Noma Hey guys, I Hope you are all doing well. I would like to discuss the following issues with you; 1. Google is taking more and more of the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) spots for themself's. For each spot that Google takes they increase the competition and steal visitors from our sites. 2. Significantly more of the searches will be made from voice devices which have almost no benefit for the site owners. 3. Google is also getting increasingly better at understanding which pages to rank for which queries, so businesses in the near future will have much less need for SEO experts to help them rank. 4. SEO tools using Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon become good enough to do most of the SEO stuff automatic and enable anyone to optimize their sites. 5. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become very good at understanding language and be able to generate human level content on autopilot, if not already here. 6. Almost anybody who takes a couple of online courses can do what most SEO users can do. All the strategies and methods are out in the open and they don't require anything special to apply. What most of us know and can do within Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can basically be learned by anyone within a couple of months, it's not complicated stuff. There are a lot of courses enabling people to do that. 7. Not even the best SEO experts in the world knows how Google really ranks sites, they might know a few of the factors. The rest are just theories, correlations and guessing. On top of this, Google randomly changes their algorithms whenever they want so what works today might not work tomorrow. The reality is that you could be spending years on building a site but it could be worth nothing at any random moment, without you even knowing what went wrong so you can fix it. I am worried that many of us in business will face huge challenges and competition, to the point that it would not be worth it anymore. So, Is working with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and investing our future in it a bad decision? Why not? Do you think that SEO will almost become obsolete as a business within the next 5 years? Why not? Have I missed something? What thoughts do you have about all this? 11 ππ½4 π€15 27 π¬π¨π°π
Keshwala Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is just one of the marketing channels. You need to diversify. Ford cars have TV adverts, would they say tv advertising is become obsolete because their competitors are also advertising? You either evolve in SEO or see your competitors overtake you Glen Allsopp π These topics come up all of time. We literally had a post about this in the last three days. I respect you for asking, but you're going to get very biased answers here π There are a lot of fundamentals that never change. Companies with dozens of in-house SEO users still miss a lot of issues. Someone is always more determined than you so there's work to be done etc etc. So here's a different approach… "Is working with SEO and investing our future in it a bad decision? Why not?" I think for your situation, without any offense intended…probably. You're not going to go very far on something if you have doubts like this from the start, so focus on what you are interested in and more confident about already. You'll get the best results with that. There are no guarantees about anything in life. One day you can advertise CBD or Cryptocurrency products on Facebook, driving all your sales. One day you can't. One day Facebook give pages a ton of reach. One day they get next to nothing and Groups take over. One day all your YouTube videos are monetised. One day they aren't. One day iTunes has you as a top 10 podcast in your category, sending you thousands of extra subscribers each week. A few months later, 10 huge brands see the potential with podcasts and launch their own. You never get featured by Apple in the same way again. There are highs and lows with any area of business, especially when it comes to traffic generation. For now, and the foreseeable future, search engine rankings are going to drive billions of clicks to websites. You can try and get some of it yourself for as long as the opportunity is there, or you can focus on something else. Nothing in life is guaranteed, so we're all just here for the ride while it's an incredibly opportunity as it is. πππ½48
Noma βοΈ Glen Allsopp thanks for your comment and no offense taken. I am not just starting out, I have been doing it for some years. Andre Well said, Glen Allsopp
Stuart Point 6 is hilarious! There's Google employing the best and brightest computer science, linguistic and Artificial Intelligence (AI) people in the world, but to understand what they are building and how to work within it takes just a couple of online courses. That's like saying that billions of people can drive a car, so being an F1 driver is just a couple of weeks of extra practice. Yeah right π
Piller SEO is as hard as driving F1 cars" said the worried SEO π€ππ½3 Stuart Good point. Well made. In the most competitive markets, you could make a case though. Certainly some of the markets I'm in are a looooooong way from a beginner. But if the OP needs to rank for "24h plumber wolverhampton", then yes, you are quite right. Piller Sure, I was joking π I think this can be said about many professions, I am a programmer myself and I am sure most people could learn the basics of programming in just a few weeks or even days. But getting good at it takes years of practice. Noma βοΈ Β» Stuart I personally know many people who have learned it from online courses and built successful business after. Paul Β» Stuart I would suggest that learning the core principles of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is indeed not that hard. However, effectively and consistently executing on a body of knowledge and set of processes is very hard.οΏΌ Add to this the moving target point also madeβ¦ A course at best will help you know something about the history and the now, and οΏΌa good course will teach how to observe and adapt into the future. But how many people continue to evolve and adapt? Learning and knowing is essential but execution wins the race. Which brings me to the last pointβ¦ As in many fields, sometimes the most commercially successful SEO users are not the best at SEO.οΏΌ unfortunately… Stuart All very true. Building a site isn't so hard, but building and growing 5, 10 ,15 is much, much, much more difficult – especially in multiple niches and/or languages.
Benji Search Engine Optimization (SEO) does not cover everything. I always tell my clients that they need to explore other marketing channels such as offline marketing, trade shows, print etc. Optimisation alone is not enough. In regards to Artificial Intelligence (AI)… It's a shortcut. In the past, Google have systematically cut off and penalised shortcuts. Mass link buying, blog networks, advertorials… Every time there is a short cut, Google finds it and punishes it. Same as spammy pages or content. No computer or AI will ultimately replace humans for creativity and relevance. Eventually, Google's algorithm will understand the difference between original content and AI generated content and that will be penalised. I've worked in SEO since 2012 and been freelance since 2016… What I've noticed is agencies are now looking to find freelancers who know their stuff and work with them rather than take on full time members of staff. We work for the duration necessary and don't demand holiday pay, days off or sick days because it's our own business. We cost less and know more than someone who blags a job and turns out to not know what they are doing. Any decent SEO needs a lot of disciplines to to get the job done and AI cannot replace us… But we do need to work alongside some very decent software like Moz, Google analytics, Google search console, SEM rush etc as well as being proficient in a variety of platforms from custom sites to WordPress, Wix, e-commerce platforms etc. So whilst you have genuine concerns about change, the basic rules remain the same: create high quality content for humans and optimise it to appeal to search engines… It's stacked so you can't have ALL the rankings so you pick your fights and go for different terms (maybe longer tail terms) that bring relavant traffic and allow you to make sales or get enquiries. Machines cannot replace us for all the things we should be doing and clients should be expactation managed before you take them on or not taken on at all if they are unrealistic. The biggest problem in our industry is not from AI but from other SEO 'experts' who promise the world to win a client but deliver nothing and give all SEO professionals a bad name. Noma βοΈ Thanks for all your comments π And I didn't intend to disrespect the profession with nr 6. Doron Folks have been saying SEO is dead for a few years now. The demand for SEO personal has only grown over that time. So if any, Investing in SEO is and will be the channel with the best Return of Investment (RoI). This will still be true 5 years from now. Owais You said Google is occupying more positions don't you see an opportunity there? like if keyword has both the featured snippet and Q/A you still have chance to write better answers and occupy that position. Regarding SEO being getting obsolete you see now newer opportunites opening up in the form of fb groups, tiktok and etc. So, it's just the matter of keeping your eyes open and seizing on every opportunity that come up your way.
Noma βοΈ No, because people don't need to enter my site when Google takes the answer from my pages and provides it on their own page. Owais Elias Nomani Many of the times a user has to click the site in the features snippets because Google shows only a part of the answer. Allen I actually get traffic from my rich snippets. It almost acts like a teaser for them. They get an initial answer to their question, but want more info so they click my link. Just my experience.
Raju web development is going to be overtaken by Artificial Intelligence (AI) even sophesticated surgury will be overtaken by AI teaching profession will be overtaken by AI AI now can draw better than human now it means we need to do suicide now let whatever takesover anything till the time we live on earth we need to work and we are working on what we love that's it forget will AI take things up or not ππ this is what i feel as a human being no.excuse to work and work what you are good at enough.
