SEO | Future of SEO

Future of SEO

May 15, 2008 By: Justin | no comments

Recently Shoemoney made a post that claimed the future of SEO is dead. The post had a big response and since that post he’s made two more post exploring the definition of SEO and his view of the definition of SEO. Well the SEO field is an area I am becoming increasingly involved in, so I thought I give my view on the future of SEO.

Well first, what is SEO?

Simply the definition of SEO is Search Engine Optimization which is the art of understanding the factors that search engines use to rank a website and influencing those factors to rank higher. It comes down to issues like keyword focused content, crawlability, and incoming links.

Check out this post by Shoe where he asked several top SEO guys their definition of SEO.

So do I think SEO has no future? I disagree there is no future, but I do feel that “SEO” in the traditional sense will decrease and we will need to develop a better term. Right now SEO it the buzz word, but it’s more about SEM, website optimization, online pr, and internet marketing. The problem is that SEM is usually considered email and PPC campaigns and not traditional SEO.

I think the future of SEO is that it will merge more with SEM, traditional marketing, public relations, and social media. SEOs will grow into a type of website / online publicist with search engines being one source of exposure.

Why the Change?

Algorithm is Getting More Complicated

Google is constantly developing its algorithm. Its getting harder to predict and they are getting better at discounting low quality links. Aspects of black/gray hat are getting harder with more and more of the gray spectrum becoming “spam”. Article and directory submissions are getting discounted. Social media sites are slapping nofollows everywhere. Easy links are getting harder. Google is getting better at detecting “natural links”. So search engine manipulation is getting harder.

Personalized Search and Geo Search

The idea that all search results are going to be the same for everyone is coming to an end. Google’s goal is to return the most relevant results to their users (a goal that is directly tied to serving more related ads and having higher CTR and ROI). So keyword and SERPS data is going to change drastically. Earning first page for one person may result in a page 3 for another. This will complicate things.

Not All SEO Will Die

The fact is basic SEO will be around for a while. Take a look around the net and you’ll quickly notice the huge number of sties with basic SEO road blocks like: not having a preferred domain, not using header tags properly, duplicate content, horrible crawlability, use of table layouts and flash, etc. Until web designers design with SEO in mind, someone will always need to clean up their mess. The technical side of of SEO will stay around until it merges more into traditional web design practices.

And link building will not die. Traditional methods like directories and article submissions are going to become much less effective. So are link exchange schemes. At the end of the day though, links will still be king. The link building field will still be valuable and so will the footwork required to get these links. You still need someone to take the time to contact webmasters and work out a link deal. Link building will become a more time consuming task, but it will still exist.

As long as Google dominates the market and as long as search engines drive traffic, there will always be a monetary benefit for placing well on search engines. People will still work hard to place well in search engines.

Niche Markets and Long Tails

The result of the actions of Google will be what they’ve been pushing for a while. It will increase niche markets. It will push people down the tail. There is always less competition in long tail niches and this will be the area where traditional SEO will be most effective in the future. In the areas that Google has less data and fewer results, the basic SEO tricks will have a larger effect. Also, personalized results will not effect these areas as heavily because their are fewer relevant results to use.

Depends on the Future of Google

This is what makes me laugh about discussion about SEO. Almost all discussion is Google dependent. Well it wasn’t that long ago Yahoo ruled the net. There is no promise that Google will dominate the search market forever. There is always a chance Yahoo could make a rebound or a chance that two college students are developing a search engine that will change the entire search engine market.

Lastly, will Google get a monopoly slap? We sit and watch Google dominate the entire search engine market. When they make a policy change, they effect the entire internet marketing industry. They can single handedly destroy professions like SEO. Yes, webmasters don’t have to follow policies like the nofollow on paid links, but to be successful online, you have no choice. They’re a 1000 pound Gorilla ruling the online market. We see the effects of such behavior with things like Microsoft. There is always a chance Google could get a slap for monopolizing the search market.

So don’t always bank the future of an entire industry on the actions of one company. The future and actions of a company are not always constant. They have to keep up with changing regulations and competition. Take a look at the history of Apple and Microsoft.

The Future of SEO

Like I said, I think SEO these days is more “website marketing”, “website PR”, “website optimization”, and “social media marketing”. All of these aspects will indirectly provide SEO. The new way to increase your search engine rankings is to increase your site’s visibility on the web. Then you’ll need to make sure your website uses the best practices, so you do no hinder search engines crawling your site. SEO will a mix of quality web design and generating buzz.

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