Is SEO just a trend of the times?

No.

You don't need a blog, just knowledge.

I just finished reading an article over at Traffic and Conversion about why a blog can increase traffic to your website.

Upon finishing the article, I laughed.

In the said article, Mark Widawer claims that a blog is “critical to your traffic work.” Critical to gaining traffic? No. Not true. A blog is not critical to gaining traffic to your website.

The reason blogs are so favorable among SEOs is because blogs make it easy to optimize websites. In-fact, blogs come pre-optimized for search engines; and search engines favor blogs because they are always new and often influential.

But you don't NEED a blog. Especially if you have knowledge of XHTML and CSS.

All a blog does is plugs in META tags, and makes it easy to constantly update content on your website. But if you can do that on your own, there's no reason to have a blog at all.

That's right, I said it: YOU DON'T NEED A BLOG!

I would even go so far to say that it would be better NOT to have a blog for your website. Would it be harder to update? Definitely. Do you need to already have knowledge of web programming and SEO if you're not going to use a blog? Absolutely. But do you NEED blog? No.

The reason SEOs promote blogs is because blogs make SEO easy.

That's it.

SEO for dummies. Why networking is greater than content.

Have you ever heard the term: "Content is king"? When it comes to optimizing your website for search engines, making sure you have quality, original content is vital to ranking well.

But there is something that is more important - and more powerful - than content... it's networking.

The ability to make friends with other bloggers, and even average readers, can mean high rankings for your blog or website. Even if the content on your blog or website is pathetic (or just re-written garbage), you can still rank extremely well in the search engines if you are networked well.

Because, what you will find, is the people you connect with - whether they be powerful bloggers, or just no-name site visitors - are the people who control the search engines. They are the people who are writing in their blogs about you. They are the people who talk to their friends about you. They are the people who will link to you. They are the people who search and click on your website. Make friends with them and the search engines are at your mercy.

Sure, content is important to focus on when optimizing your website or blog, but if you aren't connecting with your readers, other bloggers, and people in general... your website has already failed.