Article] seo is dead

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[ARTICLE] SEO IS DEAD
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SEO “USED” TO BE KING

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a method businesses use to attempt to rise to the top of the results listings in Search Engines (SERPs).

This has been a practice since search engines were invented for the Internet.

Search engines encourage website owners to make their pages easier to understand by their robot spiders.

When Search Engines send out their robot spider across the internet, it tries to “read” the page. Optimized pages are easier to read, and subsequently rank properly in the SERPs.

For almost a Decade SEO was the way sharp business owners dominated their industries and crushed their competition.

During this time up to 85% of websites were found for the first time due to a search in an engine like Google or Yahoo!

Since 2/3rds of all searchers rarely clicked on links beyond the first page, it only made sense to try to get your site ranked within the top 10 search results.

HOW SEO DIED

SEO began to get abused in 1997 when 3rd party software and companies began to spring up with the sole purpose of “gaming” the engines.

One popular way was to “stuff” or repeat the same phrase over and over in the web pages HTML code called Meta Tags.

A famous upgrade to the code in Google was the “Britney Spears” update. Pornographic Websites began stuffing the keyword “Britney Spears”, who was the most searched term at the time, into their Keyword Meta Tags. Even though their site was totally unrelated to the pop singer, their sites showed up first in SERPs.

This is why by 1999 Search engines had stopped factoring the meta tag “description” and “keywords” in their ranking algorithms.

Such abuses caused the engines to get smarter faster and start to penalize and even ban websites that used unapproved methods to “optimize” their sites.

These methods are called “black hat” because they were condemned by the engines themselves. Approved methods were called “white hat” and are encouraged by search engines.

Black hat methods are notorious for taking advantage of loopholes, bugs, holes and weaknesses in the search engines.

Black hat methods actually work really fast and really well. However, as soon as an engine discovers a site using black hat methods (or even associating with a site or company that does,) they penalize or permanently ban that website.

Currently only spammers (who do not care about long term results) use black hat methods. Legitimate businesses realize there is no point being number 1, only to later never ever show up anywhere at all in that same engine again after getting caught for cheating.

WHATS THE POINT OF SEO ANYWAY

Somehow, the people who (still) sell traditional SEO manage to convince people the purpose of SEO is to get your site ranked higher for specific search terms (keywords.)

Many of today’s contemporary agencies used to sell it too. The better ones have realized they would rather produce long term results for their customers than short term bragging rights.

If you SELL SEO, gloating about being in the top 10 of Google may be the point of YOUR business, but ONLY if SEO is your only service line!

Often such top 10 rankings by outdated SEO firms are for search terms no “customer” actually types into the search engines anyway.

Such companies do not realize business owners are not in it for bragging rights.

As if you as an owner would be proud to say “HA! I am in first position for ‘Cantonese basket weaving jokes!’”

Yes, they guarantee you will be in the “top positions”, but not necessarily for a good search term.

They also rarely mention how much traffic you will (or will not) get.

Is your goal simply to be above your competition in the engines for some obscure word? OR is it to get more visitors to your website?

Most old-method SEO companies do not understand this end goal, but are happy to take your money anyway. Later they tell you “congratulations, you are now number 4 in the engines for (useless rarely-searched phrase.)”

Search Engine Ranking is not an award certificate. It is designed to drive traffic naturally, without you having to pay for it.

THE STUPID CYCLE OF SEO

SEO uses a lot of fancy programming and techniques to “optimize” a web page and promote it on the web to try to get it to climb the ranks in the search engines.

No matter your product or service, if you SEO your site, you want your page to be higher on the list than your competition.

Web surfers usually start with the first link and work their way down. The sooner they click you, the better your chances of getting a sale.

But just as you are willing to pay money to get your page optimized, and have someone perform all the SEO tricks to get your page higher — so will your competition.

Your competition wants to beat you just as much, if not more, than you want to beat them.

So EVEN IF you do get to the top, it will just make your competition try that much harder to knock you back down a peg or two.

So you end up in a vicious cycle where you and your direct (and indirect) competitors are jockeying back and forth for first position.

Whoever spends the most time (spelled M-O-N-E-Y) on SEO wins. At least for a time, just so long as no one else spends a little more than they do.

So even if you get to the top, you can bet, you won’t stay there for long.

ENTER THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

In the year 2009, less than 47% of web surfers found websites through a search engine. And that number is shrinking daily.

Social Referral Sites like Digg and Del.ico.us allow site members to post the link of their favorite web address for other members to visit. Other visitors get to vote on whether or not they like it.

Social News Sites like Redit, Slashdot and Fark aggregate news articles recommended by its site visitors.

Social Networking Sites like Twitter and Facebook allow people to share reviews and links of favorite sites.

Social Bookmarking Sites like Stumble, actually act as a publicly accessible ”favorites” or “bookmark” for web pages.

Now, combine all the social media with News aggregators like Google News and Yahoo News plus corporate and industry web presence pages like CNN, CNBC, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, Christianity Today, Family Circle, FORBES etc. and you have a ton of press, publicity, bookmarking, networking and overall word of mouth happening on the internet.

THE SECRET KEY

In addition to the Millions of Social Media Sites out there, there are BLOGS and FORUM sites aggregating social media into blog networks like TweetMeme.

Oh yes, Blogs. There are Millions upon Millions of Blogs on the internet. Today, Blogs look at search engines and laugh at their inaccuracy and failure to stay up-to-the-second with information.

Old School Search Engine Optimization has had it’s time at the top. As many pioneers of the internet, their day is over. Add Search engines to the list with Compuserve, AOL, and Myspace.

Yes, we know sadly, that eventually even the currently popular phenoms like Twitter and Facebook will be replaced by what will be a newer, slicker, faster and just plain old better application.

Search Engines like Google became so huge and popular, because that was how people generally figured out how to find information on the internet.

Those days are long over.

People find sites every which way these days. Every way it seems, except through search engines the majority of the time.

The search engines feel social media’s information is much more current and relevant than their own. Which is why they all have added social elements.

Google, (Who owns Youtube,) will often put News, Twitter, Youtube and other site results in the middle of what they would normally post as results to a search.

This just proves the relevance of social media and the search engines inability to keep up. The best they can do is repost and quote after the fact whatever social media already has moved past.

Sharp business owners have discovered that each of the social media sites results are often what the search engines use to list as results.

OPTIMIZATION VS SATURATION

Think about this. Imagine if you were the owner of a business that put on real estate seminars.

Your direct (and indirect) competition in the search engines for real estate would come from: any individual who has a house for sale; people looking for houses on craigslists; the guy selling books on real estate on ebay; the Wall Street Journal’s latest article about real estate; RE agents; the Realtor organization; and even the latest twitter results containing the “word” Real Estate.

That’s not to mention all the mortgage brokers, appraisers, contractors, investors, title companies, tax sale auctions and even developers that would all also want their website at the top of those same results.

When you search Google you will often see it say something like “Results 1-10 of 2,232,280 results”!

Hundreds of thousands to millions of possible results, and you want to spend your money to try to be number 1-10?

Well, I am sorry to report, the odds are against you.

However, there is good news.

NEW FOCUS, BETTER RESULTS

What if instead of focusing on traditional SEO, you focused on Saturation?

In other words, what if instead of “optimizing” your site/page for one search engine, you took a different approach and decided to saturate the ENTIRE INTERNET itself with your web page?

Think about it. If people are book marking, tweeting and sharing your site all over the internet. Plus all the news sites are running articles on you, and your site is all over the net. Then wouldn’t your TRUE GOAL, of getting website visitors (to turn into customers), be getting accomplished?

People who read about you on CNBC’s website will come visit your page.

People who see their friends tweet about you will come visit your page.

People who read a blog article about you will also come visit your page.

The additional benefit is: now instead of simply having one (optimized) listing in the search engine, you end up with SEVERAL, many of them on the first page! None of them is even your site, but all of them are pages that lead people TO your website!

End Goal accomplished!

SATURATION IS BETTER THAN OPTIMIZATION

That is Search Engine Saturation.

Here is another way to look at it. You can pay BIG money, and have the BIGGEST and FIRST Ad in the Yellow Pages Directory. (Optimization)

…OR

You can have every radio station, News broadcast, and magazine talking about your business, in addition to people buzzing about you in every barber shop, sports event, hair salon, and restaurant. (Saturation)

Which would you rather have?

Which will bring you more business?

Which will have a longer lasting effect?

This, my friend, is the power of saturation over optimization.

VIRAL IS THE NEW BLACK

The reason so many businesses and companies go for “black hat SEO” is because it happens so quick and frankly, just works so darn well.

This temptation is too great for many. They feel they will get away with it. They don’t think they will get caught.
But they ALWAYS do.

Either the search engine’s anti-cheat technology catches them or an angry competitor reports them.

Either way, the short term gain is never worth the long term punishment of being “banished” from the Major Search Engines.

If it is beyond the year 2009 and you are reading this, forget traditional SEO.

Make your peace, leave a rose or two, say a prayer – and move on.

The rest of the world (wide web) has.

Socialized, or Viral Marketing, as it is called, is now the new King.

Instead of attempting Black Hat (or any) SEO, focus on viral marketing.

Viral marketing is the Internet’s version of Word Of Mouth referring through Internet Saturation.

Viral Marketing is just as fast, just as powerful and more importantly, a perfectly legitimate way to dominate the search engines and the internet as a whole.

Search Engines will always be a source of traffic, SEO is simply no longer the way to “optimize” your listings in them.

Viral marketing automatically saturates the internet, leaving SEO as a naturally occurring byproduct.

Viral marketing also cannot be defeated by SEO no matter the budget.

The businesses that use Viral Marketing techniques to saturate the internet are light years beyond the businesses still attempting to use old school SEO techniques.

“Viral Marketing is to SEO what the
Space Station is to the horse and carriage.”

Step into the future, say goodbye to our dead goldfish, SEO, and say hello to our brand new puppy, Viral Marketing!

C’mon Boy, get the customers…fetch!

©2009 Maurice Evans, a Guerrilla & Viral Marketing Expert, is CEO of GuaranteedViral.com, a buzz marketing advertising agency. He has taught SEO since 1999 and currently specializes in viral advertising campaigns with guaranteed results. Call him at 1-800-691-2WIN to have him create a viral marketing campaign for you with guaranteed results .

 

tHIS ia what SEO does,you just elaborate it,all of those are part of SEO process.

 

I have to disagree

Seo stands for Search Engine Optimization

according to SEOMOZ.org

according to searchenginewatch.com

If you read the article there is a DISTINCT difference between the focus of trying to increase position in a search engine results....and focusing on saturating the internet as a whole (in which search engines are an ever DECREASING fraction of)

 

Viral marketing is older than SEO, no doubt about it, but this do not apply to all niches, that is the problem, while SEO can apply to all niches you can think of and get you traffic from organic results in search engines, can viral marketing do that, show me an example.

 

name a niche...

if HUMANS are involved...it can be viral marketed

the very nature of viral marketing is that EVERYTHING can be passed on word of mouth

 

SEO has become more competitive. but not dead..

 

i think seo works till Google works

 

This is stupid post.....
I think you didn't get good result from seo that's why you have to post this type of bad information.....

 

its the most dynamic thing online, keeps on evolving and the only way of survival is to keep you up to date and adopt to the changing strategies... otherwise YOU ARE DEAD

 

How can you say SEO is dead. Through this you are on the top level in the world

 

The original poster is spamming this crap on other SEO forums. Its nonsense. He is just trawling for business. He really has no idea what he is talking about. He still thinks SEO is where is was last century and has no idea what current SEO really is.

 

SEO is not at all dead it plays the vital role in increasing the the ranking in search engine result page as well as can bring a huge traffic to your website...It is alive.....

 

SEO is not dead it has evolved

thats the difference

the social meida and article marketing all help with SEO efforts

not abotu linking anymore

in a way yes but link itself like SEO has evolved

 

SEO is the process which can never die and it keeps on changing as per time and requirement.

 

search engines are TRYING to keep up....to OPTIMIZE specifically for a SEARCH ENGINE is totally pointless

every industry goes through this....the old guard can't let go of what is comfortable and familiar
I have lived through and watched them ..in this order...all replace their predecessor while the people who are heavy in the industry all kicked and screamed and said NO NO NO NO - its not dead


Cable TV (broadcast)
Computer Graphic Design (glue stick, trianle and xacto knife)
Compact Disc (Records/Cassettes)
DVD (VHS)
non-linear video editing (reel and other linear editing methods)
digital photography (film based photography)
digital video (film based video)
VIRAL MARKETING (SEO)

maybe most of you are not old enough to have been INVOLVED in these industries...I have made my living off of all of them. I have watched the tide change..and the uproar is always the same...until those kicking and screaming die out of the business and all the new people embracing new tech move forward to prosperity.

This article exists on ONE other forum and its not an SEO site...just a subforum that discusses seo...it also it exists on my own site...so the whole spamming the net

 

SEO is far from dead..... one week its PPC, then article marketing.... then facebook is going to kill off google...... then back to SEO again....

If it was dead, there wouldnt be such a large portion of posts from google themselves on the matter
[*enter conspiracy theory here*]

 

conspiracy indeed...people still think they need pagerank to get into the top of SERPs

 

SEO is dead when google says so and not before.

viral marketing ( hmm like this link bait ) works when you have actually acheived the goal, ie: your product has gone viral. I wonder how many people have actually tried it and not succeeded?? thousands, millions - no idea because its not recorded.

like I said google makes the rules

 

The article is quite a nice linkbait, and I was actually enjoying it until I got to the part claiming SEO is dead.

If you are the top result for a keyword with thousands of searches every day, the number of visitors to your site in one day would be higher than any for of social media or viral marketing could EVER provide.

SEO is far from dead and to give you an example, when I'm looking for a product online, I use a search engine to help me find out more information, reviews, find the best price/where to purchase the product from etc. I don't go on Facebook or Twitter to ask my friends and never will. The same goes for the majority of internet users too.

You can say I'm in denial as I'm in the industry or whatever, but this is the truth.

SEO is very much alive and kicking.

 

This is a failed attempt at trying to linkbait. Especially since OP believes that SEO is dead even though he/she's trying to get some backlinks towards his website.

SEO will never die. DP will not allow it,

Yugo,