Is SEO Dying? You Bet!

lisa · #1 (**permalink**) 06-12-2007, 04:38 PM

Ken Evoy, President of SiteSell has been saying it forever and got blasted for his comments "SEO is dead" comments he made two years ago. As I'm sure most of you know, good search engine rankings are being defined more and more by your visitors and less by your on-page criteria.

Great read...

http://blog.sitesell.com/sitesell/20..._to_say_i.html

webdev · #2 (**permalink**) 06-12-2007, 06:54 PM

I totally agree. As i building my php site im only following the conventional seo rules like using meta tags and such...rest is all content.
I didn't even worry about using specific keywords...i just wrote without worrying to optimize for certain keywords. Google seems to list your new pages high in their index at first and waits for how visitors see your page, if they like your site and stay on it, google maintains your ranking else it drops.
I'm also noticing the same thing with my php site.
Seems like Alexa rankings also depended on how many visitors your get.

Shaun Connell · #3 (**permalink**) 06-12-2007, 07:14 PM

So considering this, I shouldn't have to worry about saying "gun control" repeatedly, and just let my visitors do the rest?

Also, how could google see how people like my page? I barely even know how to do that!

max · #4 (**permalink**) 06-12-2007, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaun Connell

So considering this, I shouldn't have to worry about saying "gun control" repeatedly, and just let my visitors do the rest?

Also, how could google see how people like my page? I barely even know how to do that!

Exactly. You would write your pages like you talk. Obviously if your page is about gun control you're going to mention it more than other phrases but you wouldn't overdo it and mention it at the beginning of every sentence or to the point it sounds awkward or redundant. Of course use your meta tags and mention it once in all the important tags but the days of counting how many times you should use it and measuring keyword density are over.

Google can tell by 2 things...

1) How long people stay on your site for certain keywords. (This is after you are ranked of course)

2) How many other high-quality "gun control" related sites are linking to you.

lisa · #5 (**permalink**) 06-12-2007, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webdev

Seems like Alexa rankings also depended on how many visitors your get.

Yep, you got it and Google doesn't really care about that number from what I've seen.

Max, you hit the nail on the head. The amount of time people spend on your site is so key and getting to be more and more important. So if someone types in "blue widgets" in Google and you are ranked #5 but people stay on your site for an average of 10 minutes vs. 3 minutes for the sites above you... pretty soon Google is going to move you up.

They can measure the amount of time someone clicks from their results onto your site and how long before the person exits and comes back to the Google results.

So having a very deep, thorough and useful site for your niche is very important. And of course get those inbound links from related sites. (Preferably reputable sites)

ppcFanatic · #6 (**permalink**) 06-12-2007, 08:23 PM

Just read the SiteSell blog...wow. Ken gets a lot of flack out here because he is very self promotional but he was spot on with that prediction. I was in a forum the other day where these SEOers were arguing about keyword density and number of links. Folks are still busy trying to figure out the magic algorithm that is soon to be non-existent.

Well, I take that back... the algorithm will always exist, but it will be based on the visitors say as others have already said. All I have to say is it's about time. I can't wait till all the worthless and MFA (made for Adsense) sites are gone for good.

Shaun Connell · #7 (**permalink**) 06-12-2007, 08:37 PM

Wow, that's pretty interesting. I sensed that /something/ was changing with Google because, as a researcher, I often will hit the "Google Cache" of pages while google searching, just to find the keywords in the long scholarly articles faster. I noticed that often there would be far fewer keywords in the first result (though the result would be much higher quality) than there would be in the lower results.

That explains it.

Hehe, he is self-promotional, but then again -- if you owned SBI! wouldn't you be too?

:P

HaroldP · #8 (**permalink**) 06-12-2007, 10:23 PM

I think this is good news for people who are really working hard to create useful sites but bad news for people looking to get rich quick with Adsense, etc.

webdev · #9 (**permalink**) 06-13-2007, 08:19 AM

Quote:

I was in a forum the other day where these SEOers were arguing about keyword density and number of links.

I don't even bother going to these forums anymore. Most of the people on these forums are just there in hopes that someone will give the magic formula to get site #1 in google.

Quote:

I sensed that /something/ was changing with Google

It makes sense that websites that are valuable to the visitors should be credited with higher ranks not the ones which use black-hat or white-hat techniques to fool the search engine.

ppcFanatic · #10 (**permalink**) 06-13-2007, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webdev

I don't even bother going to these forums anymore. Most of the people on these forums are just there in hopes that someone will give the magic formula to get site #1 in google.

Yeah I try to warn these guys and they just keep flaming me saying I don't know what I'm talking about yet their sites continue to lose their ranks. I actually think it's rather amusing. They could be using that time to write articles for ezinearticles rather than trying to figure out keyword density, etc.

max · #11 (**permalink**) 06-17-2007, 09:18 PM

I personally think it's awesome that traditional SEO is dying. Say bye bye to all these worthless MFA sites and it will really help those who are really working hard to build content-rich websites that are of use to people as Harold said.

GreenThumb · #12 (**permalink**) 06-23-2007, 03:40 PM

Well this is what I keep wondering. If the search engines are using more and more off-page factors like inbound links and how long people stay on your site, what is going to happen to all these SEO companies who claim to boost your ranking and optimize your site. Won't they become obsolete after awhile? Submitting is not enough anymore and it's not just about adding those meta tags. Starting to seem like a rip-off if you ask me.

ppcFanatic · #13 (**permalink**) 06-24-2007, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenThumb

Well this is what I keep wondering. If the search engines are using more and more off-page factors like inbound links and how long people stay on your site, what is going to happen to all these SEO companies who claim to boost your ranking and optimize your site. Won't they become obsolete after awhile? Submitting is not enough anymore and it's not just about adding those meta tags. Starting to seem like a rip-off if you ask me.

Yes, it's interesting how many of these companies are changing their focus when they describe what they do. It used to be they would guarantee better rankings but now they just focus on making your pages search engine ready (in other words, the rest is up to you.)

Lajocar · #14 (**permalink**) 07-02-2007, 06:37 AM

I dont agree with SEO is dead.

I believe that SEO still has a major role to play in the search engine landscape.

I know Google is coming with universial search, but it is still very simple to get rank in the top 10 in Google SERPs in search and images. If movie clips get added, this will also be simple to rank high.

Yahoo and MSN is also simple to rank high.

SEO is definitely not DEAD!

Savit · #15 (**permalink**) 03-05-2008, 02:02 AM

I think finally Google has found an Algorithm which cannot be cheated that easily. As the ranking of a site will be decided by the time visitors spent on your site. It will be good time to start providing useful information and things which help increase the visitor time on your site.

But again, will this be like the average time spent by a visitor or it will be the average time spent by a visitor per keyword. Like say my average visitor time is 2.06 minutes but for for the keyword "outsource seo project mumbai" its around 20 minutes although i have just received 1 visitor in last month for this keywords.

So does having a single visitor who stays for 20 minutes help me to rank better for other keywords as well ?

All replies and suggestions appreciated.

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