Is SEO Dead? Nonsense.

I keep hearing big industry experts make very provocative claims like “SEO is dead”. Absolute nonsense. Perhaps SEO in its current state is dead, but Search Engines, and figuring out ways to optimize marketing campaigns around it, will only excel as it continues to get harder and harder to do.

There are going to be changes in the industry, here is what I think will happen over the course of the next 2 years as Search Engines start adopting Web 3.0.

Things that won’t happen:

1. Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter have a very long way to go when it comes to taking over Google, Yahoo and Bing. They serve different purposes and it will remain this way for some time. And even if something nuts were to happen and I am wrong in this statement, just like Search Engines in the past, these sites will also have exploits that a good “optimization company” can take advantage of. It is possible that these sites take some market share, however, it will probably be at a similar rate of traffic that Search Engines are still gaining by way of new users and a more savvy audience goes online and uses search engines. For the most part, this change will be unnoticed to everyday businesses looking to market in search engines.

2. Search engines going to paid only – I have been hearing this one for 13 years now and it simply cannot happen. Many search engines have tried it, all have failed. Search engines are mainly used as research points, not a place to buy stuff. Research can lead into buying, but 70% of search engines traffic is not worth the cost per click that a search engines would charge to a company. So they would not have enough paid results to satisfy their audience. A research-visitor is often not far enough down a buying funnel to make it worth a business’ money to pay for that visitor. Search engines need up-to-date free content from websites to keep their users happy.

3. Nothing left on the home page to be optimized – Sure, the landscape is changing, especially the primary search results page. Real Time, Shopping results, maps and news are starting to suck up valuable real estate. Bt guess what, those pieces too are optimizable, it is all about keeping up with those trends to be successful.

Things that will change:

1. How SEO is done will change – I believe that over the next 2 years, SEO will change more than the last 10. Links and Content have ruled over the last 6 years. The next natural progression in my eyes is that links will take a back seat to content, and content, depending on a “syndication score” will rule. Meaning, the more places that content or concept shows up in the news, social sites and blogs, the more value it has.

2. On page optimization factors will slowly go away – Search engines wont care about terms like meta tags, code bloat and SEO friendly URLs. Their indexing and spidering capabilities on the content itself will be strong enough to bypass these factors.

3. How many things one will have to optimize – A good Search Engine Optimization program will be forced focus on many different factors, including News, Real Time, Shopping, Local and image/video search. These sources will equally occupy the home page and force a diversity in focus.

4. SEO companies will stop selling rankings – Results are no longer static. What is ranked today wont be ranked tomorrow (or an hour from now). Campaigns will need be sold as an ROI-driven model or traffic strategy. Ranking reports will be near useless. I can see this pose the biggest issue for SEO companies to learn how to set ROI-driven expectation and not rankings.

5. Mobile and Local marketing will be something that companies will be forced to adopt as geo-location software is getting better and better. Instead of someone doing a search from a computer for a coffee shop, they are going to use their phone or GPS system. Small, geo-specific businesses will undergo a radical change equal or greater to the recent changes with yellow page books. I actually feel sorry for the local small business owner. They are in the most dynamic of spaces online that they will learn. Problem is that most have been unable to adopt the changes from yellow pages to online, not sure they are prepared for the next phase.

Search Engine Marketing as a business will change, but it is not going away anytime soon. Naysayers beware when we sit down in 5 years and compare blog posts.

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