways of advertising like using Google Earth as Maxim did might get you those links.
You should also be talking to the hub-people (that term is mine, haven’t found another good one yet) in social networks is very important as well. These people with loads of connections (friends) on social networks, who can help spread your message. It’s much like talking to journalists, but this time, the guy or girl you’re talking to could be only 13 years old.
Better watch out Joost. That last sentence could get you all the exposure you needed, alas in the wrong field of interest. Would that fall under the category of “black hat” SEO?
No, why? :)
Isn’t there a political party named the PNVD in the Netherlands. ;)