Is the SEO industry over?

Sometimes, I think building back link by making other people to do that is a black hat method. That is not a natural way to get links anyway. The only thing left to do is by creating a good content. Buying a content no matter the cost is, will definitely a safer method to achieve high page rank rather than paying people to build links. In the future, I hope people will invest on a good content that value added. It is hard to take the high road indeed, but we are forced to do that right now.

Don't forget that there are people paying tens of thousands per month for SEO services, just to ensure that they will get position #1

And Google love them!

So it isn't over for sure! Every top 10 positions in the extremely competitive niches pay for their SEO and Google knows that, but they are still there! And will be there in the near future.

Paying a lot for SEO means that you are serious about your business! Paying the wrong people to do your seo may heart your SEO!

If you define off page SEO as bulk backlink building then yes, it is dead. The point is, though, that it is not just that. It may have come closer to marketing in the sense that enough exposure to your valuable-to-the-user content will eventually get you the backlink juice you need in a natural, Google friendly way.
As an example sending out a press release will help your rankings by providing exposure to your website. If your content is useful, backlinks will follow. The same goes for a PPC campaign. You will get exposure and if your content is good backlinks will follow.

With search engines still playing a massive part of the web, how the hell can SEO be over.
As long as the search engine stick around so will SEO. The way people work it might change, but it will always be a viable option to gain interest in a site.

But SEO is no more about backlinking than a list is about it's number of subscribers. Regardless of what changes come from the likes of Google business owners on mass are never likely to understand how to gain that prestigious top spot. In fact the more Google mess around and change things the more people are going to need the SEO industry IMO.

The market and industry is simply evolving, some will keep up, others will be left behind.

Do not use any SEO service that relies on any sort of link buying. Short term gain isn't worth the long term pain.

Some people who used 'reputable' SEO firms in the past are now having to send out tons of link removal requests, and in some cases abandoning sites altogether because the damage done, they deem ,to be irreparable.

My feeling is that here is what Google wants you to do. Write great content (or get someone to do it) so that its good enough to generate links to it naturally when people find the content. And then let Google take care of the rest. Any sort of SEO optimization beyond good content, a few legal on site SEO techniques, is seen as ranking manipulation.

You seem to think that all SEO firms are using underhand techniques, there are businesses out there that are reputable and completely legit in the service they offer.

Hi
There is a forum dedicated to SEO here: Adsense / PPC / SEO Discussion Forum

You haven't heard? SEO died like 2 years ago

You're 100% right.

GM, Microsoft and Amazon are SO STUPID for hiring Neil Patel for their SEO: Digital Marketing Consultant - Neil Patel.

What are they thinking? They must be run by idiots.

And TurboTax and Sony must be out of their minds to work with SingleGrain: Digital Marketing Agency | SEO, PPC, Social Media | Single Grain.

I hope for their sake they see your post and change their ways...

It's a pointless question. What's you definition of 'SEO'?

In the sense of SEO as a mechanism to accrue lots of spam links into your website through article spinning, regurgitating content, and seemingly pointless web directories then yes, of course it's over - it was always going to have its day.

However, the important thing you need to remember is that a search engine is, at the heart of it, a computer program, with lots of frailties and inaccuracies. There are trillions of pages on the internet and no single 'computer program' i.e. algorithm is EVER going to be competent enough to determine all the thousands of interlinking components which go into determining the relative "manipulativeness" of links.

SEO isn't dead, not at all - the scaremongering around sites like Interflora, BMW, or even the Google Chrome example is just that: scaremongering. It serves in Google's best interest. It's also important to note the difference between algorithmic penalties and manual reviews. The vast majority of headline penalties which have been applied (it's also worth noting all have been reviewed and revoked, at least in the case of the aforementioned examples) come from manual reviews - do you really believe that Google has the resources or manpower to police trillions of pages of content, never mind the processing power or even a modicum of an idea about how to determine the true value of each and every link on the web? OF COURSE NOT.

Google is not all-seeing, despite what they may claim to be - for me, it's even more of a wild west opportunity now than it ever has been. The people who really don't know what to do are all clinging trying to find the best possible options to maintain scalable link building tactics.

It's also important to note that no one single link building mechanism will ever be 'dead' - look at directory submissions, I could name off the top of my head at least 15 web directories which 'still work' very well for injecting authority into a site i.e. business.com, botw.org.uk, JoeAnt.com, GoGuides.org and so on. They are authoritative links.

There's also a MASSIVE difference between competing for generic search terms and working to increase overall visibility across thousands of keywords i.e. long-tail optimisation. Competing for generic terms demands that you increase the level of risk - you have to start pushing into the realms of exact match anchor text and paid links, SIMPLY to compete. Search for any top 10 generic search term which drives over 1,000 searches per month and you will see the same thing - the vast majority of the websites have manipulative link profiles. Why have they not been detected? Well, in most instances I would put it down to link absorption: their links profiles are so extensive that any manipulative activity which takes place will simply be absorbed by the more natural links pointing into their website.

That there is the difference - SEO should be taken on a case by case basis. If you were starting afresh with a new domain today, I would say first of all disregard PageRank and any other mechanism you've been educated to believe works, and rather focus on building tons of content (all unique, all keyword targeted) and equally importantly, AUTHORITATIVE links into your website (from lots of unique domains).

Last point, blog networks etc do still work - I own one, it's very private; due to my reputation in certain parts of the UK, large agencies outsource some of their link building to use through the network. Why does it work? Because it's private and more importantly because, mechanically, there's absolutely nothing in there which would appear manipulative i.e. no interlinking between domains, all domains are not only on unique class C IPs but also on individual shared hosting accounts across multiple hosts, no print i.e. analytics/adsense and so on. Some of the domains haven't even retained PageRank but again, who cares? What's more important is that the sites have links from from Guardian.co.uk, Nasa.gov etc, and that the network isn't publicly accessible.

SEO is far from dead - the difference is now, you just need to know what you're doing.

I have really bad experience with other that are saying are professional seo experts. On of them hurt my websites with comment blogs in India, and i was in 6 position with very strong keywords, and after this i can't get the keyword back with over 3 month of hard work. I don't know how to call this kind of guys. Just be careaful, and if you want to do good things, you need to do it yourself remember

It's completely over. Might as well jump off a bridge?

This is not the stupidest thread I have ever seen.

But it is pretty close.

So my last site that I outsourced SEO to, which all the content was done PRIOR to ordering the SEO, and is still ranking today after SEO was shut off... I guess that was just an accident? lol.

You have to be kidding me.

SEO is not dead. Its the furthest thing from dead. In fact, it will only start working better the harder that google makes it. Because it will weed out all the people who either -

1) Have no idea how to do SEO.
2) Have no idea how to research a provider who is great at SEO.

So I prefer that people think its dead. Go blow your money on adwords instead.

Definitely not dead, just always changing like life around you. Our firm completely focuses on doing things that earn natural links...it does work folks Real companies have plenty of legit ways of earning links these days.

I'm actually never surprised to see these threads anymore. If you have been fairly active from 2012-2013 you would have noticed about "SEO is DEAD" threads posted about everyday and about 4-7 of them at that. All saying the EXACT same thing as the last one. It does get very very old to read. But now a days i just sip my coffee and chuckle abit.

Fact of the matter is most SEO firms will use less than stellar techniques to rank you fast as possible. Either train your own people or take your SEO in your own hands.

If SEO industry would have been over... You wouldn't be able to post here:rolleyes:

Lot of words for something so simple.

Real SEO is not. It will be here for 10+ years easily. Maybe beyond that.

Only the myths and shenanigans are, which is why some people think it's "dead".
- Google is lying to you, conspiracies, etc -- all myth.
- "SEO" hosting (IP based) is myth
- Spamming with "blog networks" leads nowhere

If people would focus on things others want and need, and SEO that, we'd have none of these silly discussions.

As it stands, some still believe in the malarkey. For some, it's a religion.

SEO is dead, no pages rank #1 in organic SERPs.

Even if SEO was completely dead - people in this forum would be the last too recognize it

It's nowhere near dead. Buying 1000 backlinks from Fiverr & hoping to get to Page 1 =/= Blind SEO