Is SEO Dead?

[janeth]

Um, duh I know this Janeth. But you are saying on-site optimization doesn't count. Well it does if you want to rank a page or multiple pages for 1000s of keywords. If you are worried about ranking for 1-2 keywords then I will agree with you. Starting a link building campaign only for those keywords is easily reasonable. Of course how many clients ask you to do just that? None of mine I can tell you that.

Are you saying that well written content on good url's with links and good anchor text want rank unless you hire and SEO firm?

Onsite optimization is not needed to make a site rank. I've had pages rank for keywords I never even thought about ranking for.

[westie]

Great thread - obviously an very important discussion for a lot of web folks.

My 2 pence worth is this. Some webmasters/SEOs seem to become fixated on SEO/ pagerank/ SERPS - the constant quest for higher pagerank and serps positioning. But why? Search engines and rankings are important in one area, (admittedly a very important area) but they are much less/not important in the most important business/customer area - which is customer retention. All business/ marketing people use the measure of repeat customers as probably the most important measure after sales revenue and profitability. And for a very good reason it is far easier to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new customer. If you don't have repeat customers then you have an uphill struggle and will end up spending loads on attracting new customers who may still not buy. The result will be a downward spiral and a failed business.

All businesses need new customers as well but it should not be the main focus of the business that should be on satisfying the needs of existing customers or on creating content that will be interesting enougth for customers to come back. As an information provider that is my aim.

This is why SEO is only a relatively minor activity for many businesses who are busy with existing customers. In my own businesses after the initial set up we do SEO about once a year. So wether SEO is on page or off page it of only limited importance to many businesses.

I'm inclined to go with janeth on this - I think most of SEO at present is about external factors - links! The on page stuff is important but should have been incorporated in the initial design in my opinion.

Also although I think webnauts is probably right about things in the future I don't think they count for much now. But, final point, I think that the future will be different anyway - I think new interactive websites will come to the fore as design becomes more important for customer engagement. Very many websites today are pretty dull (well optimisted) but dull considering all of the things that can be incorporated. I think there will be much more video, and audio - talking characters etc, flash design and more interactivity - where will that leave SEO!?

Heres an example of what I mean - this is an engaging website.

www.panslabyrinth.co.uk/

[Hiops]

So, as I understood on-site optimization and off-site one, are both very important, but the the real trend is now, that on-site optimization is becoming more and more important with growing ability of SEs to read and understand content like a human and rank sites by the quality of their content not quantity of back links or other SEO tricks. And can somebody tell us where we are now in the terms of SEs to understand the content as a humans do.

[incrediblehelp]

Are you saying that well written content on good url's with links and good anchor text want rank unless you hire and SEO firm?

Onsite optimization is not needed to make a site rank. I've had pages rank for keywords I never even thought about ranking for.

Nope not at all. Just been saying over and over that you cant get the same results in your hypothetical Flash website as a regularly indexable website. That's all I have been saying from the recent comments.

[janeth]

All business/ marketing people use the measure of repeat customers as probably the most important measure after sales revenue and profitability.

I agree, it is all about the repeat customer and it is the most important part of any business.

It is something every business should work hard on.

As far as where we will be in 10 years from now it is really hard to say, although a lot of people feel 2nd life is the way we are heading.

[janeth]

Are you saying that well written content on good url's with links and good anchor text want rank unless you hire and SEO firm?

Onsite optimization is not needed to make a site rank. I've had pages rank for keywords I never even thought about ranking for.

Nope not at all. Just been saying over and over that you cant get the same results in your hypothetical Flash website as a regularly indexable website. That's all I have been saying from the recent comments.

The flash was more to say that without links a website is not any good and most on site SEO companies do not get links to the website and it makes their service not any good.

Even worst because once someone hires another company to do the SEO they stop doing anything and start running their business in a lot of cases.

[janeth]

So, as I understood on-site optimization and off-site one, are both very important, but the the real trend is now, that on-site optimization is becoming more and more important with growing ability of SEs to read and understand content like a human and rank sites by the quality of their content not quantity of back links or other SEO tricks. And can somebody tell us where we are now in the terms of SEs to understand the content as a humans do.

I think we are a long ways from the SE's understanding the content on a page and I also do not think we are heading towards content being king.

We started with on site stuff being what mattered and left their for the links, I think the next step will have something to do with the traffic a site gets.

But I personally do not think on site SEO is worth the time it takes to do it. A little common sense, good text and links is all you really need.

[williamc]

I would have to agree with Janeth about the engines not being ready to comprehnd pages in a way similar to a human being. They are more likely in the short term to start seeing other things such as social interaction and how others feel about given websites, in my opinion.

[Webnauts]

SMO (Social Media Optimization) will get both links and traffic to your site while on site SEO will not get either to your site.

Janeth you always talk about SMO (Social Media Optimization). That is also a service I offer anyway.

But what do you understand under SMO (Social Media Optimization)?

Can you please tell us here, what is that exactly and how could that work, if a site is not optimized?

A site does not have to be optimized to rank. Are you trying to say that Apple's site is optimized for the keyword computers?

I thought SMO was a service that you offer, so why are you asking me what it is?

You did not answer my question Janeth.

[Webnauts]

Heres an example of what I mean - this is an engaging website.

www.panslabyrinth.co.uk/

Yeah! That is where accessibility will be important for on-site search engine optimization.

Accessibility?

1. Alternative text;
2. Audio and Video Captioning;
3. and more?

Great post by the way ! Thanks! :)