Better read than dead: why SEO is still important

In the tech world things change quickly. In my many years within this incredible industry, I’ve seen all sorts of fads come and go and some that have stuck around. SEO is a case in point.

By Ben Dyer at SellerDeck

To understand a fad you have to look, not at the product, but at the problem; for example, the first Walkman. They were big, clunky and generally ugly devices, but they solved the problem of not being able to listen to music on the go. The Walkman has long since died out, but the solution it provided was developed and now we use our mobile phones and iPods.

I believe SEO is exactly the same. I’ve had some people tell me recently that they reckon SEO is dying out; I say they’re wrong and it could be their websites dying out if they continue to hold that belief. SEO is very much alive and as important as ever, but the industry has evolved and changed. Certain practices, like my old Walkman, have been consigned to the history books to allow creative new technologies and ideas to flourish in their place.

Why was SEO introduced?

First and foremost, you want your site to rank higher than your competitors. Not only that, but you want your site to rank for the right reasons. After all there’s no point ranking number 1 for the search term “scuba gear” if you sell chess sets.

On the other side of the coin is Google (and other search engines) attempting to give its end users the best and most relevant sites on the web, for any given search term.

So if SEO isn’t dead, what is it?

The simple answer is that it’s just a lot harder than before, but not impossible, and certainly not dead. Beverly Sills once said, “There are no shortcuts for anywhere worth going.” As far as the top of Google goes, that’s absolutely true. Certainly there used to be shortcuts, but as the industry has evolved, those shortcuts have been blocked off and become black hat.

Feel free to tell me that SEO is dead, but whilst you’re doing that, there’s probably someone working very hard to get to where you want to be.

Where next for SEO?

I firmly believe that the future of SEO lies in two areas: blogs and social networks. Both of these tools hold incredible power. Google likes keywords and fresh content and with a blog, you can achieve both of those things. Posting blogs onto your social platforms can get your site seen, read and shared onwards. The more this happens, the bigger your online presence and reputation will be; the more Google will see you as relevant.

There’s an old football cliché of, “if you don’t shoot, you don’t score”. Cliché maybe, but true nonetheless, in all walks of life. Some will still claim that SEO is dead, but I say hard work and dedication is very much alive and that is the only way to get to the top.

www.sellerdeck.co.uk