SEO isn't a profession in and of itself simply because it will not stand the test of time. What will become of SEO when search itself changes, what would it be applied to when the Internet as we now know it is no more?

SEO techniques work on search engines because the search engines rely upon mechanical search but the day will be coming when search engines will rely upon a kind of artificial intelligence to deliver results. Get rid of mechanical search you get rid of SEO or turn it into something completely different.

There is a lot of talk about LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing. Some people believe that LSI is nothing more than the latest buzz word to lure unsuspecting clients into expensive contracts for services that they don't understand. This complaint is often applied to SEO in general as well however, not understanding something doesn't make it any less real does it? To illustrate my point; my failure to understand women doesn't make them any less real does it?

SEO is not a profession but just a department within webdev/marketing and will not be around long enough to be considered a profession.

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