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SEO is Dead

Started by micah · 8 months ago

Yesterday I moderated a panel on SEO and Social Media Marketing at the Thin Air Summit in Denver. Panel went great, the folks on the panel were fantastic. Jeremiah Oywang has a great run down of the panel and the advice given, so I wont rehash it here.
A hour or so after the panel was [...%5 ... Continue reading »

96 comments

  • Bill Kocik

    8 months ago

    I'm a little bit confused by these statements:

    1) Then social media blasted on the scene a couple of years back. People took their SEO tactics, and laid them on top of social media, completely missing the point of social media.

    2) The content generated by users of social media began to rank highly in search engines, because it was RELEVANT. Because it had VALUE. Because it was TIMELY. Because it was REAL.

    3) Suddenly, all the SEO experts also became Social Media Experts, as social media marketing became the hot new thing. And, being resistent to change, as most industries are, SEOs just removed the word “search engine” from their tactics, and replaced it with “social media.”

    4) With the net result being social networks and user generated content that is full of useless, noisy, crap.

    Is 2 the "point of social media" mentioned in 1 that the SEO folks missed? As for 4, how did these newly-rebranded Social Media Experts influence the user-generated content? An SEO/SME can tell you to make pretty, RESTful URLs, and how to structure your content, but how can they cause your users to generate crap content?

    Next is this statement: "Second, select a CMS framework (I recommend WordPress), that supports solid SEO principles. With WordPress, install two plugins: All-In-One SEO and XML sitemaps. Thats it for SEO."

    That's probably very sound advice for the folks that are running sites that could be powered by WordPress or another CMS. But what about all of the web applications out there that cannot?

    Thanks, Micah
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    Hey Bill:

    1) If you listen to most SEO professionals that have begun to advocate social media they do it in this manner: "social media is great for links" / "social media is great for fresh content" basically laying SEO principles on social media, rather than treating as a new or different medium.

    2) Social media marketers begin to add to the noise that is generated. Posts on products, tweets about products, etc. It doesnt add to the conversation, rather it detracts from generating passionate users.

    3) RE: wordpress CMS - I agree, many web apps cant be built on WP. My point is more that when looking to build a site that is "seo friendly" (which tends to be more of a content driven site, rather than an application driven site), a CMS tool, like WordPress is a great tool.
    reply
  • Bill Kocik

    8 months ago

    Ahh, okay, I get it now. Thanks for the clarification.
    reply
  • anonymous

    8 months ago

    WordPress is way over rated. What if you need to build a job board, or an aptitude test, or an social network, or anything that is even slightly different? Your going to need real applications, and to make those applications SEO friendly you're going to need an SEO.

    Don't think SEO is dead just because cooker cutter applications like WordMess have created a million worthless "me too" web sites. Good luck upgrading your WP after you hack the crap out of it to do anything remotely unique.

    Anything truly unique and valuable will need a talented SEO to extract maximum value from it.

    I think WordPress will be dead in 3 years.
    reply
  • anonymous

    8 months ago

    Oh yeah. and make sure you read Dave Pasternack's post from 05' about how SEO is dead. It's a great read. Really accurate too. Just like this one's going to be.

    Yes, I know. I've been trolled.
    reply
  • Alrady

    8 months ago

    Great article.. I am not sure I understand exactly the difference as even with SEO if you have content that is not decent it won't be of much value. And without being able to be seen good content can lay barren... Or am I missing something.
    I just wrote an article and maybe you can email how this as an example would fit with your post? It is on using keywords to get the ad I wanted while writing about making a decent cup of coffeee?
    http://www.ehow.com/how_4591063_fun-ads-writing...
    reply
  • Kevin Menzie

    8 months ago

    Sorry I missed you at the summit. I appreciate what you wrote here and would agree that the best approach to generating other people's interest in your site is to foster genuine, "real", content. I'd also agree that Wordpress moves you a long way towards best practices right out of the box. We've been implementing Wordpress with most of our project this year.
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    Didnt realize you were there Kevin. Ah well, but the great thing about boulder, is a cup of coffee is just a walk away. We should connect soon!
    reply
  • Justin Thorp

    8 months ago

    I don't think it's just to "foster genuine, 'real', content". I think it's that and fostering genuine real relationships. It's getting out into the world and meeting your community. It's the meeting some at a conference. It's the meeting someone for coffee. Those relationships build community and the kind of relationship with a brand that someone wants to tell their friends about.
    reply
  • Andrea Hill (afhill)

    8 months ago

    First: here's the tweet you were looking for, via @robblatt.

    Which actually is a good illustration of the point I'm about to make: "search" is not the challenge anymore. it's easy to get thousands of search results. The challenge is "filter".. finding relevant, quality results.

    Optimizing a website for search engines isn't a bad thing, but it's certainly not the be-all, end-all. When the Internet reached a certain point, people were excited to be able to gather information from multiple sources. Now, however, there has been a return to a need for recommendation. Trust is huge, and hence the power of social media. We want to find quality results, and often recommendations and ratings can help us in our filtering: we don't need to wade through all the sources to find what we need.

    That being said, there are many benefits to optimizing for search and ensuring your content can be found via search engines. I actually come from an accessibility background, and many of the tactics are similar: use clear language, don't hide your content in graphics or multi-media. As you stated in the session, don't be solely focused on algorithms, but at the same time I don't believe it should be excluded. Passion breeds great content, yes, but if it can't be forwarded, it can't be indexed or remixed or shared, it is only going to reach so many..
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    Andrea, Thanks. I corrected it in the post.

    I agree that filtering is a big issue, but thats the job of the search engine itself, rather than the business.

    SEO as a separate profession is dying. SEO should be integrated into an organization and become part of the ethos of the organization. I have also updated the post to match that.
    reply
  • Andrea Hill (afhill)

    8 months ago

    I don't know if search engines should be responsible for filtering.. I think that's where the human aspects of recommendation come into play. If I trust your opinions, I can use that information to weigh in on my own decision making.
    I know there are ways to personalize content, and that can be automated to some extent, but it's not an easy task: which is why the amazon.com recommendation engine sometimes frustrates people.

    I apologize, I really skipped over your "bring the work in-house" point. The perils of commenting while in a conference session.. I'll go back and review..
    reply
  • tmarkiewicz

    8 months ago

    Couldn't agree more. In a few years, saying you're an expert in SEO will be the same as saying you're an expert HTML coder. The distinctive advantage will be gone.
    reply
  • Casey Capshaw

    8 months ago

    Great post Micah. I have been thinking this for a while now, getting confused when an organization is looking for an SEO guru. The days of something for not much in the realm of SEO are over. on to the next thing.

    The thing about being an evangelist is that you can't fake it. This feels much more authentic to me and is what has me looking to employ my marketing skills and experience in projects that are in integrity for me.

    People trust it more, word spreads faster, business grows bigger, no one is taken advantage of, the best products rise to the top. Darwinian capitalism at its finest.
    reply
  • Joe Lazarus

    8 months ago

    If you think SEO is dead, you're doing it wrong.

    There will always be certain factors that influence search rankings and there will always be certain sites or people who understand those factors better than the competition. Before Google invented Page Rank, SEO was mostly about on-page factors (title / meta tags, keyword stuffing, etc). With Page Rank, search began to value off-page factors like inbound links. The tactics and techniques change, but there will always be ways to outmaneuver your competitors and increase your relative rankings. For example, if every site in the world was on Wordpress, someone would invent some sort of plugin or tactic that gave them a leg up. It's the nature of competition and innovation. The only SEO's who will die are those who don't evolve with these changes.
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    Joe, thanks for the thoughts. While the title of the post is a bit sensational, the point is that SEO as a profession, as a separate from an organization exists only because people can make more money doing SEO freelance, than if they are part of an organization. When I started doing SEO back in 2003 full time, I made 10x of my salary at ServiceMagic - in 6 months.

    But savvy companies are understanding the importance of SEO and bringing it in house and integrating it into the organization. Because of the influx of "experts," and the move to integrate SEO into the orgnazation, the profession as we know it will end.
    reply
  • Joe Lazarus

    8 months ago

    Hey Micah, I agree that internal product managers and engineers are quickly
    getting up to speed on SEO, but I still think there will be demand for
    expert SEO consultants. If search is a key traffic source for your company
    - say you're a commerce site that receives 50% or more of your traffic from
    search - it still makes sense to pay one or even several consultants to give
    you an edge against the competition. I know of several companies that have
    internal employees with great SEO experience (some even worked for search
    engines before), yet they still bring in outsiders to brainstorm on creative
    SEO strategies, consult on new product development initiatives, and to
    diagnose SEO problems. I don't see that changing, though I do agree that
    many standard, obvious SEO tactics and knowledge will move internal.
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    I dont disagree.

    My feeling is that companies that "get" it will integrate SEO in this
    manner:

    - basic coding SEO practices (robots.txt, friendly urls, xml sitemaps,
    no session ids) will be handled by the developers
    - basic design SEO practices (less flash, no nested tables, more CSS,
    etc.) will be handled by the designers
    - basic SEO writing (keyword selection, density, etc.) will be handled
    by the marketing/pr groups
    - basic SEO benchmarking (ROI, reporting, etc.) will be handled by
    marketing.

    Two questions grow from that:

    1) Does one person "own" the SEO process? I think when done properly,
    everyone owns it, but a person in marketing owns the ROI.
    2) If you are a small organization, what do you do? Again, ensure that
    the right people know the right things.

    If you do designate a single person to manage SEO, his role should be
    primarily one of internal education and external information
    consumption.

    To leave it up to a firm, leaves a company way too open to a lack of
    success.
    reply
  • Dennis D. McDonald

    8 months ago

    I'm not sure I agree with the statement "Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers." I know plenty of people who still use these tools all the time for communicating with friends and colleagues.

    Maybe what you should have written instead was something like "Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed as a marketing vehicle by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers. Friends and colleagues, though, still get plenty of use out of them for genuine communication."
    reply
  • bob j

    8 months ago

    It's absurd to argue that SEO is dead without arguing search engines are dead.

    But I think we can all agree that proclaiming SEO is dead is a great example of SEO in action (link bait).
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    Certainly wasnt an attempt at linkbait (if its interesting and people check it out, cool, otherwise, I dont much care, as these are my thoughts.).

    Search engines as they currently exist are broken. Its why a million alternative search engines pop up every day. Google is king, not because of their relevance (there is research to indicate that people tend to be happier with Yahoo results), but because of their reach and the performance of their ad network.
    reply
  • bongo

    7 months ago

    What the hell are YOU smoking?

    1) "Search engines as they currently exist are broken" <- how so, and what do you rely on or recommend as the infinite alternative?

    2) Please provide proof of a) a million search engines appearing everyday and b) the 'research' that indicates people are happier with Yahoo search results.

    I can't believe what I am reading. Infact, this article makes me furious. Another 'thinks they know it all' IT type of guy. Seriously, SEO is dead? Oh and this is a great one.. people can 'rely' on CMS frameworks to do all the optimisation.

    Seriously. Learn what you are on about before you write. Google change their methods constantly - upto a dozen times a day - the advidce of firing the people that keep on top of that is probably the largest piece of hot biscuit to come out of someone's mouth. Yes - SEO involves playing the game. But how does that differ from trading? Financial industry or property? Even retail sales? Do you not think that a guy who sells property or cars everyday for a living, is constantly working towards new and innovative ways to sell to his customers? Or, if he worked in SEO, let's consider that "cheating, lying, etc" ..

    I know of a lot of companies - and I'm not talking about joe bloggs little CMS blog where he thinks he can write that he is the god of SEO to get some more clicks and page views - rely heavily for SEO. Some companies that are generating in the ten to hundreds of millions are year have teams DEDICATED purely to SEO. Google will always be constantly changing how their pages are ranked, and you're saying that fire the people that make you #1 hit because SEO is going to die and rely on CMS networks?

    Seriously please shut up and goto any online gambling site, marketing agency, advertiser, or any company that's doing very well in the credit crunch that business and their revenue stream exists online.
    reply
  • bongo

    7 months ago

    Agreed - link bait.

    This guy should go for a walk and loose some weight before talking about he knows SEO.
    reply
  • Ted Rheingold

    8 months ago

    I'm not sure I agree Micah, as much as I agree the current service list of SEO consultants will be unneeded in three years. Here's why. As long as vast majorities of internet users rely on search engines as their gateway to the internet - especially if it remains just one, Google - businesses' that rank well will perform very well and consultants will be out there to get you to rank well.

    Unless search result algorithms change drastically, or surfers' surfing habits change drastically businesses can be made by ranking well. Trickles of traffic turn into fire hose torrents by going form page two to page one to 1st result. And as long as that can be affected in any way by content, inbound links, whatever, there will be people paying for it...
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    That is probably the better way to state it. SEO consultants will be unneeded in three years (but the title then doesnt have that zing!) SEO as a tactic should continue, but as an integrated activity within an organization.

    I also agree as long as there is the high of free traffic, SEO tactics will continue to exist.
    reply
  • Social Man

    8 months ago

    Social media networks have become part of vertical search. In Flickr you are searching for photos, in Facebook for people, in MySpace for artists etc.
    Therefore there are clear common factors between search and social media. SEO however is still an art and will die harder than most people think.

    Of course I agree that everyone needs to adapt, come to think of it, this is online marketing and if you get stuck in the same routine for 3 years you are bound to be out of business.
    reply
  • Wingnut

    8 months ago

    I'll give you the fact traditional SEO is on its way out... The thing is that as long as there is some kind of way to search for content there will be ways/things to tweak to your advantage... won't be the same as it is now just as it isn't the same as it was 10 years ago where all you needed to to was spam the keyword tag and have some hidden spammy text

    Personally I hope something revolutionary comes along and trumps the search box so SEO/M any of that crap is obsolete... I'll let you know when I come up with it.

    Also... Way to flame the SEO community to get links from "SEO IS SO NOT DEAD" bloggers.
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    Dave, I said SEO is dead, not my skills! LOL.

    Seriously, I was speaking to the profession more so than the tactic.
    reply
  • andrewhyde

    8 months ago

    The skills won't die!
    reply
  • Wingnut

    8 months ago

    Oh, fair nuff... I didn't really read the post Dan sent me the link and the title forced me to comment :P
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    Like a good protege should. By the way, where is my finders fee? LOL
    reply
  • GeekMommy

    8 months ago

    I think I love this post!

    The only reason I get so well where you are going with it is that we've had a whole weekend of realizing that what really counts in terms of sustained online success is content.
    Sure, you can get your page to the top of the Google ranks - but if there's no "there" there... who would go there more than once?

    SEO as a practice? Still relevant - SEO as a profession? Yep, totally agreed... except maybe the timeline is a bit generous - I'd suspect less than that. Who knows? I'll bet you lunch and either way we both win.

    Rockin' post, as usual. :)
    reply
  • Adam Fullerton

    8 months ago

    You raise some great points, I also like the controversial topic. It seems that the SEO "Gold Rush" yielded many to cheat the system and instead or writing for people they wrote for spiders, which are not always reliable. Enter social media, now the people are the spiders and your success is dictated by real humans finding what you post favorable. I think the trend seems to be that, you're right, everyone knows SEO and SEO's must now do more than keyword research and linkfarming, if they even call themselves SEO's anymore.
    reply
  • nathan

    8 months ago

    I do agree that SEO is evolving, but I still think that employing an SEO firm is the way to go. If it is a good firm.
    I do not want to get into why a good firm is better than a single good in-house SEO but rather would like to look at the future of SEO.
    My firm at the moment is moving toward performance based billing. No I am not talking about rankings but rather CONVERSIONS generated by organic searches.
    Very close to a CPA model. There is a very small retainer and the rest of the payment is determined by the amount of conversions. At the moment I am working on a site where in the last three months we have increased organic based conversions by more than 20%. In order to do this you cannot just used BASIC SEO, you must attract the correct users to the correct landing page.
    reply
  • Robert

    7 months ago

    Nathan,
    As a small manufacture of fine cigars we have a need for your services. There is so much "spin" ou there in regard to SEO work.
    Many of the firms are using deceptive approaches and charge high prices for services that do not match their assurances. Its hard to find honest people in this field. We have something special to offer but getting the word out via SEO seems to be our only option.

    Can you call me please: 1-888-751-3489
    Best Regards,
    Robert
    Bucanero Cigars
    reply
  • Errett Cord

    8 months ago

    Micha,

    He is 100% correct. Everyone should listen-up.
    reply
  • Justin Wright

    8 months ago

    Very good post, but I have to agree with Joe that said "If you think SEO is dead, you're doing it wrong." I really do not see SEO disappearing in a few years. Companies will continue to employ those that know the best way to be efficient with the search engines. Why spend 10x as much time finding someone cheaper to do it badly for you when you can just pay the money for someone that knows SEO and be done with it.

    As far as freelancing, I have made about as much this year as I ever have working for various clients. Small businesses are the most beneficial from SEO since they cannot afford to spend large amounts of dollars on advertising. By ranking high in the serps, they generate leads without as much costs.

    Sure, SEO has changed over the years but it is still one the most important aspects of a website. Social media can bring floods of traffic, but never consistent and targeted traffic. So if your a company that employs an SEO expert, not only keep them, but pay them well. The last thing you want is a someone who ends up doing black hat techniques for your company and gets you banned all together.
    reply
  • meatbagwtf

    8 months ago

    Micah - though you've clarified your stance in the comments, I still think you are confusing a small number of stupid SEO tricks with the SEO process as a whole. It is true that SEO, if practiced poorly can damage your brand and pollute the Internet. Sadly, not enough people know what SEO is or how to implement it correctly. This goes for the obvious culprits - those marketing douchebags with big lapels and MBAs from lower-tier universities, but that also goes for web designers, web developers, web app programmers and VCs. These guys might be at the top of their game in their respective fields but this does not magically confer SEO ability, neither does it automatically confer SEO educability. In fact, the arrogance which comes with mastering a particular web-related discipline, coupled with a distaste for business-driven decision-making in the organization, may hamper internal understanding of even basic SEO. For example, I work with an insanely talented web design team that frequently refuses to take SEO considerations into account, apparently because they're above all that "marketing stuff". If some sort of SEO wasn't in the mix, I guarantee that no-one would be able to find their beautiful creations. This is especially true in competitive markets where 10% of your keywords drive most of your traffic, and you have to optimize to be seen above the spam and successfully SEO'd competitors if you want to make payroll.

    It is all well and good to say that "SEO is bullshit" or "SEO is dead", but realize that these are basically memes which first appeared in the SEO industry itself back in 2007, as linkbait. For those of you who don't know, linkbait is an SEO/social media spam tactic which involves crafting inflammatory headlines and making an absurdly confrontational stand for the purposes of gaining attention or gaming social voting environments. This post fits some of the criteria. Unfortunately, the attention-whore stance obscures a lot of the more valuable suggestions from this post, foremost among these being "hire an evangelist". Some of the best evangelists are home-grown though- these are people who have had time to learn the product inside and out. It really helps if these people know how to behave on the internet as well. If anything, I predict SEO is changing from an impersonal activity to more of an "online publicity" role, where building relationships is more important than automated directory submissions, noindexing your archive pages, etc, etc...

    Anyway, even if this post isn't linkbait, "SEO is dead" is a convenient statement that implies that no further analysis of the subject is needed. Many naive commenters here are eager to add their voices to the echo chamber. The notion that "my website was built by me, therefore it is perfect and unique and should get search engine traffic on its own merit" might work for some sites, but most of the websites I see which depend on actually transacting real business would go bankrupt if they adopted this philosophy. Disclaimer: I have never worked for an unprofitable web application startup- the rules may be different in this space :)

    Ideals are important, but when pragmatism is of concern, most companies ignore SEO at their peril.

    Though I'll grant you this, there's an unbelievable amount of bad SEO/webspam out there generated by big, dumb companies which are driven internally to make bad decisions. In-house SEOs get no respect; we get to read deprecatory blog posts like this, while the boss is yelling "I told you to linkspam every mortuary guestbook in existence! Why aren't we #1 in Google for 'buy dog food online'?"
    reply
  • George Morris

    8 months ago

    I agree with the notion that pure SEO companies are doomed. Especially those who charge monthly fees for long term contracts but do the bulk of their work up-front and milk it the rest of the way.

    We've always been advocates that "SEO isn't Voodoo" and we use the analogy of "exercising" to explain this to clients. We like to teach them how to rank better by writing better content, reaching out on the Web and making your voice heard online. You can't pay someone to exercise for you. In that respect, we are the "SEO Trainer" which whips the client's ass into doing things the right way on a consistent basis.

    ... also... Tell Ryno I said hello
    reply
  • Stevie Black

    8 months ago

    We've been coaching clients to write focused content and getting buy-in across the organization has always been key. Nothing new there and, like you, we feel this will be the norm; less reliance on "gaming the system." That's why we focus on SEO-friendly design and development. There's more to it than getting people to visit - they need to do something when they get there and having the right "scan and skim" ready when they arrive greatly enhances the experience leading, ultimately, to conversion; whatever that might be.
    reply
  • GiveMeABreak!!

    8 months ago

    ServiceMagic is one of the largest spammers online and we are supposed to listen to the guy who helped them probably build the spamitizer they have become??
    reply
  • Tom Pick

    8 months ago

    I just Googled "SEO is dead" WITH the quotes around it, and got almost 10,000 results. Skimming just through the first two pages I found articles and posts going back to 2003 (SEO is apparently dying a very long, slow death).

    That's not to say that many of your points here aren't valid, particularly the parts about the importance of good design and the unfortunate practices of black hat SEOs.

    But SEO -- the real, honorable, valuable kind -- isn't going to "die" anytime soon. It will, however, change considerably. Yes, companies need to hire passionate (and articulate) people; but they then need to hire SEO consultants (though such folks may no longer be called that) to help those evangelists get their words out through an ever-changing and increasingly complex media landscape. The evangelists can then be the experts on their products while letting specialists (SEOs, SMOs, or whatever we're called) be the experts on the media.
    reply
  • Steve Espinosa

    8 months ago

    I hardly think SEO will die, even in the next 10 years. I mean seriously, people still don't have websites, and the people that have websites have people build it for them.

    Yes it will become less of a black box as time goes on, but it will hardly go away, I mean people still don't change there own oil, mow their own lawn, or wash their own car. My point being is the Web Design Industry will be long dead before the SEO industry is, and that will be awhile.
    reply
  • Callie O Farrell

    8 months ago

    SEO - optimisation being the keyword here. I think the essence of SEO will refocus on enabling the search engines rather than trying to cheat the system, which is pointless. Ensuring that the html is correct and that there are no errors counts, use of appropriate keywords, url titles.....There is still alot to be done.

    However- content is key. Building a reputation, links, targetted marketing all work. Spamming social media creates bad feeling.
    reply
  • Rob Blatt

    8 months ago

    I walked away from the discussion saying "Be a person, use a tool bag." There's too much SEO (submit things to Digg to hit the Google front page and Astroturfing come to mind) that raises the slimy bar to a place that everyone else needs to compete just to be average.
    reply
  • Tom Smith

    8 months ago

    If it's 3 years, I reckon you have 6 months to go :-)
    http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2006/02/22...
    reply
  • SEO Trends

    8 months ago

    It may be dead for quick-buck earners. Thinking from a Marketing perspective, positioning a web site and creating awareness for product and services to be represented properly to targeted visitors is much more important. Not just plain SEO, think about search positioning and marketing to make sure that people find your web site when they actually need it!

    Whatever tricks we use, websites are indexed and included automatically, and outsmarting Google does not worth anymore. SE spiders crawls the web to find sites for inclusion and Google manually review sites which are popular and top-ranked. You can improve and optimize the elements in your site which SEs uses to grade websites like Unique Content, Reputation, Page Rank, Inbound links, Link popularity etc. SEs also penalize or ban those sites that use SEO Spam techniques to get high ranking in the search results.

    Even if we are on top, without compelling narrative content incorporating the specific strengths of web and our business, it might just be computer talking to computer, while our users leave our dry and boring websites to engage in yet another round of interactive search for compelling sites elsewhere!

    Your website design has to somehow be relevant to the content, accurately representing its purposes in the medium. Then, the content has to be useful to the website audience. Well, you are still missing a huge factor: narrative voice. Internet is a global network of connected people. And story-telling is still the most effective way to emotionally impact people. Hire real professionals, SEO is only 10% skill.
    reply
  • Unny

    8 months ago

    Hi,
    This is a valid debate.
    I agree that SEO experts have now started packaging themselves as SMO experts. Perhaps many think that creating links from social platforms and creating and participating in dialogues (meaninglessly) will make them SMO experts and will also get some SEO benefits. While I am not an SEO expert, I certainly believe that SMO is best done internally - if we are interested in benefiting from honest conversations.

    Whoever does it, I feel SEO will continue as more search engines appear and the more new algorithms they bring. In India for example there are only 40 mn internet users in a population of 1.1 billon; but is growing at almost 100%. So number of websites and Search will grow.
    reply
  • dan host

    8 months ago

    What about the link building seo part ???
    reply
  • Chris Monty

    8 months ago

    The rules may change, but the SEO game will still be very much alive.
    reply
  • VincentWright

    8 months ago

    In the third paragraph of your post where you state: "“If you do SEO for a living, you will be out of business or irrelevant in 3 years.” - @micah, You have an error with the hyperlink for @michah. It's coming out: http://www.http.com//twitter.com/micah/status/9... but should be: http://twitter.com/micah/status/996950838
    reply
  • micah

    8 months ago

    Thanks Vince. Fixed.
    reply
  • Celebrity Gossip

    8 months ago

    I agree to a certain extent. But what I think you have to realise is that as long as there are organic search results people will try to manipulate those results. I think SEO will potent as long as search engines give weight to relevance. We mustn't forget that the reason social media platforms dominate the results is because they are dynamic. Google and the other engines still have to rank their results because searchers demand it. SEO will always tie in to this ranking.

    You are right about the SEO consultants, their profits and livelihoods will probably suffer but there will always be room for space
    reply
  • JohnMcDonald

    8 months ago

    Can SEO survive without other skill-sets like social networking or content writing or web design? No, its probably not a standalone profession - its not an end unto itself its just something that programmers and content writers and marketers need to keep in mind while doing the jobs they did anyway. Of course, consultants can still find a niche educating people who already work in the professions related to SEO and anyone who wants to head up an internet marketing division will need to understand the basics and best practices...

    With that view in my mind, I think the future of SEO is pretty bright. 20-30 years ago, writers didn't have the types of opportunities they have today - and its the search engines that bring that opportunity daily.
    reply
  • Enrico S.

    7 months ago

    I could not agree more. It is about A+ content, not seo. Google wants the best content returned as search results. You can't trick the algorithm forever. Check out www.vertio.net. It is the best organic content generator on the web.
    reply
  • Chris M

    7 months ago

    Simple question.. when it comes to selecting keywords, does that not fall under SEO? Who will do that?

    SEO which involves keyword stuffing is nonsense, I agree, but a website which has relevant content and is optimised to use specific keywords and backlinks, will rank higher.

    Using a framework such as Wordpress with the seo and sitemap plugins is a fantastic start, but someone still needs to manage them and carefully choose the keywords.

    Great article!
    reply
  • Internet Entrepreneur

    7 months ago

    SEO will not die until search engines need words to understand what the user is trying to find
    reply
  • dadshouse

    7 months ago

    The SEO knowledge out there works. You're right that SEO experts will soon be out of jobs because anyone can do it. Getting work as an evangelist inside a big company sounds like good advice to gain some stability on the SEO expert's part.

    But I think this is all good - CONTENT IS KING. It sucked that crappy content could rank high just because a few people were outsmarting the search engines. With a level playing field of everyone doing the same SEO tactics. GREAT CONTENT will rise to the top again.
    reply
  • Eldad

    7 months ago

    As to firing all the agencies - that may be premature. The people involved there can definitely have tremendous effect on a site. Yes, many of the better agencies are geared toward the larger advertisers and big brands. They may move these behemoths forward but are slowed by the size and structure of the organizations they serve. SEO takes about 6-12 months to produce its real results but for a smaller site, choosing niche focused keywords, you can see good movement & better rankings in half this time. Then again the larger traffic keywords most likely will not be the ones you go for, those are for the larger companies who can budget to own.

    He is right that if you can bring in an Internal Evangelist it is an excellent thing to do. Yet this person often tends to feel overworked and extremely stressed as one individual cannot keep up with all the tactics on their own. Having this person manage an outsourced team is most likely the best method - as then they can oversee the different mediums & tactics are being put into play with the correct keywords and goals of the company.
    reply
  • Robyn McMaster

    7 months ago

    Great to get such a fresh view on this, Micah. Seems like "evangelists" or people that truly believe in their products can do the best presenting their PR on the web. Never thought I'd see the line that SEO is dead. :-)
    reply
  • davidC

    7 months ago

    Great post and discussion... I agree that SEO should be an internal part of a companies marketing structure. Makes no sense to hire contractors to do the work that you can do in-house.

    I also agree that SEO as a profession may die in a few years.

    I love that: "saying you're an expert in SEO will be the same as saying you're an expert HTML coder"... I think that's already happening.
    reply
  • pagespank

    7 months ago

    Erm you're kind of missing the mark here. SEO = findability.

    If you can't find a website it may as well not exist. No-one cares about your awesome site that you built unless they can find it.

    Since Altavista this has been done through various tactics which have evolved into SEO as we see it today. SEO is no longer keyword stuffing etc etc. Today SEO is about getting quality traffic, making great websites findable and usable, and most of all is merging with conversion science.

    People have been saying SEO will die since at least 2000. It's really not something new to say, and it's no more true now than it was then. Remember that Google said they couldn't be spammed when they started?

    Will SEO be the same in 3, 2 or 1 years from now? No - of course not.

    If it was I'd be looking for a new job because I'd be bored out of my mind.
    reply
  • Mike Thompson

    7 months ago

    All of your arguments make sense though you have one unfortunate flaw that I see. In all of your arguments you have held Search and indexing technology as a constant. If you hold Search and indexing technology to be a constant, then yes all of the above are true. The methods will become simple knowledge, the correct methods will flush themselves out, and simple script style plug-ins will handle it all. Unfortunately I don't see this as the case. As someone who tracks the results of all of the major search engines over long periods of time I can see very obviously when there is an algorithmic shift, and bear in mind that these are minor. If a whole new form of technology like Natural Language Parsing becomes reality, then I can imagine there begin huge and dramatic shifts in the methods needed to rank for the terms you wish to at a major search engine.
    reply
  • WebSight

    7 months ago

    It is really amazing how much social networking has taken over the web. I gues it all boils to to People trust People.
    reply
  • you

    7 months ago

    you an idiot
    reply
  • E.Howard

    7 months ago

    I think SEO will never die..bcoz internet marketing is growing.
    reply
  • About Webdesign

    7 months ago

    I agree with Micah. When your focus is clear you will have no problem. As an Art Director I made all my designers aware of the 'seo' aspects of building a proper website/page. This all ready does wonders.
    reply
  • Blog Seo Tips

    7 months ago

    I believe seo will last as long as a person is using a search engine.
    reply
  • Narmadi

    7 months ago

    Thanks for the great info about SEO, I hate this one..
    reply
  • Benny

    7 months ago

    It's all just online marketing. Why bother with the name changes.

    However SEO will need to change if it wants to survive. The current SEO techniques leave sites with no personality.
    reply
  • Ashleejames

    7 months ago

    There was a time when SEO was seen as magic that only a few knew, but everyone wanted. SEO consultants could charge wild high rates and provide quick and obvious value. As all online marketers became wise to the tactic, more and more designers and developers were being charged with ensuring the SEO efficacy of the sites they were developing. Writers were expected to write for search engines.Then social media blasted on the scene a couple of years back. People took their SEO tactics, and laid them on top of social media, completely missing the point of social media.
    -----------------------------
    Ashleejames


    SEO
    reply
  • Narmadi

    7 months ago

    Hi micah,
    I would like to inform you that i have link to this post...
    I'm sorry..not inform you before
    Thanks
    reply
  • Lijit Sucks

    7 months ago

    Micah,

    I'm surprised that you claim to be "experienced" in SEO after coming up with a bull-wag post like this.

    You are obviously missing the point that most of the businesses who need SEO are "small" and they can't afford to have internal teams doing it - they need to outsource.

    And, your crap about the plug-ins for Wordpress just prove your immaturity.

    How can the all-in-one SEO plugin and the Sitemap Plugin for Wordpress be the end all?

    So, your telling us that all that a person needs to do in order to get truck-loads of search traffic is this?

    1. Install Wordpress
    2. Change Permalinks
    3. Install All In One SEO Pack
    4. Install Google Sitemap Plugin

    I think you really need to "learn" SEO first before coming up with a post like this.

    BTW, Lijit SUCKS
    reply
  • micah

    7 months ago

    Let me guess, you are a SEO consultant? An affiliate marketer? Even small companies can integrate the basic tenents of SEO into their efforts. Of course, many small companies also dont have websites (using google maps, yahoo shopping, etc.), but of those that do, its not that hard to set up a wordpress install to suit their needs, install the basic plugins I outlined and get most of the way there technically. They need to spend some time and effort on learning how to write properly and keyword research, but again, no need for an "seo consultant" who either cannot charge a high enough rate to make it worth the consultants time (s/he would need a tons of clients), or spend the appropriate time (because they have tons of clients).

    My point is still valid, successful companies control their own destinies and understand whats important to their business, rather than spending lots of money on consultants.

    As to your comments about Lijit, well, given the immaturity of the comments, there is not much to say.
    reply
  • bob farley

    7 months ago

    unfortunately, the fact is that customers will continue to pay to be on top of others in search ranks. i have read mounds of these crapblogs in which users discuss that s.e.o. is feces (see what I did there?) and that it wont work in 'the end'. fact is: simply use relevant info - that will never be understood by a marketing agent that edits code in dreamweaver - no need for a cms with plugins. use a cms if you like, but its all the keywords that will only make a difference in 'the end'.

    Do you all think this blog is to inform you about how s.e.o. is buried? it isn't. its s.e.o. in its purest form. think about it.
    reply
  • Racing School

    7 months ago

    You're absolutely right. SEO is going to be dead meat soon.
    reply
  • Martyn

    7 months ago

    I must say a great link bait article, but I think the subject is total rubbish!

    I do work as a SEO consultant natural SEO traffic is more valuable then PPC traffic as it's leads to more conversions.

    So I guess your statement untrue.
    reply
  • SEO

    6 months ago

    SEO is only a component of internet marketing which includes many others such as SEM, ORM, PPC, SMM, etc. The inclusion of Universal Search concept and other new concepts do not mean the death of SEO. It might be an evolution where many other factors are included in the rankings system.
    reply
  • Sulumits Retsambew Web Hosting

    6 months ago

    maybe SEO could be dead soon. no one after this don't want to know about seo. what happen after this if seo dead soon? say good bye to seo. we'll wait what can be happen to seo after 5 years from know. who knows maybe seo is really dead.... the death of seo.
    reply
  • Busby SEO Test!!!

    6 months ago

    yep, seo is just about how many backlinks you have, both natural and unnatural links. that's why seo is dead. lol :D
    reply
  • Marcus

    5 months ago

    I agree that SEO experts as a whole will see their roles change over the course of the next few years as more and more companies learn how to "do it yourself". If you own an e-commerce site you know that it is very important to stay on top of trends, to have an ear to the ground at all times. For this you do need someone who is devoted to SEO, not someone who is managing it part-time amidst there other responsibilities. For this reason you will see alot of companies regret letting their SEO guy go too early in favor of doing it themselves.
    reply
  • Ryan

    5 months ago

    There are so many University students who sailed through Uni learning nothing and now provide SEO for a living its a joke. Theres one guy I noticed today on Guru.Com who has a Masters Degree and is a SEO expert! Wonder why eh.

    If you support SEO Services do you know know where to begin on creating an Administration area for their clients to edit their own META data or you have actually done it before? If your reading this and thinking, how and why or no then wake up to the fact your rubbish at web development and your job is about to come to an end!

    All this "If SEO is dead who is going to edit the keywords" lol Pathetic. I write thousands of lines of complicated code for a living you SEO Experts bash on with your keywords that my own clients do themselves its so simple.

    Rant over...
    I agree SEO is dead and all my clients get admin pages to edit their own META data editor no matter how small or big the site is. I'm also taking part in campaigns to rid the internet of SEO Services and replace them with SEO Site Upgrades, all about improving sites long term/permanent. Something a lot of SEO people can't do they just can't cope, I know loads of them from University.
    reply
  • Ambassador

    5 months ago

    I can't disagree with this blog post more...and many of the comments afterword. It reminds my of the guy who retired from the US Patent Office in 1894 because he was convinced that everything of meaning that could be invented, had been invented by then.

    I doubt I'll change anybody's mind here.

    That said, it will be interesting to see what everyone is saying 3 years up the road. Here are my reasons why SEO will be hear 3, 5 and even 10 years from now.

    1) Good SEO works. I agree with the sentiment that MOST SEO techs don't know true SEO. However, don't lump all SEO firms into the same pile. There are many good/ethical onsite and offsite optimization techniques that can move a website up to the top. We do it every day in our company.

    2) There will always be a need for SERVICE. Of the 24 million small businesses out there, the vast majority of them can not or will do it for themselves; and they shouldn't. Business owners should always focus on their core competencies...deviating divides their energy, their focus and costs big money. I was taught by a very successful man "don't do anything in your business you can pay someone else to do, only do the things you can't pay someone else to do". Most business management can no more design a good website, create outstanding content and do all the things to get them to the top of the search engines for relevant terms than they can to Network their own computers, design their ASP database, build a web application, do their own accounting or be their own electrician. The smart ones will focus on their core skills and hire a professional for the rest.

    Effective SEO for competitive terms is certainly not as easy as some of the comments suggest. But even If they could do it themselves..who wants to. I can cut my own lawn or fertalize my own yard...but I'm not going to. Why should I when my lawn guy does it for $100 per month and Chemlawn sprays for $39 three times per year.

    Now I'm not naive, and certainly understand the industry will mature...I do believe things will be different down the road 3yrs, 5yrs and 10yrs from now. But there will be a methodology behind a Search Engine Algorithm and business websites will need to conform their websites to it.
    reply
  • busby seo test

    5 months ago

    What i know about SEO is just how we optimize keywords and inbound links. as long as we do it correctly, we'll move to the top spots of the rankings. Considering the statement whether SEO is dead or not, i have no comment :D
    reply
  • Search Engine Optimization

    5 months ago

    I quess I'll have to start looking for a new day job.. lmao
    reply
  • Brad

    4 months ago

    Micah - I agree with some of your points and disagree with others. For example, I agree with your suggestion that companies consider taking SEO activities in-house and integrate it within marketing, development, etc. as that will most likely be benefical in the long term. While I don't believe that SEO is some form of black magic voodoo, I do believe that it takes some experience to master. Merely utilizing Google's best practices, along with some title optimization, won't be enough in a highly competitive market. In those markets, you'll need to be very good at several specific SEO based responsibilities to even moderately compete. Giving your IT guy or girl a book on SEO and cutting them loose, won't do it.

    I do agree that SEO will change and evolve over the next few years, but it's been doing that since it's inception.
    reply
  • New Orleans Computer Repair

    2 months ago

    SEO dies when Google dies. There's an old ancient proverb: "TO SEO, IS TO OPTIMIZE FOR ONE'S SEARCH"


    SEO IS A THRIVING MARKET.

    You don't realize it, because we're not using old traditional methods, but rather, were our here on MySpace, Digg, and CitySearch making it happen and we're better than ever. When you search, you find what we want you to find. Cut and dry.
    reply
  • josh

    2 months ago

    I totally disagree with you on this article to say that SEO will be gone in 3 years. I currently have my own SEO consulting company and I can tell you it is going stronger than ever. First of all just because you have a work force of all these players helping you SEO does not mean it will be effective. Working smarter and not harder is the key to being a good SEO person. I will give you an example as a test site I did. I had 2 website created one using Whitehat Practices that typically companies will use and Blackhat Practices that I use. The Whitehat Practice website never got up on the first page and my other site did. And second website search engines are always changing to improve search engine results if you know how to manipulate them to beat the big competitors you will always have work. I have gotten first page ranking on very competitive keywords vs companies that are doing in house marketing. The reason is because the people at there 9-5 jobs do not care about what they do normally. They are there to get a pay check and be finished. It is my passion to be beat the big competitors on there own keywords. To say that SEO will die in 3 years is a foolish comment and you are not very wise at all. Why not give examples of keywords you have ranked very high on and let me try to out rank you!!! YOU ARE FULL OF CRAP! You either dont know anything about this business or you are angry because bad SEO guys are getting the work you want to get. Either way you are uninformed and your article is a complete waste of time and space on the internet!
    reply
  • Josh

    2 months ago

    Also social media sites are fad. They come and go. Twitter announed this week that 40% of the users using this service never come back! So being ahead of the competition is the key to being a good SEO guy. Also the guy who said that HTML coder is the same as a SEO guy is also the stupid comment I have ever heard. Think about it idiot! HTML is a set standard doesn't change. SEO always is changing and adapting to the market. So how can you compare HTML coder to a SEO guy. WOW everyone is an SEO expert these days but the comments I heard are so full of crap. Most of you on here commmenting I guarantee make crap money and because you are not successful doesn't mean others are in the same shoe as you. I guess the saying when your on top everyone wants to bring you down is a fair comment.
    reply
  • CRS

    1 month ago

    So Josh, You are basically bragging about how the Black Hat site you created beat out the White Hat site?? Well of course it did, but that that's not a good long-range tactic. Good luck with that "principle" guiding your business.
    reply
  • Lynn Wenger

    1 month ago

    I've recently realized that I'm doing more keyword searches in Twitter to find recommendations to websites than I am finding in the search engines. For example, keyword search "SEO" and you'll get more reliable hits in Twitter. Maybe Twitter is going to replace Google some day soon?
    reply
  • lynnwenger

    1 month ago

    I've recently started using Twitter to keyword search topics like "SEO" so I can find good sites that are recommended by people, rather than marketers. I wonder if Twitter will some day replace google?
    reply
  • Sansar Grewal

    1 month ago

    great conversation for knowledge
    reply
  • Acnezine

    1 month ago

    I have to say, I don't 100% agree.
    What's stopping seo's to use social media or video sites to promote their business?
    This will only make things a lot like the beginning of seo: only the good ones will survive.
    reply
  • Sherri

    1 month ago

    I've spent the past hour reading this blog, and following links on the blog. What a fascinating topic. Seriously, I don't think I have anything to add as I am just eager to read more! I see this topic is months old but will keep garnering replies and opinions for years to come I imagine!
    reply
  • BullS

    8 months ago

    SEO is BS...totally full of S*&hit

    it is website creation

    all websites are full of BS too bullshitwebsites dot com and bullshitSeo dot com
    reply

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