[Webpro] Is SEO dead?

[chris]

I think of SEO as having 2 distinct functions: 

1. Coding: much of SEO is optimizing the code, page logic, using client-side
scripting properly, moving client side scripting to server side, web
standards etc.

2. Content, of course, is still king. However, I also think that content
editors will eventually have to learn more about the technical side of
content - which is structured content (e.g. RSS). Since metatags did not
work to provide relevant content, the semantic web direction is to convey
relevancy partially via structure. And before you snort at the semantic web,
keep in mind that Google houses a semantic web research lab.

SEO will never be dead as long as we rely upon search engines to find
information. Search engines exist to provide relevant information to
searchers, so really SEO is all about how to tell a search engine what the
website is about. We don't get to explicitly tell search engines what we're
all about (good idea, but since metatags were abused, most search engines
ignore metadata) so we have to provide good breadcrumb trails in the
content.  

I think the trick is to stop trying to analyze the algorithms - google uses
over 100 algorithms to assess content relevancy and changes, adds, drops
algorithms often. If you think you're going to figure out how all those
algorithms interact then keep in mind that's a permutation of 10,000.
google exists to provide relevant search results to searchers. plain and
simple. so SEO should be all about optimizing a web page to be relevant to
some intended topic and making it as easy as possible for a search engine
bot to navigate. It's that simple. Who cares about the algorithms or how/if
they change? It's as much in search engine's best interests to return
relevant results as it is in yours to be one of those relevant results.

hth
-chris
http://www.semioticpixels.com