There will always be that company that wants to be on top and therefore SEO's will always be needed to acomplish this task.
You are all so right! My grandfather sold coal when he was young because he knew that would be around forever and ever. Everyone had a heater and oven that were heated by coal, so without it everyone would die!! Oh wait, bad example. SEO has been around for a whopping 5+ years but now evolution has ended. Things will never change again. Thank God.
It might not end (well... of course it will end some day) but it will change. And change drastically enough that, for some SEO's, it may as well have ended because they did not keep pace with the changes. And yes it will end. Do you really think the internet as we know it today will be the same internet in 25 years? Heck, Google could even go the way of the Dodo eventually.
You know even though this makes sense I can say it isnt true. I have a site that I have not added any content to, added any links, had no links added, not changed any tags at all...I have done NOTHING to this site for 16 months, yet it still continues to climb for a major search phrase. It didnt just climb a few months after, it has continued to climb for the last 2 months. Maybe its the age factor kicking in more but the site is only 2 years old.
And it will probably continue to rank well for those terms, especially if the content those keywords are in are relevant and well-written. Hope you all don't mind me going off-topic for a moment, but Web Gazelle, WOW, you did a DAMN GOOD JOB of snagging that domain name! Well done!
SEO is just the digital equivalent of building a "reputation" online. It is based on who knows you, who you know compounded by how long, how many etc. As long as sites need a reputation there will be some form of SEO. Look for the FREE Google analytics platform and FREE Google toolbar to play a part in determining reputation online going forward....Right...nothing is ever really Free.