Future of SEO (may-08)

1. On-site
2. The way SEO used to be
3. How SEO is changing
4. What should I do?
5. Do we still need an SEO?

On-Site SEO

This is the first thing most websites should do and I don’t see any massive change happening here. Every website still needs “unique”, “interesting” and “well written” content which is rich in the right “keywords”. Of course your site should also have a relative “Title” and “Meta Description”. Other things like Domain name, filenames etc are also still important. I won’t go on, my point is I don’t see any massive change in this.

The way SEO used to be

To date SEO use to be a very easy thing to conquer by either link baiting or link buying, depending on whether your Black or White Hat. This would massively manipulate the Search Results providing it was done well and with the correct anchor text. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this doesn’t work anymore. I’m just saying I see it becoming less and less important in the future.

How SEO is Changing

So now your wondering why? Well the reason its changing is of course to provide more relative results and reduce web spam. The importants of backlinks is being reduced and of course other things are picking up the slack. These are:

• RSS Subscriptions: Google recently purchased the website Feedburner, which holds the largest market share in RSS Syndication/Subscription tracking etc. Google also placed a patent on the idea of ranking websites in Search Engine Result Pages based on the amount of RSS Subscribers. This was their first very clever move.
• Digg & other content voting sites are also being used to rank content. A site with more Diggs or the equivalent will get a boost in the Search Results Pages.
• The nofollow is still being counted as links to your site. Specifing the relationship in your Hyperlinks is what Google wants you to do, so do it! Your only helping yourself.
• Data is being taken from Analytics and the Google Toolbar.

This really is just a few of many changes that are being made.

What should I do?

Go with the flow! Sign up with feedburner, that using the rel=”" tag, start digging. Providing your site is good, you’ll stay at the top of the SERP’s.

Do we still need an SEO?

Of course! There is potential to manipulate absolutely everything I’ve written above and link are still very* important. Whilst the importance of inbound links is gradually being reduced they are still vital and will remain to be for the foreseeable future.

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."