Good assessment of why SEO is basically DEAD

[JMOT]

So given the EMD update & the other update at the same time Google isnt giving details on + the new updated webmasterguidelines that basically state if you fart in the direction of links you are violating their terms does anyone else think SEO is still really alive??

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/google-webmaster-guidelines-updated.html

 

[chippyb]

I dont think I read the same webmasters as you as im sure it should you can still have links as long as they are good and related to your site

 

[marketingmagic]

It is what SEO become that's the problem. In reality it's backlinks that has changed. Those very things people were begging for, cheating for, lying for, automating tools for and basically underpinning the sites success for.

.

Google has created a monster called links and it doesn't know how to fix it any more.
And in reality and sadly - they do not want to try...


Read this . Larry and Sergei don't want SEO, they want you to pay themf for clicks. the more they can shake out of the boat, the more people have to pay them.

http://www.100kblueprint.com/2012/08/seo-is-theft-seo-is-dead/

 

[lethal0r]

the google update(s) could easily take another week to settle. it may turn out that the fallout is not anywhere near as bad.

im not worrying just yet, although I am making contingency plans if I need to take action later in the month.

SEO isn't dead, we just need to be much more selective about marketing and link development.

 

[vizzo]

Of course SEO is not dead.
Traditional seo may be.
See this thread for next gen seo
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4503834-2-30.htm

 

[Ashton]

SEO is never going to die. You evolve or your sites die.

Sure, maybe they will completely destroy link building, but SEO is so generic it covers all sorts - What about creating an online buzz with a sensation article? What about link bait? What about on page optimisation? etc etc etc...

SEO will never die, the phrase 'seo is dead' is a non-starter

A better title could be 'Is SEO as we know it dead?' or 'Are current accepted SEO methods totally out of date?'

 

[dashu1]

Of course SEO is dead - or at least it will be before long.

Larry Page has said he views free organic clicks as theft, they think you should pay Google for every click you get.

It's like advertising - if you want an ad in the paper you have to pay, if you want an ad on the radio or telly you have to pay, however you want to get your business in front of customers you have to pay.

Google is just another platform to connect customers with businesses, and if you want Google to put you in front of customers you're gonna have to pay.

All they need to do is keep inflating the ad space, the you tube results, the image results, etc on the 1st page and there won't be any organic results left on there.

So ironically really generics and EMDs will become more valuable if you want to drive people to your website, since it'll have to be something they can remember.

 

[mojoco]

Typically when searching for products online my assumption is that the majority of buyers are looking for the cheapest option.

Brands tend to be expensive.

If Google is pushing brands to the top of search results, searchers in many cases are not getting what are they are looking for.

 

[max99x]

So ironically really generics and EMDs will become more valuable if you want to drive people to your website, since it'll have to be something they can remember.

Great point!

I do believe that it'll be in next few years where 90% of google searches result in paid clicks rather than organic, then everyone will have to ppc!

 

[thecat]

yandex?

 

[JMOT]

Sooo... in the last 7 days we've had a panda update, a new EMD filter and today a penguin update and people believe...still... that SEO isnt dead??

There is evidence all over the shop that SEO is becoming more and more obsolete:

http://searchengineland.com/organic-click-thru-rates-tumbling-study-97338

http://www.wordstream.com/articles/google-ads

I dont know why I bother banging on about this tbh. What Google is doing is massively raising the barrier to entry for new businesses online. No longer in reality can you chuck up a small crappy site, put relevant content on it, put some ads, make money, grow, re-invest, grow...turn into something bigger... which is how nearly everyone who made a lot of money over the last 10 years started out!

You now have to start out having the cash to pay for clicks because forget about doing that with SEO now as 1) you get less and less CTR from it and 2) Google is playing silly buggers with the algo's so much now that if SEO/Free is your only way to get something off the ground then you are basically buggered.

Unless of course you have something genuinely brilliant that everyone goes WOOOOOW at and you start getting loads of natural links and word of mouth/social etc....Good luck.

There are winners and losers to every update. The only consistent winner is the house. Google.

 

[murph]

^^ agreed

 

[mally]

Should be government action to allow fairness, google have a massive monopoly, something which Europe dislike

 

[Marcoose]

No longer in reality can you chuck up a small crappy site, put relevant content on it, put some ads, make money, grow, re-invest, grow...turn into something bigger... which is how nearly everyone who made a lot of money over the last 10 years started out!

Then don't build a small crappy site?

I do agree though in that I wouldn't want to just be getting into the game now.

 

[thecat]

Should be government action to allow fairness, google have a massive monopoly, something which Europe dislike

This is self defeating though and impossible to control.

 

[vizzo]

This is self defeating though and impossible to control.

It may not be the government but the European Union who take action.

Just stopping one company getting too big may not be possible.
However there are areas that could be looked at, such as the way Google promote their own services, that search embedded into android is google by default, that they put their own service as an "advert" for price comparison, the personal information they hold for "searchers" who are signed into their services.

 

[tifosi]

Agreed. Google are getting very close to the anti-competitive rules that the EU for all its faults do crack down on. Microsoft found that out with IE & Windows. If Google carry down the route of their products taking up primacy in search then the EU will act. A matter of time I think.

 

[cc976a]

This is always going to a 'chasing your tail' situation.

SEOers and Internet marketers have - of bloody course - been learning about ways to get to the top of Google.

- Google ranked sites in the early days with meta and title tags. Everyone followed, became abused, so removed.

- Then it was backlinks quantity. Again backlink quantity was removed and replaced with quality

- Then 'content is king' was the buzz term and people saw the ranking sites were regularly updated with articles and info. So everyone followed suit - guess what, now with the latest Panda update it's been penalized (people only added the damn content in the first place because it was what Google used to rank sites on - no poor sap wanted to become an article churner)

Soon, when this settles down, the next big buzzword will happen - and will all start again......

Personally I'm not giving up on SEO, BUT I will only build something where I can earn recurring fees from customers or can build a marketing distribution list. At least this way if G drops the site quicker than a bag of spuds off the Empire State Building - I will still have an audience, a market and would have been built up a lot cheaper than PPC

There will still be ways. Use them, abuse them and play the system. Gloves are off now, no more Mr Nice 'Squeaky Clean' Guy

 

[murph]

They have effectively declared war on the entire webmaster community, except brands. It seems like they've reached the "milking the cow" stage of their G product lifecycle. Perhaps the threat of bigger sites such as Twitter and Facebook means they need to cash in fast??

 

[thecat]

It may not be the government but the European Union who take action.

Just stopping one company getting too big may not be possible.
However there are areas that could be looked at, such as the way Google promote their own services, that search embedded into android is google by default, that they put their own service as an "advert" for price comparison, the personal information they hold for "searchers" who are signed into their services.

So it wont affect the serps and rules.