BuzzMachine

I’ve always been of the belief that as long as you have nothing to hide then online privacy wasn’t much of an issue. With that in mind, I am still occasionally taken aback by the things that Google seems to know about me. As long as they continue to use that knowledge to provide me with more relevant information, I’m all for it. Their service is more valuable when they can provide the information we really want instead of what someone else really wants us to see.

I like the idea that “Google’s search results were the last one-size-fits-all mass product.” I agree.

On the other hand, I don’t see how the rise of personalized results will eliminate the need for SEO — slimy SEO tricks that get pages where they’re not relevant, yes. Best SEO practices that ensure relevant, authoritative pages show up for the right people, no.

As Google generates broader sets of results for each query, their basic need to index pages won’t change, and good SEO will continue to help them do that.

Many thanks for the provocative post. I’ve thought the same myself a number of times. My conclusion is that this not the end of SEO but a substantial shift in how SEO is done. A contextual search environment is emerging and SEO folks such as ourselves will need to stay on top of how search engines are refining the way that they collect and present results. The Bad news is, we’re going to have to work harder and longer. The old ways link blasting have given way to contextual linking. You don’t need as many and the ones that you get are harder to come by. Old school is giving way to new school…it happens all fo the time.

I’d have to agree with the posters here who see a shift in the way SEO is done, rather than the end of SEO. I think your observations are correct, when we talk about personalization. But that ability to personalize just increases the importance to would-be marketers of reaching all those personalized pages. That requires making the pages relevant to as many people as possible – mostly by making the marketing site relevant in ways that SEO engines can understand.

interesting. agree w/ others that it’s certainly not the end of SEO…and also agree with you that influencers are the new cash cows. that’s worrisome. what are now relatively pure and real relationships in web 2.0 spaces will become polluted by the bullshit of clicks and $$$. the line between friend/follower and advertiser is gonna get blurry real soon…

It’s definitely not the end, and could possibly be the beginning for a whole new line of SEO services and products. Consider how Google works; it needs information to make determinations about what’s relevant and what’s not. Humans also need information about what’s happening with their SEM campaigns. Even with a futuristic flawless search engine you still need an SEO expert to do all the on-site work (e.g. title tags, blog set-up, etc.) and you need them to analyze the results (e.g. analytics, reporting, optimizing, etc.).

From my perspective, the SEO games we have to play to get a decent SERP too often stand in the way of writing content that is purposeful, relevant and engaging. Instead we need to make sure each page is optimized for a keyword phrase and pushing that keyword often de-optimizes writing simple, clear and understandable content.

As Google gets better at recognizing contextual relevance to a particular customer, we will now be encouraged to write more and more helpful customer-centric content. That will result in a better customer experience and a better relationship with those vendors who show an understanding of customer needs.

As a searcher myself, I want to get to content that is helpful to me. Too often, my personal searches do not bring back the content I want … at least not on Page One. I find myself frequently going out in the long tail to find the good stuff that will help me do my work better. The content in the long tail mostly is not jiggered for SEO, but is written about the subjects I want to learn more about.

SEO won’t go away, but it will get better. And as a web writer, I won’t have to calculate keyword density. Writing is hard work but it will be more rewarding when it can stay focused on the customer instead of the spider.

There c ertainly is a future in SEO. Its known as content. I have spent way too much time optimizing sites for Google. Not enough time writing content.

I’m assuming you wrote this to stir up some controversy after Shoemoney’s post a few weeks ago.

Bottom line: SEO is more than “tricks with metadata”. As long as there are search engines, folks will want to move up. As long as they want to move up, there’ll be SEO.

Jeff – I think that Ian is talking about this: http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/05/07/seo-has-no-future/. Which is similar to this http://www.calacanis.com/2007/02/07/why-people-hate-seo-and-why-smo-is-bulls-t/. It’s why those of us who work in the trade get bored of this sort of post. I’ll let Danny sum it up better than I ever could http://searchengineland.com/070208-110711.php

Anyone who says the end of SEO is near or there is no future in SEO doesn’t know SEO.

As long as there are search engines there will be SEO. The real question should be what will SEO be in 2,3, 5 years.

How can anyone keep up with all of the SEOs when it constantly changes as search engines adapt to the trick of the trades? It’s hard as is to learn all of the know-hows based on the current system, how can anyone keep up w/ the speed that Google continues to change the game.

Speaking as another non-SEO type, I’ve just taken a look at the SEMPO site – is it fair to say this is the main body representing SEO professionals out there?

I only ask as I’ve never heard of them. And having looked through their site, they look more like an advocacy group, rather than a typical professional body.

Would it be possible for them to develop guidelines, recognised professional qualifications, a means of accountability and the like?

Basically, until SEO is professionalised in the same way traditional jobs are, and their professional body is given teeth like most other professional associations have, the public will surely continue to be confused around SEO.

I think SEO will always have a place as long as there are search engines. The way we conduct our optimization and our goals for optimizing may change but it will remain. I could see things shifting more towards content being very heavy in importance and I don’t think local search results would be that bad. If we have more local result it would make it easier for search engine users to find local businesses they might be searching for and it might make it easier to do SEO for local companies wanting to get a piece of a general search term – for example searching for “dog kennels” would return local results too.

Hey there, I discovered your site a little while ago and have been reading through all the info slowly. I thought would post my comment and just say hi there & let you know I really enjoy your site so far. Will definately be stopping by to read more when I have a bit more time !

Thanks,
Mary

My conclusion is that this not the end of SEO but a substantial shift in how SEO is done. A contextual search environment is emerging and SEO folks such as ourselves will need to stay on top of how search engines are refining the way that they collect and present results. The Bad news is, we’re going to have to work harder and longer.

Thank you,

The given information is very effective.

I’ll keep update with the same.

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