Does SEO still matter?
Remember the early days of the Web? Everyone was using an Internet service provider that promised unique content along with your dial-up connection. Most of those companies are gone now, though AOL is still plugging along — albeit with the rest of the Internet giggling behind its back.
But what if AOL was really just ahead of its time?
Over time we all migrated from these online gated-communities and started using search engines to help us find everything we needed. The Web got bigger and more complicated and soon it became impossible to get anything done without leaning on a search engine like Google or a service like SmartBrief to get you were you need to go.
People are always better at finding interesting content than machines. So when social networks came along, we started using them to find content and now Chris Dannen is arguing that they’re pushing search engines into obsolescence. Facebook and Twitter are just some of the sites Dannen dubs “content silos,” arguing that these hub sites will dominate the scene in 2010, while search engines will fall into decline.
I still think general interest social networks are too broad to replace a search engine. Facebook is great for finding nice-to-know content, but not so hot for when I need to know something. If social networks became more specialized, however, and I could go to one network for political information and another for music news, etc. — that could really put a hole in Google’s hull. But that also means businesses that spent the last five years figuring out how to game Google need to go back and decipher the mysteries of the content silo all over again.
Do search engines still matter? Are content silos just hype? Anybody out there still using AOL?
Image credit, spxChrome, via iStock
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Posted by Saurav on December 30th, 2009 at 11:30 am
The answer is “YES”. I still believe that SEO can be one of the most well used tool for “Advertising” and kick starting your social media campaign!!!
Posted by Sasha Gitin on December 30th, 2009 at 11:49 am
I am sure Google will be just fine. Google is going to be the king for years to come. While i find fascinating things on twitter it will never replace Google when it comes to search. Search engines are for search and social media is for socializing. When it come to advertising Google shows ads that visitor is looking for at that moment. While social media is showing content/ads that might be of your interest. The hype about social media taking over search engines is not based on any statistics. I would like to see the authors of these articles to show me stats that show that number of searches in Google is in decline. Is google loosing advertising revenue? Common give me a break!
Posted by Does SEO still matter? | The Perfect Storm Team on December 30th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
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Posted by Jesse Stanchak on December 30th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Sasha — Chris Dannen’s argument (which kick started this post) is based partly on observations about what Google has been up to over the last few months — bending over backwards to keep content producers happy and working social content into search results. Those aren’t the kinds of things that a company does unless it feels the facts on the ground are starting to change.
For the record, I’m not saying SEO will cease to be relevant at the stroke of midnight. But I have to agree with Dannen that the rules are changing. Even if SEO endures forever, its not going to be as big a deal as it has been and the methods for making your content appear high up on the search results are going to shift. One way or another, we’re all going back to school.
Posted by Jack Roberts on December 30th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
SEO is very much alive. The social sites have their purpose and offer additional exposure opportunities. However the power of Google is staggering. Maintaining Top Five Organic Rankings in Google on keywords that actually matter remains the lifeblood in today’s new media world.
Posted by Search Engine Marketing Now » SmartBlog On Social Media » Does SEO still matter? on December 30th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
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Posted by SEO – seo consultants | Know Marketing Blog on December 30th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
[...] SmartBlog On Social Media » Does SEO still matter?9 hours ago by Jesse Stanchak For the record, I'm not saying SEO will cease to be relevant at the stroke of midnight. But I have to agree with Dannen that the rules are changing. Even if SEO endures forever, its not going to be as big a deal as it has been and the … – [...]
Posted by Lodewijk Bos on December 31st, 2009 at 1:04 am
Almost 3 years ago our foundation ICMCC started building a silo of news and science articles related to medical and care ICT (http://articles.icmcc.org). Without any advertising we now have, per month, 10,000+ unique visitors, 400,000 hits, 40% returning visitors and an average of 15 visits per person, which shows that even, or maybe especially, in “niche” markets, silos are very important.
Posted by SEO – seo consultant | Know Marketing Blog on December 31st, 2009 at 1:32 pm
[...] SmartBlog On Social Media » Does SEO still matter?30 Dec 2009 by Jesse Stanchak For the record, I'm not saying SEO will cease to be relevant at the stroke of midnight. But I have to agree with Dannen that the rules are changing. Even if SEO endures forever, its not going to be as big a deal as it has been and the … – [...]
Posted by David H. Deans on December 31st, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Creating silos of human-selected content from the total available on the Web is complementary to SEO methods — meaning, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Perhaps you haven’t utilized a Google Custom Search Engine — where you can curate a select group of preferred sites and/or pages, then search that sub-set of the Web. It’s very effective — http://www.google.com/cse/
Posted by Chris on January 4th, 2010 at 5:06 am
I believe seo is important. But if someone can apply proper seo and smm for a website can increase traffic, sales etc
Posted by Finance Geek » Google fail, content farms and point in time business models on January 4th, 2010 at 6:16 am
[...] Does SEO still matter? (smartblogs.com) [...]
Posted by Wilson on January 4th, 2010 at 11:37 am
It’s a sort of silly question as to whether SEO “still matters,” and really not worthy of an answer as such. But as to the general trend/question of the rise of silo networks, I think there are two important macro-level trends occurring which have both complementary and conflicting aspects:
– first, Facebook and Twitter both have demonstrated that they see their futures as LINKED TO SEO with their Microsoft (Bing) and Google linkages; we see an ongoing blurring of search across general-purpose “silo” social networks to the point where I think it’s clear that such tools will be part of the whole porridge of generally-searchable (i.e., NEEDING to be generally-searchable) content and thus SEO lives on…
– however, we do see that niche search is vital in more specialized areas, and we see even in notable enterprises (including a well-known global leader in search) niche search capabilities built in-house to address such as “find people” or “find type of document”, and we see niche search engines and niche-purpose silo sites as not only continuing but growing; this is especially important where a niche area can be too easily confused with “noise level” and terminology confusion in the general space.
Posted by Tim @ internet marketing on January 6th, 2010 at 12:08 am
AOL was way ahead of it’s time when it first came out, it provided users with up to date news and content right from the moment the person signed on using their branded software. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t stay ahead of the game and got lazy. Which is why they are slowly fading away.
Posted by James on September 13th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Search Engines aren’t going anywhere. Social media isn’t going anywhere. It doesn’t even make since to me why anyone compares them. It’s like apples and oranges. There is room enough for both of them.
My recent post Security Issues on Social Network Websites