For the last several years we’ve been seeing news stories and blog posts about SEO being dead.   The common lines of thought pointed to SEOs (search engine optimizers) not getting enough clients due to the wealth of reliable SEO information and SEO tools available today and even that search engines’ ranking algorithms would take on a whole new dynamic, essentially limiting or outright nulling the effects of the tactics and popular methods used to increase a website’s standing with the major search engines that have been working for years.

Well, this common theme has been revived once again by ShoeMoney in his post titled “SEO has no future” .  He goes on to state some interesting observations, most notably:

“…From my experiences I am seeing Google SERPS results strongly influenced by Google Toolbar data, Google User history, and Google Analytics data. Google’s combination of SEO and social voting via toolbar/history/analytics will continue to sway more in the realm of social voting… I don’t think anyone can argue that core SEO has gotten less valuable over the years and I see that trend continuing”

So – according to ShoeMoney, the effects of “core SEO” has become less valuable over time.  To be honest – anybody who has been in the game for a few years certainly should have noticed the changes to the playing field; certain SEO and marketing tactics that were sure-fire winners for shooting your website to the top of the SERPs even two years ago have noticeably less effect in-and-of-themselves today.

Now – there are those who state that SEO is anything but dead, citing that there is a real and continuing need for the type of work that a SEO performs.   But – just because there’s likely always going to be a need for the services that a SEO offers doesn’t mean that search engines won’t change the way they rank websites to exclude or limit the effectiveness of some of these formerly important elements from their ranking algorithms. 

The truth of the matter is that some of the methods that website owners have used in the past to increase their website’s rankings in search engines are becoming less effective today.  Whether that means that the need for what we know as SEO today is on the decline, or that we’ll soon have to figure out new ways to stay ahead of the game - only time will tell.