As the search engine algorithms get increasingly difficult to predict and Google especially is focused on giving the most accurate search data to users searching, I wonder if the future of SEO and website ranking manipulation is slowly dying. As an SEO specialist I continually find many parts of search engine optimization getting increasingly difficult, also I find any websites I have that rank well and have done for many years are at the mercy of the next search engine update.
Long term I believe that search engine optimization has a future, but I think that many aspects of search engine optimization are being made redundant. I think this because I find myself seeing sites that break fundamental SEO rules but still manage to rank against the odds. For example, duplicate content was a sure fire way to get your site penalized in the Google listings, yet now I find many of my new clients coming to me with massive volumes of duplicate content and sometimes duplicate sites. But they still have respectable rankings. Historically you would not have seen this.
Another example I see regularly, are sites that rank exceptionally well but do not have a large volume of external links, as all SEO specialists know links are the life and soul of SEO especially in Google. So why are sites ranking in key positions without them? Many would argue that sits with a unique focus deserve their rankings and I would agree whole heatedly, but the sites we see are standard e-commerce sites that are everywhere, so why so much SEO power?
As an experienced SEO practitioner I am not about to hang up my hat, but I do see a lot of inconsistency in the way some sites are ranked, especially in Google. I think its great that everyone has a chance to rank and get a little bit of traffic, but when optimized sites and great unique sites suffer against poor quality brand new website, I worry what the future of the a search engine results and relevance to the search term.
-By: Xavier Diaz
The author Xavier Diaz is a professional search engine optimization specialist. He works at SEO Birmingham and has a large volume of search engine optimization clients.
