The New Definition of SEO
 

Every now and then there is this question that comes up in forums where people ask

• Is SEO dead?
• Are days of Link Exchange Over?
• Will SEO specialist have any work in future

First I would like to say that SEO will never be dead but yes definitely the definition of SEO will change as we move forward. People would find new ways to get to your site and if you want to be found you need to adapt to those ways. Google will not be the only option to get to your site and Organic search engine ranking will not be the only thing you need to be focusing on for your site.

Now why I think that way?

1. Twitter on Google's Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs)

When you search in Google for Boxing Day (Dec. 26, 2009) you will see Wiki and other Organic Sites but more results are from what people are talking about it rather than static information about it i.e. from twitter and from news results.

http://www.go4expert.com/images/arti...tweet-serp.gif

Does this mean Organic Google results are hardly anyone cares about. At least Google think that way and so you need to also think about it.

2. Google's Reach Compared to Facebook

Though Alexa is sampled data but we can sense a trend. Facebook is not very far off from Google and also Google's data is inclusive of all services including GMail.
http://www.go4expert.com/images/arti...s-facebook.png

It may not be far when Facebook comes up with something like Human Based search which Google is working on for quite some time now with Digg and Twitter.

3. Google Connect Vs Facebook Fans

Google Connect and Google SideWiki were more step towards user engagement as Facebook was taking leaps towards such a kind of move but this was one of the many steps by Google which did not go as expected. I guess Google is trying too many things and becoming Jack of everything Master of nothing.

4. Google, Data privacy and to Keep SEO Alive

• Everyone in webmaster world knows that Google paid billions of dollars for Firefox download with Google Toolbar.
• Google have Analytics to get the data from webmasters and what is shown in reports may not be the actual data
• Google is collecting.
• Google Chrome and OS are needless to mention
• Interest based ads in Adsense

And I can just go on and on and on.

The main reason is Google also senses the Death of SEO.

Google Search Algorithm is / was based on Links but these days' webmasters are smart enough not to link to other sites.

Why?

Simple, they are not linked by others and they cannot buy links because they are penalized for buying / selling links.

So how on earth new webmaster and websites can get good organic Google rankings?

Tweeting about things is one of them where you anyway hit Google top pages at times and the other option is being in news. But that's not possible for masses and so you have to go about doing Grey Hats to get into Google and that would mean your business is at risk.

My $$$$ SEO Experiment

I created a standalone page which means the page has no links (internal or external) pointing to it. It is on my MBA Forum and it is a static HTML page and looks like a thread page by taking the HTML from some other page. It has no links and URL of the page is such that hardly anyone can guess it and so there are less chances of some accidentally linking to it but I see that it has a PageRank of 1

What did I do on that page to get PR1

No Links. Not even emailed anyone about that page and Yahoo Explorer also does not show any links to that page. I would not link from here as I have some more experiments on that page going but I have done 2 things

1. Huge Adwords Campaign of more than $1000 per month.
2. It has Adsense / Analytics on that page.

So what is the future on how sites will rank? I personally believe it will be based on traffic from sources like social media and Adwords which will prove to be your entry point so that Google can get data on users' interest for key phrases and then rank you organically. That seems to make sense even for Adwords Google. :D

Does this mean SEO is dead?

No way. It's just a change in the definition of how Google organic search results will be if not are. SEO was defined by Google as a factor of quality and relevant links and now it will be defined by Google as factor of traffic may be or some other related thing I don't know.

Bing, are you also doing the same?

I never claim to be an SEO Expert and this is just my experience and feeling.

Do you have any such story to share regarding your SEO efforts?

Re: The New Definition of SEO
 

Just to add there is something called Topsy - http://topsy.com/

Which is a search engine powered by tweets.

Re: The New Definition of SEO
 

Nominate this article for Article of the month - Dec 2009

Re: The New Definition of SEO
 

Good read there. And I agree that SEO is not dead but maybe future is becoming cloudy because many webmasters trying blackhat approach for getting higher ranking position in SERP.

Re: The New Definition of SEO
 

Vote for this article for Article of the Month - December 2009

Re: The New Definition of SEO
 

I totally agree, SEO isn't dead. It's just that Google finds ways to eliminate those webmasters who are using Black Hat SEO. That's why changes are there from time to time.

Re: The New Definition of SEO
 

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Re: The New Definition of SEO
 

very interesting post for SEO community.

Re: The New Definition of SEO
 

Thanks for the comment

Re: The New Definition of SEO
 

I agree with your point of view.
I think google is going to give a more human-oriented search result.