Evolution of SEO

I think that there is actually a wealth of thought provoking possibilities in the suggestion that SEO is evolving. ‘SEO is Dead’ seems to be such an inflammatory statement that is sure to get noticed, attacked, defended etc. which of course makes it great link bait. What I find interesting about it though are probably some of the less inflammatory aspects.

1) The thought of being threatened by this idea is patently ridiculous. It seems that every good SEO professional is a general web strategy consultant. The website owner will need to be led through the jungle that is Search Marketing regardless of which tactics are involved. If the only thing that the threatened SEO does is tool around with onsite elements then maybe some further training would be warranted.

2) Tactics may change – On site factors are often what people new to SEO are concerned about, and while some on-site factors might lose importance there will never be a time when effective information architecture will stop being important both for search engines and for searchers.

3) Interesting that someone is making news that ‘SEO tactics will change sometime in the future’ – It is useful to be alerted to the fact that tactics have changed. Or are currently in the process of changing, or there is some specific event which might suggest that they will change in a specific time span, - but to exclaim that at some time in the future these tactics will change is to merely point out the overwhelmingly obvious without a description of what the tactics will change to.

I’m hedging my bets with the side bet that Web Analytics is not going anywhere. It is a significant aspect of SEO (using the broad definition) but it also ties into so many other aspects of the web development industry and touches so many needs that online businesses have. But Why?
Web Analytics Touches:

A/B testing
Competitive intelligence
Data integration
Data visualization
On-site behavioral targeting
Predictive analytics
Search analytics
Usability testing
Web analytics
Copywriting
Bid management

4) Aaron makes a good point in a recent SEO training module (which will probably be set to private soon) that there is a significant value in predicting the changes in the language – the example he uses is that the phrase Pay-Per-Click is more and more being replaced by the word Adwords as Google continues to develop their brand.

a. It would be important to recognize if the Acronym SEO were falling by the wayside. It is not, btw, and debates about whether it is dead or not will probably only serve to increase traffic, interest, and demand for SEO.

5) Bob Massa makes a good point that the industry may be able to rid itself of the “baggage laden misnomer” in his post about the Future of SEO.

It is hilarious being in an industry where everyone is so hypersensitive to news and recent events and discussions. While people in some industries use recently released textbooks to keep up to date, the people in search are aware of the news before it exists and will be able to tell everyone that they saw the death of SEO coming years before it happened.

This is all to the good and the people who are doing just that will be able to continue to mold the art of traffic development and continue to make money for clients.