What Does The Future of SEO Really Look Like?

We keep hearing that “SEO is dead” or “SEO is dying”… but do you really believe it? Obviously there are big benefits to getting on the front page of Google search results (or other search engines, let’s not forget them) but—let’s face it. SEO is not simple. It might even be taking up too much of your time, money and energy to maintain placement in the search engines.

Now SEO is not dead. It is not dying. But you’re asking the wrong question. A better one will be:

How should I maintain a strong online presence for my brand in the future?

The answer is personal. You must adapt to the technology and needs of your audience. You must find out-of-the-box ways to stand out in your industry. You must define a voice for your brand that will build relationships with people who love your product or service and your brand.

It’s not a question of “SEO vs. Social” and please stop asking how you can make something go viral. You can’t!

What you can do is provide superior customer service. Go above and beyond to make each interaction a pleasant and memorable experience. You can base your blog around getting subscribers and shares instead, so scrap those keyword-focused topics.

Here’s the thing… SEO is becoming social. That’s not going to change. So the process of using keywords to optimize for search engine traffic may continue to fizzle out, but the concept of using great content will never die. Building quality backlinks manually may work, but it’s not as powerful as when those backlinks build themselves… so publish content that people want to share.

No, you should never stop measuring analytics because that’s how you find out what works and what doesn’t. What you should stop doing is the things that aren’t working.