Yet another “End of SEO” discussion

I recently had an email conversation with a gentleman. He’s got experience in his industry and is thinking of starting on his own. He wants his website to be the main marketing tool. So, he approaches me for SEO expertise. We went a few emails back and forth but one of the messages stuck with me to a point that I wanted to share our conversation with you. I’m quoting…

…issue is that google is moving in the direction of putting you guys out of business (trying to make seo obsolete) to force people to buy their adspace, so how much help will you actually be able to offer in this environment?

I wanted to share my reply to his question / comment because it made me proud of SEOs around the world (all the good ones, of course). Here’s what  my reply was…

Another “End of SEO” speculation

Talks like this have been surfacing every time Google does an algorithm update. In my opinion, these conversations are just speculations to get you to buy into paid listings in Google. At least this is what has been happening so far.

It’s over if SEO stops at rankings

It’s a misconception to think that SEO (search engine optimization) is only about achieving high rankings in Google SERP (search engine results page). SEO is a process of improving your website’s relationship with both search engines and people. For example, keyword research, link building, content development, even website architecture and usability are all part of search engine optimization process. In addition, social media marketing is now playing a big part in how Google ranks websites, so a strong knowledge in this area is also part of SEO’s arsenal.

If SEO dies, real SEOs woul go on with their lives

There is another misconception that SEO professionals (SEOs) are doing just that. In fact most successful SEOs are web developers (current or past) and online marketers (because SEO is about marketing your website to search engines and people, and it’s not only about technology). In other words strong SEOs are people with strong technical (web) and online marketing knowledge that work to make websites sell (getting higher rankings is just part of the picture).

So my verdict is that these strong titles such as “End of SEO” are just speculation that come up every time Google updates its algo. Over my 10 years experience in working with websites I’ve worn many hats and to me SEO = marketing and therefore it’s not going anywhere.