The future of SEO

[Toni Anicic]

With all the big changes in search engines in recent time, we are witnessing one of the biggest shifts in the way search engines have been serving their results in the history.

Google is becoming "social" and semantic, serving you different results for same query if you are logged in and if you are logged out of your Google account. Not to mention the voting system.

YouTube took over long held 2nd place in search industry from Yahoo!, now who would say that the big Y! would be kicked off the throne by a website that is not in search industry at all

With all these changes going on I can't help to wonder, what the future holds. How do you see development of the SEO as a service in the future? Will SEO's become extinct? Are we gonna run out of ways to "manipulate" search engines and will have to transfer to the tradisional marketing on internet?

Give me your toughts

[Big Juice]

With all of the silly people buying into the personal search by staying logged in to their Google.com accounts the future of traditional SEO is going to become more PPC focused. At this point the only way you are going to be able to guarantee placement within all of the different personalized SERPS is through PPC.

This is fine for sites that can afford PPC but what about the sites that can't, what are they going to do? Personally I think that the search engines will offer another kind of paid inclusion, one that will by pass personalization settings. In doing so the search engines will open another revenue stream from the same customer base.

Personalization allows the search engines to put even more emphasis on PPC but while that might be good for their bottom lines it could also make search engines like Google a little less reliable.

Case in point, I can not count how many times I have referred a friend to a site by telling them just to Google a specific term and look for the listing with the domain of whatever.com. Now seeing as these conversation happen over the phone it is just easier than say reading out a really long database generated, operator filled URL. This worked in the past because the SERPS were generally pretty close regardless of where both parties are located.

With personalization in place this may no longer be a convenient way to communicate web finds with friends, family and clients. Well not convenient to do it with Google say.

Another example of how personalization hurts the over all searcher experience, new sites might not be as likely to show up in your personalized results. By the time you have filtered out all of the sites you are no longer interested in by voting them down or by voting up all the old standbys, new sites will have little success in penetrating your fave 10 unless of course their is some kind of search engine intervention.

Now I don't know about you but one of the reasons I use search engines is to find new sites and content and if I can't get the new stuff because all of the personalized search results are potentially influencing organic rankings, well I just won't continue using that search engine.

The future of SEO as we know it now, will be severely undermined and devalued by personalized search. SEO will move more into SEM and usability fields. This is a genius move by the search engines as it removes potential problems with spam infiltrated SERPS and it puts even more emphasis on PPC. I seem to recall some search engine stating that they would do no evil but they never said they wouldn't use evil genius.

So remember all you worried SEO people, stay logged into your Google.com accounts at all times so you can help the search giant put you of work.

[davidweb]

Google is also introducing concept of Mobile Search engine marketing which will surely increase the demand for Search engine optimization.

Read this info on Mobile Search Marketing. SEO HAWK - SEO Blog >> Google Mobile Search Marketing - Back to the Future 2009

I am sure you will find some interesting facts related to Mobile Search Marketing.

However, Search engine marketing is more suitable for Major set of businesses. Therefore demand for search engine marketing will only grow in the next few years.

[iany]

You might want to read this which is really what SEO should be all about!
Google Behavior-Based Search: Is Bruce Clay Right? The Milwaukee SEO

[james113]

SEO will exist as long as organic results exist. I don't care what is in a users preferences. Anytime a user searches for something new there will have to be organic results, that the search engines will have to provide, to find out what exactly the user prefers to find for that particular new search word or phrase.

[crankydave]

While methodologies have changed, and will continue to change, SEO and what it should deliver has not. To me, that is being able to deliver what the client expects.

Biggest problems are... not being able to deliver, and not knowing what the client ultimately expects.

Personally what I'd like to see, is clients becoming more educated. This is where the good SEO's will shine. They'll not only be "doing" they will be "educating". Separating themselves from all promises of "blue sky and sunshine" and simply being realistic. More of a symbiotic relationship.

Dave

[iany]

Originally Posted by crankydave

While methodologies have changed, and will continue to change, SEO and what it should deliver has not. To me, that is being able to deliver what the client expects.

Biggest problems are... not being able to deliver, and not knowing what the client ultimately expects.

Personally what I'd like to see, is clients becoming more educated. This is where the good SEO's will shine. They'll not only be "doing" they will be "educating". Separating themselves from all promises of "blue sky and sunshine" and simply being realistic. More of a symbiotic relationship.

Amen to that Dave.

That also implies that clients wish to take the time (and expense) that having us around long enough that we can educate them.

[onlineshine]

I think the Future of the Seo would be the Future of the Business World. Seo has already become the major platform of the Business and in the next coming future, it would become the most and the best platform to the Business. Today's daily upgrades in Seo would clearly signifies the importance of seo for the future.

[MrGamm]

Good ideas still matter.

A search engine only connects people to the information they want. Everything else is non-search engine related.

SEO will die out in favor of good technical which simply will be demanded. The creative people who put their time and effort into connecting with humans will win out in the end (if they find a good SEO to team up with).

[Terry Van Horne]

Originally Posted by Big Juice

With all of the silly people buying into the personal search by staying logged in to their Google.com accounts the future of traditional SEO is going to become more PPC focused. At this point the only way you are going to be able to guarantee placement within all of the different personalized SERPS is through PPC.

If so then... we're all done because PPC does not work for most vendors because it has got to the point where fewer and fewer vendors campaigns/industries have Positive ROI. Since I began CPC has doubled, IMO, that's unsustainable and something has to give at some point.

Personalized Search.... if 10% of users have a Google account and it's turned on I'd be really surprised. That said... Google has always tracked to some extent and if what you claim is true about the quality of personalized search users will learn that personal results are less effective in some cases and move on.

If you are guaranteeing results then... you're clinging to 10 yr. old practices that should have been taken out behind the barn and put out of their misery in 2000!

[Terry Van Horne]

Originally Posted by crankydave

While methodologies have changed, and will continue to change, SEO and what it should deliver has not. To me, that is being able to deliver what the client expects

Biggest problems are... not being able to deliver, and not knowing what the client ultimately expects..

Agreed, quantifiable "realistic" goals! If everyone did that then 90% of the bad reputation quickly goes away because people weren't sold a pig in a poke to begin with. Not only do I set quantifiable goals I provide clients with a list of every task and the time spent doing it. If you provided transparent billing then... it's pretty hard to feel like you didn't get what you paid for.

Originally Posted by crankydave

Personally what I'd like to see, is clients becoming more educated. This is where the good SEO's will shine.

Agreed, however, IMO, the amount of education the industry expects is unrealistic. I don't need to see much more then a license to practice on a Doctors wall... as long as we expect more than that then... there is less chance of a symbiotic relationship.

When so called industry leaders call out Wired and disparage their competitors for pushing the limits on an invisible envelope... well... why should the public trust any of the lot since we can't decide what is right between ourselves, or set reasonable standards of conduct or even agree to disagree!

[full house]

all I can see organic might lost and PPC will dominate. its hard to say that yahoo will get over google.

[xuchunfeng1984]

seo will never drop down because search enginer exsits. and as google becomes better and better, seo will also do;'

[Sarfaraz Khan]

I think this is the prime time for SEO. In future it grow it's criteria.

[dntech]

I agree that SEO will always be around as long as there are organic search results. I do however think that things that have worked in the past may not necessarily continue to work so well in the future. As with most IT industries one has to always keep up to date with what is happening and not get left behind. Having said this I also think that there will always be key things that will continue to be big factors such as good quality unique content, good backlinks, etc.

[Tubby]

I wonder if SEO in the future might include combination sites.

I often see small isolated web sites each selling a product that is somewhat related but different to many other small struggling sites.

Size and content does matter. One reason Ebay works is simply because users know the can find what they want (or used to) the same principles of size and choice could be applied. (and without the user hassles)

If An SEO could get Cooperation with a dozen sites, he could probably 'administer' site optimisation for this cooperative, and deliver traffic to the entire cooperating comunity

I see the future Of SEO as excellent . . . If the SEO can ultimately deliver the goods. I might take some lateral thinking to achieve these results, but you can bet your boots that some enterprising person will pick the gap . and fill it.

[idandone]

The bottom line: SEO, as we know it, will vanish in the next few years (3 years as most). The concept of algorithmic ranking search engines will be gone and human ranking techniques will raise and improved. This is the tendency and Google knows it.

You can read about this interesting debate in the following highrankings.com post:

Why Google Won't Be The Best Search Engine Forever - High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum

[xuchunfeng1984]

Originally Posted by james113

SEO will exist as long as organic results exist. I don't care what is in a users preferences. Anytime a user searches for something new there will have to be organic results, that the search engines will have to provide, to find out what exactly the user prefers to find for that particular new search word or phrase.

i agree with your opinon, dont worry for seo's further. once organic results exist, seo will exist. my friend.

[SEObyCanz]

SEO will always be there, as long as SEO's themselves evolve, search engines are always changing, always, so a good seo watches changes, and learns to work with the changes.

Any type of business has to evolve so why should SEO be any different.

Lynny
SEO services for internet marketing, getting on google, ranking highly in google, you need seo.

[dzinestand]

I thinks future of SEO is absolutely Bright no doubt about that.

I think the future of SEO is quite bright with more and more online businesses depending on traffic from other sources. I have purposely not said “traffic from search engines” because although a big chunk of traffic originates from search engine users, social media websites like Digg, StumbleUpon and del.icio.us and blogs are also great sources of relevant, targeted traffic.

[SEOMG]

So SEO is a way of convincing search engines that a certain web page contains information on a certain topic. I'd say the main reason that SEO exists is that search engines are imperfect - i.e. they can't quantify a page's content or quality in the same way an unbiased human could.

As search engines have evolved however, SEO has become more difficult and I image as they continue to evolve further, the task of convincing them will become all the more difficult.

Sure, we have inbound links etc at present, that kind of work as a democratic system of 'votes' for a page's usefulness, but I imagine the number of ways these 'votes' may be cast in the future will grow and that the ability of influencing a site's presence from behind the website will continue to diminish...

For example, I imagine with new mobile technologies/local search etc, that a regional restaurant my enjoy high ranking based on consumers 'scoring' of that restaurant's food, rather than how many local directories etc that restaurant's site has coming in and how well optimised that site is.

You already see this human performance aspect in platforms like eBay, where a seller who serves their customers well (good feedback etc) will rank above a similar seller who shows poor service.

The reason for this movement within sites like eBay & Amazon is the fact that they have the infrastructure in place to collect this sort of scoring information... How long will it be until search engines can reference reliable & unbiased score info on stand-alone service & goods providers.

Yes, I'm sure there will be ways for SEOs to achieve a marginal advantage over competitors for years to come, but isn't the whole point of an effective search system to offer results based on end-benifits, as opposed to marketing/SEO spend...?

[Terry Van Horne]

Originally Posted by dzinestand

I have purposely not said “traffic from search engines” because although a big chunk of traffic originates from search engine users, social media websites like Digg, StumbleUpon and del.icio.us and blogs are also great sources of relevant, targeted traffic.

Promoting on the sites above is not SEO, different animal altogether and those sites are as close to useless for marketing as you get. If your in the banner serving biz then... yeah... driving unqualified disinterested traffic is a positive... otherwise... if Google can't make mySpace work and admit it... I'd say it's a loooooooong shot for anyone else to have any more success then they do.

[shruchi nagar]

I think future of SEO is very bright. I am agree with your points. As long as Google is still around and still focused on relevancy we will never have to worry about engines . Even if Google goes public and becomes the next in a long line of greedy search engines to totally screw up their results, another will come along to take its place. So, no, we will never have to worry about future of SEO. clients seem to be mostly interested in Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN. This limits the databases we have to work with.

[Terry Van Horne]

Originally Posted by SEOMG

As search engines have evolved however, SEO has become more difficult and I image as they continue to evolve further, the task of convincing them will become all the more difficult.

IMO...No it is only harder if you take the shortcuts like link building based on promotion rather than earning links with good content. I pretty much do optimization exactly the same way I did it back in 95/96. What has changed is the marketing/promotion opportunities. Back then there were less advertising opportunities and they were toooooo expensive.

Originally Posted by SEOMG

Sure, we have inbound links etc at present, that kind of work as a democratic system of 'votes' for a page's usefulness, but I imagine the number of ways these 'votes' may be cast in the future will grow and that the ability of influencing a site's presence from behind the website will continue to diminish...

If the SE figure out how to use the connections on the Social Web then... links will have 0 value. Many 3G SEO's fell for the link development is optimization BS... those around longer than a day knew it was too easy to turn this into unwanted manipulation. They did not understand that SE's regarded links as citations... once the citation is BS the link has no value! Saying link development is SEO is like saying Oil producers are in the automotive industry. Sure you need gas to run the car but... anyone with any clue would see links are promotion and almost every real directory puts it in that category.

Originally Posted by SEOMG

For example, I imagine with new mobile technologies/local search etc, that a regional restaurant my enjoy high ranking based on consumers 'scoring' of that restaurant's food, rather than how many local directories etc that restaurant's site has coming in and how well optimised that site is.

Once again too easy to manipulate and most importantly to hard to spot the unwanted manipulation... see Yelp!

Originally Posted by SEOMG

Yes, I'm sure there will be ways for SEOs to achieve a marginal advantage over competitors for years to come, but isn't the whole point of an effective search system to offer results based on end-benifits, as opposed to marketing/SEO spend...?

Old school yes... the new stuff is BS and just mostly smoke and mirrors which is why BS services like Twitter get hyped as marketing tools when all they really are is 1M SEO's with 10 accounts and Obama! Social Web is not a marketing medium it's a brand builder if you make money there it was mostly lucky ie:even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally!

Blogs are supposed to be the big deal but in reality all they really are is a way to build a lot of low quality links that likely aren't worth a damn a month after they are added. Blogs are a great CMS for clients who want to regularly add content or have announcements and newsletters. Once RSS on the Vista desktop becomes fully integrated people will prefer this method of information distribution over getting it in their spam filled email boxes.

SEO started as a merging of webmaster techniques with marketing and usability. That will never die the rest of it died with hilltop when Google decided to return to the roots of PR ie: a link should not be a scheme to make something look better than it really is ie: a citation!