In last few weeks Yahoo changed its algo and as a result many sites drops on its SERPS very drastically. Although its not conclusive but it seems that now like google u need extensive link building for yahoo as well. Now MSN changed its algo as well and many sites again drop on its SERPS. SEO existed because of smaller and medium scale enterprises as they though it as a way to compete with bigger enterprises at a very affordable cost. But now SEO is no longer a cheaper solutions, its still low on budget as per other media campaigns but the way things are going on, cost of SEO is going higher and higher and much above the affordability of smaller enterprises. I think that in future it would be very difficult for SEO of small enterprises to survive.
seoindia, if you compare it with the cost of PPC, it's still much lower. Business is about competition and risk, and as this grows, the costs grow as well. A lot of companies, both small and big spend close to $100,000 a month on PPC. Compared to that, SEO is still a lot cheaper. When you get top ranking for a keyword that has an average CPC of $5, and is serached upward of 100,000 searches a month. just that ranking obtained via SEO can be worth the PPC spend. This is one reason, a lot of companies do both SEO as well as PPC. I hope it answers your concern. It's not the end of SEO for small companies, but as competition increases, it becomes a little more difficult.
I agree with honey, i think seo has just become more complicated now a days, you got to look at every aspect of site's promotion, link building is just a part of it. But i do believe small companies should also get a bit into paid search since seo alone does not provide fast results.
I doubt seriously that small firms will be beat out on the internet. I personally would rather work with a small firm than a big corporation. One thing you have to take into consideration is the fact that big firms have big overhead and have to charge big prices. If small firms can be cost effective and have excellent customer service we should see small firms thrive in the future.
In order to survive you need to be flexible. If you make your customers happy (bring in business) thru sources other than search engines, they will be ok even if there are algo changes that effect them ...
I agree that it might not be the end but it is a serious alarming bell for future and the firms who relies on SEO only its very difficult for them to survive as with different search engines changing their algo from time to time its pretty hard to satisfy customers. So in my view PPC is far better than SEO in term of client satisfaction. Its ok that if u bring a website on top with certain keywords than u save a lot of spending on PPC, but its pretty hard to assure that in these days specially for newly launched sites. Moreover SEO will be viable for only those clients who have patience and understand the concept a bit. Earliet you atleast can gurantee SERPS in Yahoo & MSN, but now i think that that is gone as well so future is really tough and one will have to relly on other methods more than SEO for client satisfaction.
I think the internet is the single way a small company can compete with a big one. SEO services are still available at a small price, but someone cand learn in some time to do SEO. I agree it's not at the same level, but it's perfect for a small company