Change is the only constant for anyone in the Internet marketing industry. SEOs know this better than anyone and many clients live in fear of the next Google algorithm update. So, what do some of the top SEOs in the industry say needs to be the focus of your search efforts for the remainder of the year?

Following is a summary of the take-aways from the presentations by Tony Wright, Rob Woods, and William Leake during Pubcon Austin.

Tony Wright, CEO/Founder WrightIMC

Mobile is the new black. To survive mobilegeddon we need to go back to the basics. SEO is not about links. Code, content, connections, and communication are all critital to successful search engine optimamization.

Link building is about relationships. Easy links don’t exist anymore. Link building is more like a PR campaign. You have to talk to people to gain a link from a quality site. You have to pour into influencers.

Move SEO out of the IT department. Search is marketing. SEO as IT is like putting the chess club in charge of the prom. They understand how the equipment works, but aren’t motiviated by the communications going on via that equipment.

Rob Woods, Independent Consultant, Rob Woods Consulting

Before you go crazy about mobilegeddon, estimate the impact of losing mobile search traffic and assess the cost of converting your site to a more mobile-friendly site against what you’re currently earning on mobile search conversion. Page speed matters. Check your own site speeds in comparison to your competitors. Page load speeds are critical on mobile data. PageSpeed Insights from Google will give recommendations.

Keywords matter but not in the way they used to. It’s not the words on the page but the meaning behind them. Does the content on page answer the questions behind those search terms? Pay attention to how keywords appear together in both queries and on page. Google can understand the relationship between the words in a search term and the words that actually answer the question. In case you’ve missed it, Google has become sophisticated enough to understand a user’s intent behind a search query. It’s important to adapt to how your customers and the public talk about what you do.

Link building is about relationships and outreach. You can still get hit by Penguin. Make sure that you are cleaning up backlinks. Do it on a monthly basis. Monitor new links for negative SEO.

William Leake, CEO Apogee Results

There is not one golden strategy that fits every business. Your strategy will depend on the goals for the business and the relationships with your customers. SEO is cooking, a blend of many things. Define victory first. Many agencies do not challenge their clients enough. SEO can’t be treated like a commodity. Rankings aren’t the end result, rankings make success possible.

Make sure that metrics and measurement are aligned with business goals. Considered purchases are where we are not properly measurement and attribution. Move away from last click attribution. Email tends to steal the thunder from search. Search is what refreshes the email list.

Consider how you can cross-pollinate your messaging through your entire marketing structure. Lean into the other marketing channels to enhance search. Search is the big dog in consumer and small business circles, but it becomes a smaller player in business with large B2B relationships.

Relationships and social signals matter. If ranking is all about what you say about yourself on properties you control, Google is nothing better than Altavista. Content has to be culturally authentic for the geographic areas you hope to rank for. Google is going to continue to move the content bar.