With Google changing the ranking algorithms so frequently - can SEO ever be automated? There are so many tools in the industry today that make tall promises of helping website owners achieve their search engine ranking goals. The latest one being opromote.com. But given the ever increasing and changing parameters that determine a site's ranking how can these tools be effective. Search Engine Optimization always requires manual effort if it all it's worth it.
it will have to be more and more manual than automated. google picks up all the cheap manipulation methods pretty quick and tweak their angorithm to prevent such manipulation. yes, there are lot of automated tools out there for seo and link building, but when it comes to promotion, there is no alternative to manual
agreed Manual is the best way, as SultanOfSEO said you will get caught and then penalised perhaps even banned trying to cheat and trick to do things the lazy automated way.
Why would you want to automate it? I mean, there are some things that you can automate, like sitemap submission and all that stuff, bit if you arent prepared to put in the time, then where is that ever going to get you?
Agreed to - you can automate some things - WordPress have some nice plugins for sitemaps etc as redthehat intimated but you really need to keep manual and do things in a legitimate personal way in most cases!
Automate your system by getting a routine together and allowing at least a few hours a day to work on SEO. But, you still have to do it yourself. No shortcuts.
Another advantage to doing everything manually is that you can track certain processes and their effectiveness as well. For example, your social media marketing may not be performing as well, so if you are actively posting to twitter yourself rather than using an API to automate it, then you can track responses and all that kind of thing. This applies to a wide variety of things as well. Automation is always going to be unpredictable. I mean, you can outsource certain aspects, such as writing articles, and article submission, but I do recommend making sure that you have your finger on the submit button at all times. At least until you understand your website or business enough to trust some kind of automation.
agreed - it's all very well letting your site maps take care of things in an automated way as that would be a pain the proverbial to have to update at every turn, but at the frontline you really do need a manual control over things!