| Does SEO Have a Future? |
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Since its inception, the SEO industry has been going through turbulence like a flight amidst bad weather. Although it's too early to speculate about its safe landing, the future certainly remains a focus of debate and concern. Why?
Due to the increase of consultants and proven companies, the newbies and an ever-growing competition for survival have introduced certain loopholes that seem to spoil the party. With the advent of outsourcing, clients in the west are looking to save their bucks by hiring amateur SEO professionals that misquote peanuts for a job requiring time and good investment. Using black hat strategies, these so-called Professional SEO specialists are finding shortcuts to get the pages on top ranking. How long can they continue these practices? No one knows! Though a novice might be unaware of these strategies, most clients in the industry are aware of the automated tools and black hat techniques that fetch false, short-term results. These practices sometimes lead to the site/page being banned - or "sandboxed", as they say -, which is very damaging. With several other internet marketing solutions doing well, chances of the SEO industry doing well is bleak. Clients expect a return on their investments and don't need a collection or stockpile of links and articles anymore. While they understand page rank matters, it is search engine positioning that makes an ultimate difference at end of the day. Realizing that corporate companies can invest huge amounts of money for maintaining their position, small business owners are now looking towards using other marketing solutions, such as social bookmarking and other techniques, which bring them desired results. The odds against SEO doing well are comparatively less than the odds against its downfall. Many industrial experts believe it's a matter of time before clients stop bothering about SEO and start looking for more lucrative and result oriented strategies. Given that SEO happens to be more of a pull strategy, it wouldn't be a bad idea if the marketing professionals opt for push strategies, thereby targeting and reaching potential customers without having to wait for them to search. A number of the popular push strategies are lead generation through telemarketing, targeted email campaigns, newsletters, sales pages, press releases, articles, blogs and referrals. SEO's future is certainly in a precarious situation, and unless the clients and providers take some hard-hitting measures, its downfall is just a matter of time. |
