{"id":91607,"date":"2012-08-07T15:00:45","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T19:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.org\/?p=91607"},"modified":"2012-08-07T03:05:06","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T07:05:06","slug":"does-seo-really-have-only-2-more-years-to-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/does-seo-really-have-only-2-more-years-to-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Does SEO Really Have Only 2 More Years to Live?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Post<\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle is in the process of making the SEO industry obsolete, SEO will be dead in 2 years.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

– Adam Torkildson, (quoted from a recent article in Forbes Magazine)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll probably never tire of writing these blogs on how to optimize your WordPress site. However, this time, instead of telling you where I believe things are headed, I\u2019d like to bring you some news about what a recent article in Forbes Magazine said about the future of SEO.<\/p>\n

You can find the article, \u201cThe Death of SEO and the Rise of Social PR and Real Content\u201d<\/a> on the Forbes website. Yes, another article about the \u201cdeath of SEO,\u201d but you\u2019re about to discover why this one is more than a bunch of hype.<\/p>\n

Some Alarming Claims About the Future of SEO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adam Torkildson, a nationally recognized expert in SEO in the United States who was interviewed for the Forbes magazine article, said that Google is actually the company responsible for killing SEO. That\u2019s ironic considering that Google is the company who practically gave birth to SEO. But is this claim just another one of those \u201cThe sky is falling\u201d rants that we need not pay attention to?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know, but I bet if you asked the people whose sites tanked during the Google Penguin update and the introduction of Panda, they\u2019d tell you there\u2019s some truth in what Adam is saying.<\/p>\n

A lot of people were surprised when their sites went the way of the Titanic, even companies who assumed that they were doing things the right way. I also read a lot of blogs which speculated that Google might even be targeting WordPress sites since many of the sites which were penalized were built on the WordPress platform.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of WordPress blog networks were also penalized as content farms and some SEOs lost the blog networks which they once depended on to build back links for their clients.<\/p>\n

\"Post<\/p>\n

While some still speculate that Google has it \u201cin for\u201d WordPress, It think it\u2019s more likely that WordPress sites were targeted because so many solo entrepreneurs and freelancers use WordPress. Many of these one-person start ups and are still trying to apply the old rules of SEO to get their sites to the top of the search engines, and I can\u2019t blame them really.<\/p>\n

I understand it\u2019s a lot cheaper to buy hundreds of bank links than it is to hire a capable writer to consistently publish good content on your blog. But even if you\u2019re working with a shoestring budget, it\u2019s important to consider what you\u2019re asking for long term.<\/p>\n

My hope is that in reading this, you\u2019ll avoid being a part of the next \u201cGoogle weed out,\u201d by making your WordPress SEO strategies more user-focused.<\/p>\n

What Will Replace SEO When it is Gone?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay, so if SEO is going to end up \u201cpicking turnips with a step ladder\u201d just two years from now, what will replace it?<\/p>\n

Won\u2019t Google, Yahoo and MSN still need to determine which sites will rank on the first page of their search results? Of course they will, but the mathematical, formula-based approach to SEO is, and has been, outdated for some time now. These days, it\u2019s in the process of being replaced by something which is more dependable in weeding out spammy sites.<\/p>\n

That one thing is Social Media.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an excerpt from the article I read in Forbes Magazine:<\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle proved Adam right one month later (to the day) with the \u201cPenguin release\u201d that\u00a0is a code name for the algorithm that decreased search engine rankings of companies who were using schemes to artificially increase their rankings. Google decided to change the weight of their emphasis from \u201cbacklinks\u201d more towards social media likes, shares, tweets, reddits, and 1+ (Google\u2019s obvious favorite.)\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, when people first started posting the Facebook like buttons, the Twitter Retweet buttons and the Facebook share buttons on their websites, I wrote some blog posts about how these \u201csocial votes\u201d were soon going to replace back links. Now, it\u2019s happening, and Google has been saying for years that building back links is against their web master guidelines.<\/p>\n

Yet back link building is still considered to be a fundamental practice of SEO.<\/p>\n

Why is this?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because for a long time, Google had no other means of determining how socially valuable a website was. Now they do, and they\u2019re in the process of updating their algorithms to make their ranking practices more socially focused.<\/p>\n

Maybe these changes haven\u2019t trickled down to every site on the internet, but they will. In fact, I suspect that by 2014, SEO will be completely replaced by what many of us still call Social Media marketing.<\/p>\n

\"Post<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another excerpt from the article in Forbes magazine:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about social \u201cshares\u201d, and you can\u2019t fake that (easily). Now with recent policy changes, Google knows who everyone is once they open themselves up on the social realm. They will be able to tell the fake people. Facebook<\/a> already knows. Adam did a test by creating 1000 fake accounts a year ago, but today they have all been banned.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The banning of fake accounts is something we\u2019re going to see more of as Social Media takes over the world of SEO. Many SEO and reputation management companies have realized that reviews and user generated content are important for SEO, but they\u2019ve responded by creating impersonated reviews using fake social media accounts.<\/p>\n

What is Google doing about this? Just a few months ago, they started requiring anyone leaving a review on Google places to have a Google + account. I believe that this is just the beginning of Google\u2019s mission to rid the internet of phony reviews and testimonials.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another quote that I found interesting<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hardly do any of the old SEO stuff. It still brings results, but not like it used to. Google is pulling the rug out to provide better search for their audience. They are rooting out the counterfeiters. Now it must be real, valuable, content, and lots of community value and interaction.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This is where the real wisdom is about optimizing your WordPress blog. You need real, valuable content with lot of community value <\/span>and interaction. If you don\u2019t already have your WordPress site more \u201csocially optimized,\u201c I suggest you look into the following plugins, get them installed and start using them right away:<\/p>\n